The Unprecedented Corruption of an American President
To the editor:
We Americans can honestly disagree and vigorously argue about Donald Trump’s policies, personality, and political movement. Reasonable people may differ on taxes, immigration, foreign policy, or the size of government. But a president’s corruption should never become a partisan issue. Whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat, Americans have every right to expect their president to serve the public, not themselves, their families, their political allies, or their financial interests.
Unfortunately, the record of the Trump administrations demonstrates a documented pattern of corruption that has repeatedly blurred the line between public service and private gain. The sheer number of ethical concerns and controversies is unprecedented in modern American history. We see a presidency in which conflicts of interest, favoritism, and personal loyalty too often take precedence over the public interest and trust. Much of this malfeasance happens in plain sight.
And in a great display of arrogance, President Trump shows he doesn’t care, because the Supreme Court, in a mind-blowing terrible decision, said a president is not accountable for any actions taken as president. President Trump is above the law. And Trump acts accordingly.
Has any Trump supporter considered what might happen when a Democrat becomes president? Of course Trump is working hard to change election laws to make sure Democrats never return to power.
From the beginning, Trump refused to separate himself completely from his vast business empire. Previous presidents of both parties have taken steps to avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest by selling assets or placing them into truly independent blind trusts. Trump did neither. He retained ownership of the Trump Organization while family members managed its daily operations.
That decision meant that every dollar spent at Trump hotels, golf courses, and resorts could ultimately enrich the president himself. Foreign governments, lobbyists, political organizations, corporations, and even US. government agencies have spent money at Trump-owned properties. The obvious question becomes impossible to ignore. Were people purchasing goods and services, or were they purchasing influence with the President of the United States? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what is going on there.
Trump even proposed hosting an international summit at his own Doral resort in Florida before abandoning the idea after overwhelming public criticism. The proposal alone has demonstrated how dangerously blurred the lines have become. Government business should never be directed toward a president’s private interests.
Those concerns have intensified with continuing Trump family business ventures overseas and involvement in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency transactions can be extraordinarily difficult to trace. When a president’s family stands to profit financially while the administration shapes government policy affecting those same investments, we have to ask whether wealthy investors are buying assets, or buying access.
The same corrupt pattern of favoritism appears in Trump’s use of the presidential pardon power. Every president possesses constitutional authority to grant pardons. And some presidents have made questionable decisions. However, Trump’s repeated pardons and commutations for political allies, loyal associates, and personal supporters have been a particularly shocking abuse of that power.
More recently, wealthy defendants and politically connected individuals have pursued pardons through well-connected lobbyists, expensive fundraising events, and influential donors. Government should never create the appearance that justice can be influenced by wealth, political loyalty, or personal connections.
The Justice Department has also become engulfed in controversy. Career prosecutors have withdrawn from politically sensitive cases after interventions benefiting Trump’s allies. At the same time, Trump has repeatedly demanded investigations of his political enemies while publicly criticizing prosecutors who failed to pursue them aggressively enough. Justice should not become a weapon for rewarding friends and punishing enemies.
Trump has blatantly dismissed inspectors general, the independent watchdogs responsible for exposing waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal government. Presidents may legally remove many executive officials, but repeatedly removing those investigating politically sensitive matters raises suspicions that accountability itself is under attack.
After the 2020 election, Trump pressured state officials to change the vote totals, promoted alternate slates of electors, urged the Justice Department to support claims of widespread election fraud despite repeated failures to substantiate them, and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject certified electoral votes. These actions represented an extraordinary attempt to remain in office after losing an election.
In a final effort to remain in office Trump urged a large number of his supporters to descend upon the capitol and “fight like hell” to stop the certification of the lawfully elected Joe Biden as the new president. To his historical disgrace Trump’s violation of the long standing practice of a peaceful transfer of presidential power is a stain on our democracy.
The pardons granted by Trump to many individuals convicted or charged in connection with the January 6 violent attack on the capitol, the people’s house, was disgusting. Most Americans were appalled when a violent mob, urged on by the president to stop the certification of a lawfully elected president. Those thugs beat police officers (some died), threatened to hang Mike Pence, destroyed government property, and wiped feces on the walls of our capitol. Yet President Trump praised them and called them patriots.
Who among you is not offended by such ignorant demagoguery?
More recently, the proposed settlement of President Trump’s IRS lawsuit has sparked outrage at the president’s efforts to avoid future IRS audits of Trump, his family, and certain businesses. This settlement also created a $1.8 billion fund for payments to supporters and allies of the president, in particular the insurrectionists of January 6. This settlement is opposed not only by Democrats, but some Republicans as well. A federal judge struck down the settlement, but of course Trump is appealing.
Who among you believe anyone should be exempt from federal tax accountability.
Next November we must vote for candidates, Democrat or Republican, who will say the unprecedented corruption by the Trump administration is not acceptable and must be stopped. Supporters of Trump will respond with “What about Biden, Obama, Clinton?” Sorry guys, those presidents made mistakes, but nothing comparable to the corruption and incompetence of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is president and it is he who is responsible for the high prices for food, gas, and healthcare. The expanding war with Iran is on him and him alone. He unilaterally started it and now sees no way out that is not a defeat for the United States.
So much for his campaign promises to lower prices and keep us out of never-ending wars in the Middle East. And is he still claiming that Mexico is going to pay for the wall along our southern border? Maybe he was just joking? Or lying?
Historians, both liberal and conservative, now rank President Trump among the worst three presidents in our history. Among presidents since 1900 he is ranked as the worst.
Patriotic Americans who believe in our exceptionalism must ensure that President Donald Trump and the sycophantic supporters in his administration will eventually face accountability for their unfettered corruption and many crimes. Vote.