Trump 2.0: Open for Corruption
Firing watchdogs, rolling back reforms, and using government to reward friends and punish opponents.
IS AMERICA OPEN FOR CORRUPTION NOW? Unabashedly? Nakedly? Are we tossing aside not just our hard-won victories over infectious diseases but also the more than hundred-year battle against fraud, bribery, and graft?
Honest, clean government doesn’t follow automatically from democracy. Though we’ve always had elections, for much of our early history local, state, and federal governments were awash in corruption. Party leaders rewarded their dedicated followers by doling out patronage jobs, often with little regard for qualification. The wealthy or well-connected were able to line their pockets by bribing public officials. The Crédit Mobilier scandal, which featured bribes to a dozen congressmen paid in the 1860s by railroad executives, was just one example of a widespread plague. George Washington Plunkitt, a Tammany Hall ward boss, explained in an amusing memoir that he had gotten re-elected by helping Irish immigrants and waxed rich by engaging in what he called “honest graft,” that is, profiting from insider information.
But just as we were able to defeat smallpox, measles, and diphtheria with sensible public health initiatives, Americans were able to beat back public corruption. Reformers, calling themselves Mugwumps and Progressives, animated by opposition to the spoils system, passed laws demanding transparency, requiring a nonpartisan civil service, and paying salaries to public servants so that they would no longer have to rely on a percentage of fees or taxes collected.
And what do you know, it worked! American public administration became much more efficient, the nation became a better place in which to conduct business, and—one almost blushes to extoll this in our era—there was a net increase in justice and fairness.
Public corruption is never completely vanquished of course. Look no further than former Senator Bob Menendez’s gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his bedroom. (He claimed not to trust banks.) Clean government requires constant vigilance from the police, prosecutors, and the courts. It requires a consensus in society that this is crucial, and journalists on the lookout for tales of venality and malversation. There are also tons of civil society groups dedicated to this. They’re known affectionately as “goo-goos” for “good government guys.” They have soporific titles like the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the American Society for Public Administration, and so on. They do more than guard against corruption, they’re also committed to good policy and implementation. And all of that helps to make the United States a first world nation.
Or it did.
In his first month back in the White House, Donald Trump is yanking the rug out from under open, honest government and signaling a complete reversal to a time of rank corruption. There may be no historical analogue to the level of corruption Trump is inaugurating.
One reversal is even conveniently labeled. Trump has issued an executive order to Attorney General Pam Bondi to cease enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids American companies from paying bribes abroad. Correspondingly, he has shut down the units in the FBI, State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security that were thwarting foreign influence operations in American elections.
Trump has fired seventeen inspectors general from federal agencies. IGs provide independent oversight and serve to unmask government abuses. As fired Interior Department IG Mark Greenblatt explained:
Investigations by IGs—which make up around half of their work, the rest being audits and evaluations—led to 4,691 indictments and ‘criminal informations’ (charges without a grand jury), 4,318 successful prosecutions and several thousand more successful civil and personnel actions.
The transportation IG played an important role in investigating criminal conduct in connection with the crashes of two Boeing 737 max aircraft, and in auditing regulatory oversight and aircraft-certification processes in their aftermath. Our colleague for housing went after a number of public-housing landlords who were sexual predators. My own office launched inspections to cut waste, fraud and abuse in Native American schools.
Sounds almost like what the DOGE is supposed to be doing, doesn’t it? If the DOGE project were even remotely sincere, Trump would be adding and empowering more IGs, not firing them. No, the presence of truly independent watchdogs is a threat to the Trumpist project, which is permitting agencies to be used to reward friends and punish foes.
THAT REWARD/PUNISH METRIC was the operating principle in the case of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Toss out the principle of blind justice (so antique) and bring on the distortion of the prosecutorial power for nakedly political ends. Pause the Adams prosecution in return for assistance in rounding up illegal immigrants, but leave the sword dangling over the mayor’s head (the government asked that the criminal case be dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning that it could be reopened at a later date) to compel total obedience.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel was created in the post-Watergate era to oversee whistleblower complaints, prevent prohibited personnel practices, and enforce the Hatch Act, among other duties. (Despite the similar name, it is entirely separate from special counsels, like Jack Smith, who are appointed by the Justice Department.) Trump attempted to fire the current special counsel, Hampton Dellinger, but his firing has been stayed by a court, for now. The director of the public integrity section of the Justice Department was not so fortunate. He was reassigned, and three “anti-kleptocracy” units crucial to targeting the assets of foreign corrupt actors in several countries were shut down.
In the Trump era there is no pretense of disinterested administration of justice. It is all friends/enemies now. In the first Trump administration, the Justice Department proposed a national database to keep tabs on police-misconduct cases. Biden created it. Trump just ended it. Police misconduct, after all, may be useful in the coming months and years.
Trump extended his personal reach to Brazil, where fellow coup plotter Jair Bolsonaro is on trial for siccing a mob on his own capitol. Trump’s company is suing the judge in the case, accusing him of illegally censoring right-wing voices. The unmistakable signal: We like coup plotters as long as they’re Trump pals. A fortiori the January 6th insurrectionists Trump pardoned en masse. Not so much as a nod toward making individual evaluations.
Trump pardoned Rod Blagojevich, withdrew felony charges against Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry, and had DOJ attempt to drop criminal charges against Rep. Andy Ogles.
And it’s hard to know where even to begin to describe the walking conflict of interest that is Elon Musk, who, with no transparency, is reportedly terminating or otherwise interfering in all manner of government agencies and offices, including many that touch on his business interests.
Trump’s America no longer fights the old foes of good government. It has hung a giant neon sign on our door proclaiming Open for Corruption.