Why corruption has become the foundation of Trump’s power
Corruption may simply be a way of life for US President Donald Trump, but it is the defining issue of his presidency.
From doling out pardons and policies in exchange for cash donations or favors to encouraging foreign governments and non-state actors to invest in his family’s crypto product, Trump’s corruption schemes have reached heights of novelty and scale unseen in American history.
The significance of this corruption cannot be appreciated without recognising the role it plays in Trump’s effort to dismantle "the system."
Read more about how Donald Trump is destroying democratic institutions in the US and the rules-based global order in the column by Janine R. Wedel of George Mason University: Corruption first: how Donald Trump has adopted and surpassed post-Soviet practices.
The author emphasises that US President Donald Trump and and his cronies see no problem with using state power to advance private business interests. Blatant nepotism, petty graft, and pay-to-play lobbying and influence schemes are all on the table.
"Self-enrichment and anti-system goals go hand in hand," writes Janine Wedel.
In her view, Trump embodies the fusion, and sometimes committed marriage, of two previously distinct worlds: the West and the former Soviet bloc.
The George Mason University professor notes that the systemic corruption that brought us this president has been percolating globally for decades, through the meshing of these worlds.
"This new class of oligarchs then created a new class of Westerners: high-octane, high-income professional "enablers" whose job was to offshore, launder, and hide the unprecedented avalanche of dirty money flooding into the world’s financial system from ex-communist countries – and to polish oligarchs’ images," Wedel explains.
According to her, these ill-gotten gains – stashed in offshore locations such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, Malta, Cyprus and the United States – underpinned and continue to underpin Kremlin influence operations in the West.
Kremlin operatives, the columnist notes, have long helped gut the Republican Party from within.
"By using his office as a cash cow, Trump has made no secret of his own interests. And he can get away with it through a tried-and-tested Soviet practice: appointing incompetent and inexperienced subordinates who owe their master everything," the professor points out.
And the Trump family’s focus on crypto is telling; it is a striking case where the missions of multiplying personal wealth and destroying the system converge.
"The technology’s practical uses seem to lie almost entirely in circumventing anti-money laundering and anti-corruption rules," Wedel stresses.
She warns that Trump’s corruption may help bring down the system, especially given the growing risks that crypto poses to financial stability.
"In his first term, Trump helped destabilise the US and the international system; today, he actively seeks to destroy democratic institutions and the rules-based world order. Soviet leaders would have marveled at his methods.," the professor concludes.