“One thing has never changed,” Trump spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told The Wall Street Journal last week. “President Trump can’t be bought.”
Alvarez’s comment was included in a Journal report with considerable evidence to the contrary.
“Interviews with dozens of donors, executives, lobbyists, Trump advisers and others indicate a staggering fundraising and influence operation,” the Journal reported, “with Trump at the center of it all.”
Even under far cleaner administrations, investigating corruption can be a powerful weapon for legislators from the opposition.
The president reportedly keeps close track of which companies contribute to his presidential library, ballroom, political action committees and other entities. Apple, Microsoft and Meta all have donated at least $10 million.
“Several top Washington lobbyists have been asked to raise $50 million or more, including from their clients, for Trump projects,” the Journal said.
This “Trump Transaction Tax,” as one Wall Street analyst called it, as well as his crypto profiteering, his plane from Qatar, the “anti-weaponization fund” and the many other money-grabbing acts of his second term make his corruption an obvious target for Democrats this fall and beyond. Even under far cleaner administrations, investigating corruption can be a powerful weapon for legislators from the opposition party. But in this case, Democrats can contrast what Trump promised to what he’s done. As former Trump staffer Marc Short told the Journal, “One of the things that most rallied his crowds in 2016 was draining the swamp. The crowds would go wild.”
Now the president has abandoned even the pretense of ridding Washington of corruption. Meanwhile, Democratic candidates, like Sen. Jon Ossof of Georgia and Texas state Sen. James Talarico, who’s running for the Senate, appear to be making headway with campaigns that heavily feature fighting corruption. However, over all, according to recent polls, running on corruption may be more difficult than many Democrats suspect. But that makes their doing so all the more necessary.
Last week’s CNN/SSRS poll that calculated Trump’s approval rating at 34% (tied for his lowest ever) found that 64% of respondents think Trump “has gone too far” in “pursuing his personal business interests while serving as president.” Yet when the same poll asked which party could be described as “the party that fights corruption,” nearly half of Americans (46%) said “neither.” The rest split almost evenly between the two parties. The “neither” camp included two-thirds of independents, more than half of people who disapprove of Trump and a third of self-described Democrats.
No wonder, then, that many voters blame so little action on all of Washington.
Other surveys have similar findings. An Echelon survey for Puck had slightly better news for Democrats: A plurality of respondents (41%) most associated the GOP with corruption, but 31% said Democrats and a quarter said both parties.
No doubt many Democrats would find these results frustrating — even baffling. After a decade of Trump grifts in public office, how could voters find both parties at fault? A recent Brennan Center report may point at an answer. It found extraordinary bipartisan support for ethics and campaign finance reforms, including “a constitutional amendment to restore limits on money in elections (79 percent), mandatory disclosure for all federal campaign contributions and spending (85 percent) [and] the creation of a new federal ethics enforcer (81 percent).”
Yet despite this popular backing, Washington has not passed any major ethics reform in years. Even something as simple and as popular as a congressional stock ban has remained in purgatory under Democratic and Republican-controlled Congresses. And in recent decades, an increasingly conservative Supreme Court has made it harder to prosecute politicians for corruption.
No wonder, then, that many voters blame so little action on all of Washington, not just one party. That makes it even more imperative that Democrats not just run on finally addressing this longstanding frustration but actually follow through on their promises. The party that believes in government’s ability to solve problems has more to lose when voters believe that government is corrupted.
“If we do not provide against corruption,” George Mason warned his fellow delegates to the Constitutional Convention, “our government will soon be at an end.” That threat remains as true, and as dire, as ever.
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