Corruption is corruption whether committed in secret or in plain view. The difference is that a significant number of American voters do not care if it is in secret or in the open. For them, it is part of Trump's macho, big-businessman mystique and/or he serves some other purposes. We, the people, get the kind of rulers we deserve... and we do not deserve this. When affordability and NO Kings have become the issues motivating political activism, it is also time to add corruption to the list of reasons for a serious regime change in Washington, DC. These three issues, affordability, NO Kings, and corruption, are related, either as a harmful result or empowering the president to act as he does against the interest of the people over which he thinks he rules by executive order. So far, his respect for the rule of law is to abuse it as long as he can get away with it, until challenges reach "his" Supreme Court. Then what?
Populist revolts against corruption, like the Maidan revolution in Ukraine, which eventually led to the Russian invasion, are what tyrants and dictators fear the most. Fear of this motivates these autocrats to crack down even further on those who would expose them. Putin's actions against Navalny are a case in point. Navalny's revolt was fueled by his outrage over Putin and his oligarchs' corruption. (Navalny ended up dead in a gulag). When Viktor Orbán of Hungary faced criticism for his new luxury digs from whatever was left of a free press, he doubled down, destroying the pesky media. In all of these cases, the greed and corruption of these modern-day dictators were hidden from public view until some challenger exposed them.
That is not the case in the USA when Trump is being corrupt right out in the open. His demanding $230 million from the federal cookie jar to cover his legal costs is jaw-dropping. His crypto wealth is based solely on the value of his name and is bought or invested by those seeking favors and foreign policy advantages worldwide, or relief from tariffs in side deals, and pardons for his enablers. These are not decisions that serve the needs of US citizens or that motivate him to faithfully execute the laws of the land, as required by the Constitution. Instead, it contributes to decisions that harm ordinary people's ability to cope with daily pocketbook needs.
Affordability is not just "the groceries". It is also making health care unaffordable to pay for tax breaks for those who do not heed them, wielding power over who and what is subject to tariffs, or giving regulatory relief from consumer and environmental protections.. Tariffs are indeed raising consumer costs, are considered taxes by his allies on the Supreme Court, and he is now selectively backpedaling on a few, in effect admitting they cost consumers. Acting like a king, he grants regulatory favors (with the help of loyal appointees to agency heads and boards or Musk's chainsaw) to big business. This means axing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ending consumer protections against practices that led to the 2008 financial crisis, or ending refunds for those who were wrongfully scammed by illegal financial institution practices. In nine months, he has also removed or controlled any in-house government watchdogs that find and report abuses and corruption to a GOP-controlled Congress and his Justice Department, which has been made moot since both are subservient to him. He threatens the media and press with delicensing or halting mergers if they report inconvenient truths, including those that expose corruption. Trump's increased wealth and political power are also based on favors and tax breaks he has granted and instigated on behalf of his "oligarch" billionaires, whom he sees as his peer group and Mar-a-Lago cronies. Top of his list: reducing their taxes and cutting services and support of the middle class to pay for it.
Once Trump is out of office, the crypto bubble he has ridden to feather his nest will collapse because its value is only access to Trump himself and the power and fear he wields as president. He has monetized his position as president, and when he is no longer president, the value of his family's crypto will decline, too. In the meantime, his crypto has enabled Middle Eastern regimes to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in his family's businesses.
Trump has been able to do this without fear of criminal prosecution because the US Supreme Court granted him immunity. The only other option for addressing corruption is impeachment. Impeachment is only an indictment, but the Senate finding him guilty and removing him is very unlikely because of the supermajority required. For that reason, he survived two other impeachments. Any retribution for his crimes will have to wait until he leaves the Oval Office. If he has his way, he will not leave. It is up to " we the people" to make sure his term is indeed over.
His moral corruption is a whole other issue. His cruelty, his infidelities, his rubbing elbows with sex traffickers and their customers, his p-grabbing boasts and assault (even found liable in court), are worthy of disgust, yet those who profess to be fine Christians look the other way because he serves whatever other purposes they have.
Update 11/19/2025 comments on the Epstein file release vote that cleared Congress 11/28/2025.
The value of the Epstein files vote is recognition that
1)sex trafficking of underage girls is vile, and
2) the issue is non-partisan, condemned by those on both sides of the aisle, and
3) the victims deserve our sympathy, and
4) enforcement of actions against sex trafficking deserves our support and the support of political leaders. The heroes, of course, were the incredibly brave women who, as underage girls deemed too young by law to consent, risked threats to their lives and exposing a painful past to public scrutiny, came forward before world media. Bravo.
5) Whether Trump did any more than rub elbows with Epstein and look away is yet to be determined, but he at least can be judged by the company he once kept.
The challenge for both those advocating for keeping the democracy we have and for exposing corruption is to help voters understand how it impacts them. Autocracies trample on the rights of citizens and their ability to influence public policy that benefits ordinary people. Corruption is the means by which wannabe dictators gain and maintain power. Once these autocrats are in control, they are more interested in protecting their self-interests, remaining in power, and secretly maintaining privileges they value than in protecting the safety and needs of those over whom they rule.
Tsk, tsking, and moral outrage are not enough to end sex trafficking if the ruling powers do not care or are participating in the practice. Class warfare, blaming the ultra-rich for paying for such depravity, is not enough, because human sex trafficking also involves victimizing the poor, less educated, underage, and undeserved. The johns are not always the ultra-rich, either. For sex trafficking to flourish depends upon the powers that be charged with enforcing laws to look the other way with a wink and a nod to boys will be boys.
