Corruption Kills: How GOP’s Policies Sacrifice Lives for Profit— Trump Trades Lives for Loyalty

Legalizing Crime, Defunding Hope: Trump’s Assault on the Vulnerable

I’m old enough to remember when the Supreme Court— and a small handful of country-before-party Republicans— shut down Nixon… despite his assertion that “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” Today we have the most corrupt Supreme Court since Justice Samuel Chase was impeached in 1804 and their presidential immunity ruling is the most destructive of democracy since Chief Justice Roger Taney’s infamous Dred Scott decision in 1857, with the exception of this same courts 2010 Citizens United decision.

As for “country-before-party Republicans,” that’s a species long extinct… or, at best, in deep hibernation. Instead, we have a Congress of Republican rubber-stampers, filled with Republicans willing and eager to enable all of Trump’s corruption. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Maine’s progressive Senate candidate, Jordan Wood— a former leader of End Citizens United— and he told me that the best way to talk with voters about DC corruption is to tie it to policies that directly impact their lives. “Ending political corruption and fixing our broken democracy,” he told me, “must be the first order of business because they are the key to delivering on the social reforms America needs. They also unlock our ability to regain the American people's trust that we are fighting for them, not billionaires and elite donors.”

Yesterday, the Associated Press ran a piece doing just that— about the letter, the Bethesda Declaration— that NIH scientists sent Trump’s director, “a frontal challenge to ‘policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.’... As chief of the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch, [Sarah] Kobrin provides scientific oversight of researchers across the country who’ve been funded by the cancer institute or want to be. But sudden cuts in personnel and money have shifted her work from improving cancer care research to what she sees as minimizing its destruction. ‘So much of it is gone— my work,’ she said. The 21-year NIH veteran said she signed because ‘I don’t want to be a collaborator’ in the political manipulation of biomedical science.” Corruption that impacts people’s lives? Well, with nearly 2 million new cases diagnosed annually in the U.S., it’s the second leading cause of death, claiming about 609,000 lives each year, trailing only heart disease. The lifetime probability of developing cancer is roughly 40.4% for men and 38.5% for women. Despite its prevalence— largely because of the scientific work Trump and the GOP have decided to defund— cancer incidence rates have stabilized in recent years, and mortality rates have started to decline.

This is what corruption looks like when it sheds the euphemisms. When Trump and his GOP wrecking crew gut the NIH, it’s not just some abstract budget line getting slashed— it’s your mother’s breast cancer screening, your friend’s clinical trial, your own shot at a longer life. It’s decades of research— our research, publicly funded— burned down so that political appointees can appease, tax cut-hungry donors, ideologues and pharmaceutical profiteers. Kobrin’s warning isn’t academic— it’s a siren. The people dismantling our scientific infrastructure aren’t just sabotaging progress; they’re choosing death— statistically, predictably, and disproportionately— for millions. If ever there was a moral imperative to call out corruption, it’s here: when it wears a tie, smiles for the camera, and pulls the plug on the machines keeping people alive. And that’s exactly the kind of stakes Jordan Wood was talking about. This isn’t just about “campaign finance reform” or “draining the swamp”— phrases that have been bled dry by phonies. It’s about connecting the dots between lobbyist-captured policy and real-world consequences. Jordan Wood’s running not just to get money out of politics, but to stop that money from dictating who lives and who dies. In a state like Maine, where healthcare access is already fragile and aging populations are vulnerable, that’s not some lofty ideal so much as actual triage. And it’s time voters knew exactly who’s pulling the strings and whose lives they’re gambling with. Susan Collins’ “concern,” is not what’s called for today.

"No MAGA Left Behind" by Nancy Ohanian

Monday morning, David Lurie reminded Public Notice readers of the obvious: A felon in the White House is making crime legal. After the Supreme Court declared Señor TACO largely immune from prosecution for turning the office of the presidency into a criminal enterprise, and 31.7% of the nation’s eligible voters “then chose to reinstall the freshly convicted felon in the White House, who could have predicted he would use his office to punish the law abiding and protect the corrupt? In fact, both the scale and audaciousness of Trump’s corruption, and of his regime’s assault on the criminal justice system, was eminently predictable. As House Speaker Mike Johnson recently pointed out, Trump’s corruption is “out in the open.” The same is true of his use of criminal justice system and other levers of government as weapons against his ever-growing list of enemies. But even the most cynical have been surprised by the Trumpist effort to portray the provision of healthcare to children, veterans, and the elderly as 'waste' and 'fraud,' as well as Trump’s effort to render those who follow the laws into criminals. The most vulnerable among us, including immigrants and the sick, are currently among Trump’s primary victims. But the entire nation will soon pay a heavy price for his systematic assault on the rule of law in service of his bottomless desire for corrupt wealth and self-aggrandizement... The administration has also attacked judges and elected officials who have the temerity to question their illegal conduct.”

