Despite growing desensitized to the frequent allegations of corruption against various administrations, we all realize corruption is anathema to good governance. It’s important to be aware of each confirmed instance of corruption so we can vote accordingly. Thus, I wish to outline the Trump administration’s malfeasance, which at times may have been legal but also extremely unethical.
The most visible example is the Qatari luxury jet. Essentially, Qatar was “looking to offload” a luxury variant of a Boeing 747-8. Steve Witkoff managed to convince Qatar to gift it to the United States as a temporary replacement for Air Force One. This would last until Boeing finishes the two 747-8s it plans to deliver in 2027. Once Trump leaves office, the Qatari jet will go to his presidential library.
This plan does not make sense. It would take a few years to outfit the plane with the proper defenses and communications equipment. These $1 billion retrofits would be a waste, considering the best possible timeline (delayed Boeing deliveries, quicker-than-expected retrofits) would see this plane used as Air Force One for a year. Thus, this plane is effectively a gift to the Trump Presidential Library.
The corruption does get a lot more personal. Even when compared to Biden’s uses, Trump has exercised the pardon power liberally for his friends. While everyone has heard of the pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters, their pardons are not the ones that bother me the most.
The pardons that aggravate me are the ones where the criminals owed money. Over $1 billion in restitution obligations were wiped out with Trump’s pardons. The most notable of the beneficiaries is Paul Walczak. Walczak was a nursing home executive who stole millions of dollars from his employees’ payroll taxes to support his opulent lifestyle. He was handed an 18-month prison sentence and ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution to cover what he had dodged paying the IRS – and we are told the IRS is too big.
Walczak’s original pardon application was ignored despite mentioning his mother’s previous donations to Trump and her role in publicizing Ashley Biden’s stolen diary. Since that apparently was not enough, his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a million-dollar-per-plate dinner that gave her personal access to Trump. After that, Walczak was magically pardoned by virtue of how much he allegedly deserved a second chance.
That is not even the case with the highest dollar amount owed – that honor would have gone to Trevor Milton, who likely would have owed close to $600 million to his investors. Alas, the rewards for loyalty to Trump include not only a get-out-of-jail free card, but also a blank check to keep one’s ill-begotten gains.
A third example of Trump’s legalized corruption stems from his firing of commissioners of various organizations that are supposed to be independent, like the FTC. On top of these agencies’ favorable decisions, he has also used the strong arm of the government to extract settlements from law firms, schools and media organizations. Experts agree these parties likely would have beaten Trump in court for most of these cases. However, extraneous factors, like threats of restricted university funding or FCC action over the Paramount-Skydance merger, are often at play.
These examples represent only a fraction of the questionable things Trump has gotten away with. I found the most comprehensive list to be Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “100 Acts of Trump Corruption.” Admittedly, many things on the list are not examples of corruption but rather bad policies for those who do not earn seven-plus figures.
However, the impact on regular people will be much the same. It is thus time for us to recognize that, although Trump’s rhetoric may sound good for the little guy, he often keeps the big guy in the back of his mind.
