The scandals of the president’s first term now seem quaint.
Many of the ethics scandals of President Trump’s first term—Scott Pruitt’s $43,000 phone booth, Ivanka’s endorsement of Goya beans—seem almost quaint, Marie-Rose Sheinerman argues. Now watchdog groups are racing to keep up, she reports. https://theatln.tc/vwXv30FR During Trump’s first term, ethics-watchdog groups quickly learned which possible misuses of taxpayer funds to focus on, which apparent case of profiteering off the presidency to anchor a report around, and which allegations of nepotism or self-dealing to try to pitch to journalists as worthy of a story. As Sheinerman writes, “most such allegations frequently generated shock and anger, and some surveys of Trump voters found that they were outraged at several of his Cabinet secretaries for spending millions in taxpayer dollars on first-class air travel and personal security, or Trump’s family businesses making millions while he was in office. Sometimes, the backlash prompted accountability: Three of Trump’s Cabinet members were forced out, lawmakers from both parties launched inquiries into alleged ethics violations, and top officials reimbursed the government for travel originally paid for by taxpayers." “This term, the watchdogs are even more alarmed by what they’re witnessing,” Sheinerman continues. “Public Citizen added litigators and researchers, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) hired an expert in cryptocurrency.” Last year, the Campaign Legal Center filed its highest number of ethics complaints in a single year and launched a tracker of “corrupt transactions,” to ensure that “the exhaustion factor” doesn’t get in the way of keeping a careful count of such instances, a group official said. Although polls show that voters have long considered most politicians to be corrupt, a recent survey found that the share of Americans who see corruption as the biggest issue facing the nation is now 17 percent, up from 8 percent in December 2024, Sheinerman writes at the link. “But there has also been a dampening of objections to possible instances of self-dealing, especially among Republicans, and the examples of accountability are scarce.”