Despite the fact that Trump has had to resort to fabricating new crimes to turn law-abiding immigrants into targets for deportation, the GOP is now about to make ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” includes over $150 billion for immigration enforcement and seeks to make ICE the most highly funded law enforcement agency in the United States.

…During his last presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged he would not allow Congress to cut Medicaid or Medicare, a promise that has been echoed by Speaker Johnson and his other stooges.

But as it turned out, Republicans felt the need to make a pretense of attacking the “deficit” even as they pursued a budget-busting package of tax cuts weighed overwhelmingly in favor of the wealthiest Americans. So of course, Trump and the party he controls decided to harm the most vulnerable Americans— including children, the elderly, veterans, and the working poor— by targeting Medicaid for cuts.

Trump’s solemn “pledge” to protect Medicaid proved to be no barrier at all, given his ever-flexible definition of “crime.” Trump declared that 10 million or more Americans Republicans will be leaving without healthcare— resulting in tens of thousands of avoidable deaths a year— are engaged in “fraud,” “waste” or “abuse.” Johnson, meanwhile, falsely announced that the people Republicans will be cutting off from live saving care are “illegals,” despite the fact that undocumented immigrants don’t receive federal dollars for coverage.

… Even as they have redefined the poor, sick and elderly as “fraudsters,” Trumpers have embarked on a campaign to make actual fraud and other financial crimes legal.

The administration is systematically dismantling the Department of Justice’s mechanisms for preventing, investigating, and prosecuting securities and other actual crimes. The DOJ has, to date, terminated over $800 million in grants, including for programs that combat human trafficking and gun violence and provide support to local police. The DOJ has also shut down, or crippled, its enforcement of whole categories of the most serious federal crimes, including those involving cryptocurrencies Trump is brazenly using to enrich himself and his family.

Meanwhile, under the dysfunctional leadership of Kash Patel, the FBI has been engaged in wholesale firing of career agents, including as many as 4,000 personnel charged with investigating terrorism threats inside and outside the United States. Patel appears determined to place Trump’s goals of rooting out “disloyal” law enforcement personnel— and targeting immigrants— far above the agency’s statutory mandate to investigate serious crimes.

And Trump’s first major law enforcement action was to terminate the strong public corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams— who has been assiduously stooging for Trump and his immigration “crackdown”— thereby loudly declaring that the DOJ will be adjusting its historical focus on combatting public corruption to excuse corruption among those favored by the Leader.

…It is not mere happenstance that Trump’s DOJ and SEC have set out to effectively legalize whole categories of financial fraud and corruption. Trump himself has, very publicly, turned the presidency into what amounts to a criminal financial enterprise, enriching himself and his family by billions of dollars through various “business” deals (many of them transparently corrupt).

Trump’s most lucrative “deals” have— surprise, surprise— included cryptocurrency transactions in which he and his own children (as well as the offspring of cronies including Steve Witkoff and Howard Lutnick) have yielded massive profits for themselves while causing huge losses for others. His inner circle is not just leaping headfirst into the crypto “business,” but are doing so with many of the sleaziest participants in the market, some of whom have been the subjects of investigations and SEC enforcement proceedings. Trump has even welcomed some of these ripoff artists into the White House, where it is now a matter of near public record that a large payoff can get nearly anyone an audience with him regardless of their criminal background.

Trump has also regularized the sale of pardons that began during his first term, with Trump hangers-on reportedly charging millions to get wealthy criminals out of jail. Paying third parties is rapidly becoming an outmoded way of currying favor with Trump, given that there are now many ways to line his pockets directly for favors. Nonetheless, Trump recently pardoned a tax cheat after his mother donated large sums to his campaign.

