Removing the dross from the silver

Just the News reported last week that former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez used his privileged access to President Donald Trump’s speeches to earn more than $107,500 in profits from prediction-market trades. Federal regulators moved swiftly.¹

The government ordered Perez to surrender every dollar of his profit, pay an additional $65,000 penalty, and cease trading for 3 years. His offense was straightforward: He possessed information unavailable to the public, violated his position of trust, and exploited that access for personal gain.

Fair enough. Public servants entrusted with privileged information should never be permitted to monetize their proximity to power. Wasn’t that, after all, the central argument made against Joe and Hunter Biden?

But the Perez case points to a much larger and potentially far more consequential problem for the current president and those closest to him, depending on the outcome of the November 3, 2026, elections.

The ramifications are clear: If Democrats regain control of the House, Washington, D.C., will likely be consumed by investigations, subpoenas, hearings, document demands, and compelled testimony throughout the 2027-2028 presidential primary and general election cycle.

The Democrats’ argument will be that the excesses of the Left are no worse than those of the Right. Meanwhile, Republicans appear to be handing them the very ammunition they need - not only to win this fall, but also to place the presidency and the Senate in jeopardy in 2028.

The vulnerability is no longer hypothetical.

On August 27, Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, opened an investigation into 1789 Capital, the investment firm Donald Trump Jr. joined as a partner within days of his father’s November 2024 election. The inquiry centers on the firm’s rapid growth - from a few hundred million dollars under management to roughly $3 billion - and its investments in companies that went on to receive federal contracts, loans, or favorable regulatory decisions.²

Reuters previously reported that government ethics specialists regard 1789 Capital’s structure as presenting a potential conflict of interest because the president’s son is a partner in a firm investing in industries directly affected by federal policy. Reuters also emphasized that it had found no evidence that 1789 Capital violated the law or received preferential treatment.³

That distinction is essential: An appearance of conflict is not proof of corruption. But appearances, undisclosed relationships, and unanswered questions provide more than enough material for congressional subpoenas, televised hearings, and years of investigation.

The principle is straightforward: The closer one is to political power, the greater the responsibility to ensure that public authority is never converted into private advantage. When family relationships, political influence, private investments, and government decisions converge, transparency and accountability become imperative.

Here is the question Republicans will face if they lose the House in 2026: Will the standard applied to Gabriel Perez still apply when the amounts involved reach into the hundreds of millions - or billions - and those involved stand much closer to the presidency?

If a teleprompter operator is stripped of more than $107,500 in profits for exploiting privileged access, what level of scrutiny will a Democratic House majority demand of the president’s family, political financiers, private investment partners, foreign investors, and companies receiving enormous federal contracts?

The standard is found in Proverbs 29:4: “By justice a king gives a country stability, but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.” The Hebrew word mishpāṭ translates to justice - the impartial and equitable administration of law. Mishpāṭ builds a nation; favoritism, corruption, and the use of public authority for personal enrichment tear it down.

Applying one standard to the politically powerless and another to those closest to the presidency is not mishpāṭ. It is precisely the kind of corruption against which Biblical wisdom warns.

Scottish Biblical scholar William McKane [1921-2004] warned:

“Whenever [a leader’s] relation with his people ceases to have a truly human character, he has begun to demolish his community. When his people are degraded to being pawns, chattels at his disposal, means to his self-aggrandizement, the process of disintegration is under way and the country will fall to pieces.”

McKane’s warning is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is Biblical and applies to leaders of all stripes, whether of a nation, a state, a city, a county or a district.

Leadership forfeits its moral authority when proximity to power determines the standard applied. The question is not merely whether an arrangement can be defended as technically legal, but whether public office is being administered through mishpāṭ - impartial justice - or converted into an instrument of favoritism and self-aggrandizement.

Proverbs 25:4–5 identifies the remedy:

“Remove the dross from the silver, and a vessel comes forth for the smith; remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness.”

Jewish Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox explains that just as silver must be refined before it can become a useful vessel, a king must remove the corrupt figures drawn to the power and wealth of the royal court. Only then can his government rest securely upon righteousness.

The responsibility, therefore, rests with the ruler. He must root out corruption within his own court before it corrodes his throne, compromises his administration, and destabilizes the nation.

The lesson for Republicans seems clear: They cannot condemn the Biden family for monetizing proximity to power and then look the other way when similar questions arise within their own ranks. Doing so only perpetuates the never-ending cycle of political investigation, retaliation, and lawfare unleashed during the Biden years.

A double standard may offer temporary political protection, but it ultimately surrenders moral authority, and hands political adversaries the weapons of investigation, impeachment, and electoral defeat.

This is where the church must stand, not as an apologist for either political party, but as the guardian of one righteous and unchanging Biblical standard.

Thankfully, after nearly 50 years of retreat from the public square, Gideons and Rahabs have begun moving back into the public arena. What now appears small and barely visible may be the first sign of a much greater movement of God on the horizon:

“A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” [1 Kings 18:44]

David Lane

American Renewal Project

1. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, “CFTC Orders Gabriel Perez to Pay $172,000 for Insider Trading of Mention Market Event Contracts,” August 28, 2026.

2. House Judiciary Committee Democrats - Ranking Member Raskin Demands Answers from Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, August 27, 2026.

3. Reuters, Trump-linked venture fund 1789 Capital tops $1 billion in assets. September 8, 2025.