It's Blatant

 

Today’s debate topic: “Resolved: Trump and his administration are the most corrupt in US history.”

Argument in favor: Duh.

Argument against: ...

Trump doesn’t hide it. Why should he? After receiving no pushback from his party in Congress, no outrage from his state media, and undying love from MAGAs, he flaunts it. His loathsome lawsuit against himself, asking ten billion taxpayer dollars to be delivered to himself, is corruption unbound. Sue yourself, settle with yourself to the tune of $1.776 billion (get it?), to be distributed to people shielded from disclosure, by appointees to a panel chosen by him, its rules kept secret. People claiming harm from “government weaponization” by President Biden; i.e., appropriately convicted of indisputable crimes by our American system of jurisprudence, following the letter of the law.

That, as opposed to Trump’s undisguised weaponization of his lackeyfied “government” against perceived enemies and truth-tellers. Give the money to Mark Kelly and James Comey, for two. Under Trump, it’s axiomatic: every accusation is an admission.

That’s not the worst of it. As executive head of the IRS and DOJ, sue-er and sooee, he agreed with himself not to investigate or prosecute himself for tax fraud, past and present, erasing potentially $100 million in penalties for cheating. That he sought and granted it to himself answers any question (which Congressional Republicans are too cowed to raise) about the legality of his tax filings and business dealings. Per Jeffrey Toobin in The New York Times, “The United States agrees that it is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” President Trump, his eldest sons or any of their businesses. The agreement covers matters “whether presently known or unknown” and cases that “have been or could have been asserted” by the government.” Other crimes are not excluded.

Knew nothing about it, he lied. Before bragging about it a day later. The art of the self-deal.

Why doesn’t the Constitution preclude a “president” from suing his own government and agreeing to whatever terms he might propose for himself? Probably because our founding fathers, more brilliant than not and skeptical of unbridled executive power, couldn’t imagine the Electoral College selecting a person already known to be as amoral and lawless as Trump or of a petrified Congress doing nothing about it.

There’s more, of course. Months after the State of the Union Address in which he urged Congress to ban insider stock trading by its members, we learned he’s been doing just that. A week before his government approved the sale of Nvidia chips to China, he bought $1 million in stock. He bought $5 million more right before Nvidia made a computing deal with Meta. In January, he bought stock in Palantir. Shortly thereafter, Palantir got a billion-dollar contract with DHS. Then he invested $5 million in Taser-maker Axon, two weeks before ICE announced $220 million in purchases.

Oh, the White House says, he had no hand in those trades. Right. Pure coincidence. Because when has he or his mouthpieces ever lied?

Every American should recoil in disgust from this wanton corruption, rejecting, till he’s gone, any politician remotely supportive of Trump. Proving how unlikely that is was the celebration of America’s alleged Christian roots, held a week ago on the National Mall, promoted by Trump, the fakest of fake Christians; a pander to the antidisestablishmentarians of his party as blatant as the aforementioned corruption; a show of Christian Nationalism as disturbing as it was un-American.

Trump’s faux Christianity was equally unhidden: to the adoring crowd, he beamed in, between rounds of golf in Florida, a recycled, prerecorded reading of a couple of Bible verses, originally aired in May. Imponderably, MAGAs continue to believe he and his corruption were sent by God. If they once had it, what happened to their ability to recognize a swindler? Trump, Fox, and red-state-style miseducation is what.

We’ve just returned from nearly a month in Türkiye. It’s a beautiful, geographically diverse country, a crossroad of cultures, one foot in Europe, the other in Asia, with picturesque mosques and churches, ancient Byzantine, Greek, Roman, and even older ruins. The parallels between its leader, Recep Erdogan, and Trump are obvious. Its constitution declares Türkiye a secular nation, but Erdogan is trying to make it overtly Muslim. Like Trump’s “Christianity,” it’s a naked political move, but, unlike Trump, it seems he’s actually a believer. Like Trump, he builds monuments to himself, jails political opponents (or calls for it), and throttles a formerly free press. Unlike Trump’s, his government actually helps average citizens: free healthcare (even for pets!) and education, good roads and efficient, clean, public transportation. Stuff MAGA Republicans reject as socialism.

While there, I scrolled through and deleted without reading most of my politics-related inbox. I couldn’t completely tune out our homely horrors, but my mind was mostly occupied by such wonders as the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, ancient cities like Ephesus, the Turquoise Coast, and the company of compatible fellow travelers of diverse backgrounds. Producing this column on return was less rewarding. Kebab for thought.