In a fashion familiar to observers of systemically corrupt regimes, Trump (sheltered by the Supreme Court’s assurance that he can freely engage in corruption) has made bribe solicitation an integral element of governance. For example, the FCC, headed by a notorious Trump stooge, has made it plain that Paramount’s planned merger transaction will not be approved until that company pays a huge bribe to Trump, in the form of a “settlement” payment for a bogus lawsuit Trump brought against 60 Minutes over the editing of a segment about Kamala Harris.

…There has been much (accurate) discussion of how Trump’s systemic attacks on the rule of law are destroying our democracy. But the destruction will not end there. The United States’ longstanding status as a nation of laws is also a foundation of our economic success. Investors in and outside the US have long felt confident placing their wealth in this country because, unlike so many other places in the world, laws are usually enforced predictably, not according to the wishes of a despotic or authoritarian leader.

Trump’s scheme to upend the rule of law in this country— and install himself as a quasi-dictator, who gets a “taste” of whatever business he chooses— is going to induce many investors to look elsewhere to make their investments. A nation where investors must pay bribes and possibly risk later being charged with crimes as a routine “cost of doing business” cannot remain the thriving financial center of the world for long. The question is whether the United States can rid itself of this budding despotism before even more grave and irreparable damage is done.

Reuters began this week with a special report on how Señor T defanged the Justice Department’s political corruption watchdogs, the Public Integrity Section, created after Nixon’s Watergate scandal. “The unit has lost its authority to file new cases. Its staff has been reduced from more than 30 attorneys to five. And its once-powerful gatekeeping role— reviewing potential cases against members of Congress and other public officials to prevent politically motivated prosecutions— has been suspended… part of an overhaul of the Justice Department by the Trump administration that is dismantling guardrails designed to stop political interference in criminal investigations involving politicians, federal judges and other public figures… Beyond the Justice Department, Trump and his administration have sought to weaken or eliminate other institutions meant to be insulated from political influence, including firing independent inspectors general, who audit federal agencies for fraud and waste. Those moves risk steering the U.S. toward a more autocratic style of government, some constitutional specialists warn. ‘What is happening here is utterly unprecedented,’ said Andrew Kent, who teaches constitutional law at Fordham University School of Law. ‘These seem like very dangerous steps for a democracy.’”

And on Friday, the NY Times’ editorial board elucidated a long list of other examples of Trump’s culture of corruption endangering democracy— from the $Trump coins, the bribe solicitation and the Qatari plane to the pardons-for-sale schemes. “The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration,” they wrote, “is different from old-fashioned corruption… [H]e is presiding over a culture of corruption. He and his family have created several ways for people to enrich them— and government policy then changes in ways that benefit those who have helped the Trumps profit. Often Trump does not even try to hide the situation. As the historian Matthew Dallek recently put it, ‘Trump is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis.’ He is proud of his avarice, wearing it as a sign of success and savvy. This culture is part of Trump’s larger efforts to weaken American democracy and turn the federal government into an extension of himself. He has pushed the interests of the American people to the side, in favor of his personal interests. His actions reduce an already shaky public faith in government. By using the power of the people for personal gain, he degrades that power for any other purpose. He stains the reputation of the United States, which has long stood out as a place where confidence in the rule of law fosters confidence in the economy and financial markets. This country was not previously known as an executive kleptocracy… If Americans shrug this off as just ‘Trump being Trump,’ his self-dealing will become accepted behavior. It will encourage other politicians to sell their offices. The damage will undermine our government, our society and even our economy. Historically, when corruption becomes the norm in a country, economic growth suffers, and living standards stagnate. Under Trump, the United States is sliding down that slope.”

Alan Grayson’s election campaign for an Orlando area state Senate seat has heated up recently as early voters go to the polls. As someone who predicted Trump’s out-of-control corruption in a book he wrote years ago, High Crimes: The Impeachment of Donald Trump, I asked him what he thinks about how things are going in that area now. “Trump,” he told me, “is demonstrating that he can pardon everyone guilty of all of the things that Trump is guilty of, so as to ‘normalize’ all sorts of sociopathic behavior. Trump also is showing how to sell off government and the law to the highest bidder. Since Trump has fired everyone who might, conceivably, hold him accountable, the only real limitation is that although Trump is up for sale, you can’t rely on him to stay bought, as Elon Musk has found out. In other words, TACO, even as to bribery.”