After 100 Days of Trump, America's Gotten Corruption Fatigue
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After 100 Days of Trump, America's Gotten Corruption Fatigue
Trump is enriching himself as president – but what's worse is that it's starting to seem normal
By Bridgette Dunlap
The use of public office for private gain is the textbook definition of corruption. In very recent memory, it was generally accepted in America that corruption – even the mere appearance of – was a very bad thing. That's why the U.S. has constitutional prohibitions, laws and norms aimed at eliminating the possibility of government officials using their positions to line their own pockets when they are obligated act in the interest of the public. But the ethical violations of Donald Trump, his family and his administration are so numerous and so flagrant that it's hard to give any particular one the attention it deserves. In only 100 days, Trump has upended the country's anti-corruption norms by numbing everyone with a steady stream of serious improprieties that would have been treated as major scandals – if not impeachable offenses – during any other modern presidency.
As a candidate, Trump acknowledged that he should not profit from his businesses while serving as president, and claimed he had no intention of doing so. He assured the nation in a Republican debate that, as proud as he was of his business, he'd be happy to leave it behind. "If I become president, I couldn't care less about my company. It's peanuts," he said.
But Trump has been unwilling to take the steps necessary to demonstrate that he is indeed working for Americans rather than himself. In the pre-Trump world, a wealthy person who took public office would liquidate his or her assets and put them in a blind trust to be managed by someone else. That way, the public official's decisions couldn't be influenced by the effect a policy was likely to have on his investments – because he wouldn't know what he was invested in while in office. But those assets would still grow with the market, and after leaving office the former official would be free to reinvest them as he or she liked.
Whatever the size and complexity of Trump's holdings, if he were either the awesome businessman or the dedicated public servant he claims to be, it would have been no big deal for him to divest. If Trump were as rich and skillful as he says, he could have been content with the money he's already made – and confident he could make more if he wanted to after leaving office. If he did take a bit of a loss, which is not unusual when one leaves the private sector for public service, it would be "peanuts" as a share of his vast fortune, and a small price to pay for the honor of serving the American people and holding the world's most powerful office. (Trump might even have come out ahead by doing things ethically – according to multiple analyses, Trump would be just as rich, or even richer, if he had just invested his $40 million inheritance in index funds and skipped his bankruptcy-filled real estate career altogether.)
Trump has instead refused to give up his day job, because he wants to cash in on the presidency. There is nothing "blind" about the trust holding Trump's assets. He knows what his investments are, and therefore how his policy choices can make him wealthier. He amended the trust shortly after setting it up to allow him to take money out at any time. He claimed that having his sons run the businesses held in trust for his benefit would keep his presidency and his financial interests separate, expecting the American people to believe that his children wouldn't tell him how they were doing and would stay out of Trump's government business. But the "wall" the Trumps claimed to be erecting between business and government is a joke. Eric Trump claimed to have a "steadfast pact" that he wouldn't talk to his father about the business, and vice versa. But they aren't even pretending to stick to that dubious plan. Not only has Eric admitted they'll be giving his dad quarterly updates – they aren't staying out of politics either. When Eric acts as both the head of the Trump Organization and as a spokesman for his father's foreign policy, he sends the message to the world that Trump's companies and administration are so intertwined that enriching the business is a good way to curry favor with the government.
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Corruption fatigue presents a dire threat to American democracy: Trump may be able to alter national policy in the course of enriching himself, without a political backlash to keep him in check. Furthermore, corruption breeds more corruption. Just the appearance of corruption can make influence-peddling and bribery seem like the only way to compete. High levels of corruption correlate with poor economic growth, as currying favor becomes a better way to get ahead than providing quality products and services. It also correlates with high levels of inequality, as those in office are incentivized to serve their patrons rather than the public.
The U.S. has long been a leader in anti-corruption efforts around the globe, but the situation at home these days is making those efforts look laughable. There's hope that the constitutional challenge to Trump's conflicts will eventually result in the courts restoring some semblance of the rule of law in the U.S., but in the meantime, with every passing day that the Republican-controlled Congress normalizes Trump's actions by looking away, the country is falling further into Trumpian corruption malaise.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/after-100-days-of-trump-americas-gotten-corruption-fatigue-w479467
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