President Donald J. Trump will have a unique place in American presidential history: the most corrupt president to ever occupy the White House, surpassing the other five most corrupt presidents—Richard Nixon (1969-74), James Buchanan (1857-61), Andrew Jackson (1829-37), Warren G. Harding (1921-23), and Andrew Johnson (1865-69).
In less than two years in office at least eight of Trump’s 15 executive cabinet members have resigned or been ensnared in criminal wrongdoing, unethical conduct, self-aggrandizement, and/or displaying a total disregard for the regulations of the agency they head. They include: Tom Price, Health and Human Services secretary; David Shulkin, Veterans Affairs secretary; Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency secretary; Ron Zinke, Interior Affairs secretary; Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary; Wilbur Ross, Commerce secretary, Ben Carson, Housing and Urban Development secretary; and Rick Perry, Energy secretary.
Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, his former 2016 presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort, his deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, his personal attorney Michael Cohen, and former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos have all pled guilty to federal felony charges involving criminal wrongdoing taken at the behest of the president or in some way connected to him.
Swamp of Corruption and Self Enrichment
The president, his daughter Ivanka, and his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric have all flagrantly used and unashamedly abused the American presidency for their own self-enrichment.
The American presidency, in effect, has become the very quintessential corruption “swamp” Donald J. Trump railed against during his campaign.
Throughout his entire personal, business, and political life, Donald J. Trump has maintained an illicit love affair with corruption.
Against this backdrop, it should not come as a surprise that corruption prosecutions by Trump’s Justice Department during the first eleven months of Fiscal Year 2018 have decreased by 23.5 percent over the previous FY 2017, according to a recent report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
FY 2018 official corruption prosecutions are down 41.7 percent, says TRAC, from what they were five years ago. Throughout his campaign, President Trump took every opportunity to criticize the Obama administration for its tolerance of corruption. The fact is that corruption prosecutions under Trump are down 45 percent compared to what they were under President Obama.
Indicted Political Allies Seek Re-Election
Washington, D.C., and the politics that define it, has always been, and most likely will remain, a trough of corruption. During the upcoming mid-term elections, there are two U.S. Republican lawmakers, Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter, seeking reelection despite pending corruption indictments. Both are staunch political allies of President Trump.
On the world stage, President Trump has repeatedly given the cold shoulder to traditional American allies while cozying up to three of the most corrupt leaders in the world: Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka, MbS. Not only have these three leaders pillaged the treasury coffers of their countries, they have personally ordered the murders of their real or imagined political enemies with impunity.
Co-Conspirator of Corruption and Murder
This is what the American presidency has become: a supporter or at the very least an enabler of wholesale corruption, mass murder, and political assassinations on the world stage.
And all this is being done while the President, his family, and his political cronies are getting richer and richer each day at the expense of the hard-working, law-abiding American citizen.
And, tragically, 43 percent of Republicans in this country support the notion that Trump should be able to shut down news outlets he does not like—CNN, the New York Times, and others that regularly report about his corruption and wrongdoing. In a word, these Republican don’t care if America is being run like an organized crime family—they like living in the neighborhood controlled by the Godfather who will give them a turkey every Christmas.
Is this how America must be made Great Again?