Dem
50
Ties
1
GOP
49
Donald Trump won't admit it in public, but he seems to realize that he is not going to get a third term. Even if the Supreme Court rules that term limits are unconstitutional, Barack Obama might well decide to run again. Facing Obama would be Trump's nightmare. So working on the assumption that he is out on Jan. 20, 2029, Trump is busy salting the earth so a potential Democratic successor cannot undo his handiwork. On Day 1, a Democratic president could order the Army Corps of Engineers to destroy Trump's ballroom and the Arc de Trump, but that is not what Trump really cares about. He wants to keep the grift going and money flowing as long as possible. (As a sidebar, Keep the Grift Going And the Money Flowing would be a pretty good title for the definitive book on the Trump presidency, whenever it gets written.)
Accordingly, and under the radar, Trump is making preparations. In Jan. 2021, Congress decided to do something about money laundering and other financial crimes, so it passed a law, the Corporate Transparency Act, ordering the Treasury to create a database of shell companies and who the beneficial owners are. This makes it more difficult for financial criminals to hide behind shell companies. Trump didn't like the bill and vetoed it, but it was part of a larger defense bill and Congress overrode his veto. The bill had bipartisan support. Maintenance of this database is not something Joe Biden concocted. Congress passed a law and it is mandatory.
But we are now in a post-law epoch, so Trump has decided not only to refrain from updating the database, but also to destroy everything already collected. This is payday for money launderers, but also for tax cheats, scam artists, sex traffickers, drug lords and terrorists. And the good thing (for them) is that they didn't even have to pay him to do this. He did it on his own, out of the goodness of his heart.
The Panama Papers revealed something few people knew. The U.S.is a key node for international money launderers. It is not just Panama, Monaco and the Cayman Islands. When the database is gone, it will be much harder for future administrations to crack down on people using shell companies to hide crimes. Trump seems to be fine with that. After he is no longer president, enforcing the law will be somebody else's problem, not his.
If you are a financial crimes nerd, here are more details. (V)