Why Trump’s Epic Crypto Corruption Will Go Unpunished

 https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-crypto-corruption-unpunished/

There’s never been an American politician as nakedly corrupt as Donald Trump, who makes even the most notorious crooks of history—a rogues’ gallery that includes William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, Warren G. Harding, and Richard Nixon—look like penny-ante con men. These villains only cashed in to the tune of thousands or millions of dollars, while Trump in his second term has entered the realm of billions.

But Trump’s corruption is more than a matter of the sheer scale of his chicanery or the amount of money in play. No prior crooked public servant has enjoyed such complete impunity from any serious consequences for utter lawlessness. The institutions that have a constitutional duty to keep a criminal president in check have repeatedly folded rather than hold Trump accountable, with the Supreme Court expanding the already generous latitude of presidential immunity to cover Trump’s transgression, and Congress repeatedly refusing to investigate the shady financial deals the Trump family has been engaging in as a sideline to his two terms in office. The majority of blame for this situation falls on the Republican Party, which has collectively decided that Trump is the political goose that keeps laying electoral gold so he must be defended at all costs. The near-total subservience of the GOP was evident in 2021 when, even after Trump incited a riot to attack the Capitol, only seven Republican senators voted to convict him after his second impeachment.