Full Pockets, Empty Promises

Scandals and Corruption, But No Policy

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Sitting here in my beautiful cottage in Sicily feels like I am on another planet or in a different dimension. It is easy to live in the moment in a place like this. I pick a mandarin and peel it slowly. I feel the flavorful juice squeeze into my mouth. I watch a bee sip water from a droplet on a flower petal. Lulu stretches out luxuriously on a sunny patch of ground. Another bee dances around a few fragrant jasmine flowers. Cumulus and wispy cirrus clouds weave whimsical patterns against the deep blue sky above.

But as soon as I turn on my computer, I am reminded of the complicated world I came from. I would like to believe that karma works to right the wrongs in the world and in our lives, that compassion and wisdom eventually prevail, that reality is but a play in which we learn to transcend our pettiness and selfish instincts.

Instead, I feel cynical. I watch Trump’s massive corruption, at an unprecedented level, unfold right in front of my eyes. Examples include ethical violations, political influence, or structural conflicts of interest that go uninvestigated, and it is questionable how much they will be addressed even after Trump leaves office.

Watchdogs point to a pattern of actions akin to pay-to-play in which high-profile donors and supporters have received pardons, clemencies, government contracts, important cabinet positions, and more. To actually prove that money went into Trump’s pockets is impossible, given that he is surrounded by loyalists who will never raise the question. At the same time, his administration is criminalizing whistleblowing and dismantling oversight mechanisms.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and other groups have documented patterns such as failure to divest business interests, officials promoting Trump properties in official contexts, and foreign governments granting valuable trademarks to Trump businesses, all of which illustrate systemic conflicts of interest.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has identified six ways Trump’s pay-to-play scheme works.