Trump's Corruption Claims Are a Smokescreen for His Own Ill Deeds | Opinion

At an Oval Office press conference with senior advisors Elon Musk and his 4-year-old Lil' X, President Donald Trump vowed to pursue federal employees which he declared to be very corrupt without showing any evidence. Indeed, the only thing he mentioned was that a wealthy woman recently worked at USAID. He offered nothing to support his claim that she must have become wealthy by stealing taxpayer money.

Musk was even more ambiguous, suggesting only that some unnamed people were leaving government with more money than they came in with, so they must have been corrupted. In the middle of all this, Lil' X mounted Musk's shoulders, stuck out his tongue, pounded on Musk's head, and stuck his fingers in Musk's ears. Good boy.

Later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to DEI spending she disagreed with and said to her that kind of spending was fraud. If only Lil' X could get a hold of her ears. Under federal law, "fraud" is "obtaining something of value through willful misrepresentation." Spending we disagree with is not fraud.

But, let's consider the larger types of actual fraud against—as opposed to by—the government that has been uncovered recently—the kind of fraud in Biden-Era reports that Trump later disingenuously pointed to as proof of his claims about corrupt officials. For example, according to a 2023 report from the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, potentially more than $200 billion of fraud was committed by aid recipients under the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the Paycheck Protection Program—two programs signed into law by—you guessed it—Donald Trump.

But, should we give Trump the benefit of the doubt? Maybe now that he knows about the fraud, he is determined to go after it. Nope. Sorry. One of Trump's first acts as president was to fire some of the inspectors general from the very SBA office that uncovered the massive COVID fraud.

On top of that, Trump fired around 17 more inspectors general and the head of the Office of Special Counsel—all of them corruption fighters. And, shortly after pardoning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, he gutted the senior ranks of the Justice Department and the FBI whose jobs included the prosecution of corrupt officials. The Justice Department instead turned its attention to investigating Trump's enemies and dropping corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams while Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich from his conviction for trying to sell a U.S. Senate vacancy he had the power to fill. And to add insult to injury, while cutting off food aid to millions of starving Africans, Trump has suspended enforcement of the rules against Americans bribing foreign officials.

Trump's corruption witch hunt is like his other dealings. It's a matter of projection. By loudly accusing others of corruption, he is trying to get away with his own brand of corruption—kicking out corruption fighters while taking money from people he might help or hurt as president. Trump has neatly arranged things so that no one will dare investigate the millions of dollars being directed for the benefit of one particular government official—Donald Trump:

• A $10 million voluntary payment for Trump from Musk's X to settle a lawsuit of dubious merit.
• A $15 million voluntary payment for Trump from ABC News to settle a lawsuit of dubious merit.
• A $25 million voluntary payment for Trump from Facebook owner Meta to settle a lawsuit of dubious merit.
• Millions or billions that flowed to Trump from his meme coin since his election.
• Millions or billions that flowed to Trump from his Truth Social stock since his election.
• Millions flowing to Trump companies since his election from House Republicans, Saudis, and God knows who else to use his resorts and golf courses.
• Money flowing to Trump since his election from sales of $150,000 watches, gold coins, guitars, sneakers, boots, his books, Melania's books and documentary, and so on.

Do you think there is anyone left with the guts to investigate this? Does it smell like corruption to you, or will you and the rest of the country stick your fingers in your ears—or get someone from the Musk family to do it for you?

Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the new book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.