Donald Trump: America's No-Bid President
This opinion article from The New Republic contrasts Donald Trump's past advocacy for competitive bidding as a real estate developer with his administration's widespread use of no-bid government contracts. It notes that while Trump once praised competitive bidding for sharpening contractor performance, as president he has overseen numerous no-bid contracts, including a $1.6 billion border wall contract, a $14.7 million reflecting pool waterproofing contract, and a $60 million annual ICE detention contract. The article argues this shift stems from Trump's lack of patience and honesty, and his comfort with moral hazard. It also references Trump's history of stiffing contractors, citing at least 60 lawsuits from unpaid contractors, and suggests his administration's no-bid practices represent a departure from standard government procurement, where 97% of contracts are competitively bid.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection