David Corn/Mother Jones: Donald Trump's Corruption Is Killing Americans
The government’s coronavirus response is just another example of quid pro quo.
DAVID CORNJULY/AUGUST 2020 ISSUE
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Trump has weakened the government the way rot ruins a building: It attacks the structure. He doesn’t give a damn about the soundness of the system. In this fashion, Trump did little to protect the country from another profound attack: the Russian assault on the American election in 2016 that was mounted to help him win. It was not in Trump’s political interest to call attention to this covert warfare, so he didn’t. He dismissed that threat and has assailed those agencies of government that investigated the attack and that have warned Moscow is now targeting the 2020 campaign.
The president’s pandemic response is straight from the same Make Trump First playbook. For all the corruption he has enabled, enacted, and exercised—that we know of—there likely remains more to be rooted out. After all, as Trump sees it, the government does not exist to defend the people from killer viruses or foreign attempts to subvert American democracy. It exists to protect and serve him. (The use of federal security forces to violently clear away peaceful protesters so Trump can hold a meaningless photo-op was a clear example of Trump-uber-alles statism.) That is the core corruption of his presidency. It is manifested in minor acts of sleaze (buy Ivanka’s stuff!), major acts of policy (let’s kill regulations for industries that donate to us), and monumental decisions with immediate life-or-death consequences for thousands of Americans (don’t warn of a pandemic because that could screw up my reelection). Graft, grift, and greed have been—and always will be—a problem in government. But with Trump, corruption kills.
more:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/trump-coronavirus-corruption/
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