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Let’s Not Take Our Eyes Off the Ball: Trump’s Culture of Corruption [1]
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Date: 2025-06-09
Trump is juggling so many abuses of power at once, it’s easy to lose track—but we can’t afford to. Every thread in this tangled web matters.
On Saturday, June 7, The New York Times published a blistering editorial titled “Trump’s Culture of Corruption,” laying bare how Donald Trump’s second term has ushered in an unprecedented era of self-enrichment and influence-peddling, most blatantly through cryptocurrency.
In just nine months, Trump and his family have reportedly raked in around $1 billion from crypto ventures and business deals, often with individuals and foreign governments that appear to receive favorable treatment in return. The hypocrisy is jarring: Trump once called crypto “dangerous” and compared it to the drug trade. Now, he’s gutting oversight, pardoning crypto criminals, and embracing investors whose wallets seem to shape his policy priorities.
Behind the scenes, Trump is cutting deals with Middle Eastern monarchies, Southeast Asian developers, and well-connected elites at home. The formula is simple: invest in Trump properties, clubs, or media projects, and reap the benefits. It may not be textbook bribery, but the effect is the same: enrich the Trumps, and policy bends your way.
Meanwhile, mechanisms for accountability are collapsing. The Justice Department has dropped investigations. The Supreme Court has tied prosecutors’ hands. And Republicans in Congress, once vocal about Democratic ethics scandals, have fallen eerily silent.
With legal guardrails dismantled, the burden now falls on the public. If we dismiss this as just “Trump being Trump,” we risk normalizing a corrupt, transactional government where power is for sale. The cost? A democracy hollowed out from within, institutions too weak to resist, and a country whose global credibility—and economic future—are up for grabs.
We have to stay vigilant, keeping our eyes on all the balls, not just the loudest one. In this moment, distraction is the enemy. Every abuse of power matters, and we must stay focused on all of them, all the time.
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