6 hours ago
2
Donald Trump vowed to be a dictator only on his first day back in office, but his critics say four months of corruption, "bigger and more brazen" than in his scandal-plagued first term, is beginning to alienate supporters.
The US president's decision to accept a luxury jet from Qatar is the latest in a barrage of ethical conflicts that opponents say have blurred the line between his public role and private business interests.
"It's brazen corruption and hypocrisy," said Tiffany Muller, the president of the leading anti-graft lobby group End Citizens United.
"But it's exactly what we've come to expect from a leader more focused on making himself richer than on lowering costs or addressing the struggles of working Americans."
Trump argues that the $400 million Qatari plane-worth 100 times the combined value of every presidential gift from foreign governments this century-would be for the country, not him personally.
But it sparked a rare backlash from allies who backed him in his first term through two impeachments, accusations of self-dealing, and claims by ethics watchdogs of almost 4,000 conflicts of interest.
Anti-graft lobby group End Citizens United released a report on the first 100 days of Trump's second term that amounted to a damning indictment of a presidency it said was defined by greed and self-enrichment schemes.
Keys To The Kingdom
It pointed to Trump's appointment of his cabinet and circle of advisors of more than a dozen billionaire donors, including Elon Musk, whose companies have received $15.4 billion in government contracts.
Trump praises Musk's intellect and cites his business acumen as the reason for putting the billionaire in charge of slashing government bureaucracy.
But opponents accuse the president of handing Musk the keys to the kingdom -- rewarding his loyalty with unprecedented power and access that allowed the tech entrepreneur to shut down federal investigations and get preferential treatment for his companies.
"The corruption seems bigger and more brazen even than in Donald Trump's first term, when there was there were literally thousands of conflicts of interest and a lot of things that look pretty corrupt going on," said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Trump is accused of all manner of executive action to appease donors, but it is his family's rapidly expanding cryptocurrency empire that has most infuriated his detractors.
So far that includes two "meme coins" -- digital assets with no clear use or inherent value -- and World Liberty Financial, an exchange that issues its own token and recently announced a $2 billion investment from the government of the United Arab Emirates.
Buyers spent more than $140 million to snap up $TRUMP meme coins in an auction offering its top 220 holders an "intimate dinner" with Trump, according to data reported by US media.
Political Probes
Although cash for access is nothing new, the anonymity of digital wallets means that supporters anywhere in the world can line the president's pockets without going public.
On the law and order front, Trump has ordered investigations into his political foes and targeted law firms that stood in his way with punitive executive orders, many of which have since been blocked by federal judges.
Trump and his aides have faced a flood of litigation, in fact -- more than 200 lawsuits and counting -- with judges blocking many key policy priorities and occasionally rebuking the president.
Democrats -- already bristling over one aborted backbench impeachment attempt that they saw as misguided -- are wary of a political message focusing on Trump's corruption.
Many worry that voters who give Trump credit for his longstanding pledge to "drain the swamp" and eliminate fraud are largely immune to Democratic anti-graft messaging.
Bookbinder says it is a view that Trump world itself has bought into.
"He and those around him seem to believe that his businesses -- and potential corruption around his businesses -- are something that the American people have can move past and are okay with," he told AFP.
"I'm actually not sure that that is true, because I think the American people don't like leaders making themselves rich off of their office."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
English (US) · 