In Measuring Lesser Of Evils, Does The Size Of Bribes Come Into Play? Trump vs Gallego

Does Bringing Criminals Into The Party Make It A Bigger Tent? Ruben Gallego Thinks So

There’s no doubt that Trump is the king of corruption, but there’s also no doubt that corruption, as demonstrated by freshman Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), is completely bipartisan. While Gallego sells his votes to the crypto-cartel’s Marc Andreessen, Trump is continuing to defy constitutional prohibitions against emoluments, this time by accepting Qatar’s Palace in the Sky, “possibly the biggest foreign gift (valued at close to 400 million dollars) ever received by the U.S. government… The plane will then be donated to President Trump’s presidential library when he leaves office, the official said, allowing him to continue using it as a private citizen.” UVA Professor Larry Sabato didn't hold back: “The Trump Administration is drowning in corruption— and few Americans seem to care. It’s another sign of a dying Republic… Wrongs are never righted. Justice fades. Vengeance rules… A rotting corpse with all the power… Despondency is justified.”

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued a  statement about why Americans ought to be worried about the Trump-Qatar deal. “Trump’s plan to accept a luxury plane from Qatar is blatantly unconstitutional, a textbook violation of the emoluments clause. The concern with foreign gifts is that they can sway a president’s policy and predilections— and there’s little doubt that Qatar wants to gift Trump a ‘palace in the sky’ for exactly that reason. The legal counsel who advised that this gift is OK because Trump will take personal control of it (through his library) only after leaving office should resign immediately, in shame and disgrace. The situation is no different than if the Qataris gave $400 million in cash to Trump and told him to keep it under his bed until 2029, when he could spend it freely. Except possibly it’s worse, because he will use the plane in the interim, at great cost to the US taxpayer, who will have to upgrade it. Even in a presidency defined by grift, this move is shocking. It makes clear that US foreign policy under Donald Trump is up for sale. The juxtaposition with cancelled foreign aid grants and programs for poor and vulnerable people— cancellations that will cost millions of lives unless reversed— could not be starker or more morally grotesque.” 

Even if NONE of today's Republican office-holders do, the Constitution’s framers certainly understood this danger quite clearly, which is why they included the emoluments clause in the first place— to prevent exactly the kind of corrupt entanglements Trump continues to indulge in. When political leaders treat public office as a path to personal enrichment, the very foundation of democratic accountability is completely shattered.

But the problem extends far beyond Trump. When Democrats like Ruben Gallego quietly auction their integrity to tech oligarchs and crypto-billionaires like Marc Andreessen, it reinforces the message that corruption isn’t a partisan aberration— it’s a systemic rot. Gallego's willingness to hold fundraisers with the same ultra-wealthy elites he’s supposed to regulate shows how thoroughly money has colonized our politics. This isn’t just a betrayal of ideals— it’s a betrayal of constituents, working people, and the democratic promise itself.

Corruption— whether it comes in the form of foreign bribes dressed up as diplomatic gifts or domestic influence peddling wrapped in Silicon Valley hype— is toxic to democracy because it hollows out the legitimacy of our institutions. It breeds cynicism, disillusionment and despair. When citizens see public officials on both sides of the aisle treating power as a commodity, they understandably begin to question whether democracy can ever truly serve them. And when that cynicism metastasizes, it opens the door for authoritarianism to slip in under the guise of restoring “order” or “draining the swamp.” In truth, there is no draining the swamp until the bipartisan culture of corruption is confronted head-on.