By Robert Reich
Trump has been ramping up his “Deep
State” rhetoric again. He’s back to blaming a cabal of bureaucrats, FBI and CIA
agents, Democrats, and “enemies of the people” in the mainstream media, for
conspiring to remove him from office in order to allow the denizens of foreign
shi*tholes to overrun America.
But with each passing day it’s
becoming clearer that the real threat to America isn’t Trump’s Deep State.
It’s Trump’s Corrupt State.
It’s Trump’s Corrupt State.
Not since Warren G. Harding’s sordid
administration have as many grifters, crooks and cronies occupied high
positions in Washington.
Trump has installed a Star Wars
Cantina of former lobbyists and con artists, including several whose exploits
have already forced them to resign, such as Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, Tom
Price, and Michael Flynn. Many others remain.
When he was in Congress, the current
White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney pocketed tens of thousands of
dollars in campaign contributions from payday lenders, then proposed loosening
regulations on them. Trump appointed Mulvaney acting head of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, of all things.
When he was Trump’s special adviser
on regulatory reform, Wall Street billionaire Carl Icahn sought to gut EPA’s
rule on ethanol credits which was harming his oil refinery investments.
Last week it was reported that a
real estate company partly owned by Trump son-in-law and foreign policy
advisor, Jared Kushner, has raked in $90 million from foreign investors since
Kushner entered the White House, through a secret tax haven run by Goldman
Sachs in the Cayman Islands. Kushner’s stake is some $50 million.
All this takes conflict-of-interest
to a new level of shamelessness.
What are Republicans doing about it?
Participating in it.
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who also happens to be the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has approved $78 million in grants for her husband’s home state of Kentucky, including a highway-improvement project that had been twice rejected in the past. Chao has even appointed a special liaison to coordinate grants with McConnell’s office.
Oh, did I say, McConnell is up for
reelection next year?
News that a Cabinet secretary is
streamlining federal funding for her husband’s pet projects would be a giant
scandal under normal circumstances. But in the age of Trump, ethics are out the
window.
Congressman Greg Pence, who just happens to be the brother of Vice President Mike Pence, has spent more than $7,600 of his campaign funds on lodging at the Trump International Hotel in Washington since he was elected in November, although federal election law forbids politicians from using campaigns dollars to cover housing costs.
The Corrupt State starts with Trump
himself, giving new meaning to the old adage about a fish rotting from the head
down.
When foreign governments aren’t
currying favor with Trump by staying at his Washington hotel, they’re using
state-owned companies to finance projects that will line Trump’s pocket, like
China’s $500 million entertainment complex in Indonesia that includes a
Trump-branded hotel.
Trump claims the Deep State allows foreigners to take advantage of America. The reality is Trump’s Corrupt State allows Vladimir Putin and his goon squad to continue undermining American democracy.
“I’d take it” if Russia again
offered campaign help, Trump crowed last week, adding that he wouldn’t
necessarily tell the FBI about it. Just days before, Trump acknowledged “Russia
helping me get elected” the first time.
Despite evidence that Russia is back
hacking and trolling its way toward the 2020 election, Republican defenders of
Trump’s Corrupt State won’t lift a finger.
Mitch McConnell refuses to consider
any legislation on election security. He and Senate Republicans even killed a
bill requiring campaigns to report offers of foreign assistance to the FBI and
federal authorities.
The charitable interpretation is
McConnell and his ilk don’t want to offend Trump by doing anything that might
appear to question the legitimacy of his 2016 win.
The less charitable view is
Republicans oppose more secure elections because they’d be less likely to win
them.
Trump and his Republican enablers
are playing magicians who distract us by shouting “look here!” at the paranoid
fantasy of a Deep State, while creating a Corrupt State under our noses.
But it’s not a party trick. It’s the
dirtiest trick of our time, enabled by the most corrupt party in living memory.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations,"
and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common
Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor
of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning
documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix
original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
