Trump is systematically eliminating anti-corruption guardrails
A month into his second term, the president has fired the people responsible for policing corruption and let politicians accused of wrongdoing off the hook.
Less than a month into his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump has rolled back ethics rules, removed government watchdogs, and halted legal proceedings against government officials accused of corruption.
“They’re completely flooding the zone and creating a Wild West again, creating a kind of new Robber Baron era,” Aaron Scherb, the senior director of legislative affairs for the nonpartisan good government group Common Cause, said in a phone interview. “There’s not even an illusion to try to ‘drain the swamp’ this time.”
Scherb said, “He’s essentially trying to eliminate all guardrails and all checks against presidential power.”
Since returning to the White House, Trump and his administration have reportedly:
- Rescinded President Joe Biden’s January 2021 ethics executive order, which had limited gifts from lobbyists and barred quick “revolving door” career jumps between executive branch positions and lobbying jobs.
- Removed more than 12 inspectors general, the officials tasked with investigating waste, fraud, and abuse at each federal agency, without the legally required 30-day notice.
- Removed the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the agency that oversees ethics within the executive branch.
- Ordered the firing of the special counsel at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the independent prosecutor tasked with protecting federal government whistleblowers.
- Dissolved an FBI task force created to prevent foreign influence in U.S. elections.
- Halted the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the independent agency that protects consumers from abuse by financial services companies.
- Fired Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors, who had investigated and indicted Trump during the previous administration.
- Dropped charges against Trump’s former co-defendants in a case involving his alleged mishandling of classified government records.
- Pardoned or commuted the sentences of all participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
- Dropped corruption charges against indicted former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and current New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D).
- Pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a former contestant on his “Celebrity Apprentice” game show who had been convicted of corruption, including trying to sell an appointment to a vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump, Fortenberry, and Adams have denied any wrongdoing. Blagojevich, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted on 24 federal criminal charges in 2010.
Scherb predicted that Trump’s actions will hurt the nation: “Ultimately, it will lead to decreased faith and confidence in government. It will lead to more corruption. It will lead to higher costs for all Americans.” Without ethics rules, he said, Trump appointees can award themselves federal contracts and eliminate competition, driving up prices for consumers.
On Jan. 20, Trump released a list of “America First priorities,” which included a section called “Drain the swamp,” a phrase he used in his 2016 campaign to mean putting an end to government corruption. The five bullet items deal with removing “useless and overpaid DEI activists” from the federal workforce, undoing President Joe Biden’s executive orders, eliminating telework, adopting “an America-First foreign policy,” and ending what he called “the weaponization of government against political rivals.”
The document makes no mention of government corruption or ethics.
