{"id":7926,"date":"2026-08-28T10:37:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7926"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:37:24","slug":"calmes-trumps-reputation-for-corruption-is-doing-democrats-work-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7926","title":{"rendered":"Calmes: Trump\u2019s reputation for corruption is doing Democrats\u2019 work for them"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It wasn\u2019t so many months ago that Democrats were debating about what their winning message should be for capturing control of Congress in November\u2019s midterm elections and finally putting a needed check on President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes August 28, 2026: Jack Black, change may be on your radar<\/a><\/p>\n

Should they stay laser-focused on Trump\u2019s culpability for a laggard economy and American families\u2019 affordability crisis? Or spotlight Trump\u2019s overt and corrupt self-enrichment?<\/p>\n

The answer, finally<\/em>, became obvious to the ditherers: Both.<\/p>\n

Better late than never, the economy and corruption have merged as Democrats\u2019 two-pronged cudgel against Trump. Midterm elections are, after all, a referendum on the president\u2019s performance; the subservient Republicans on the ballot are simply his proxies.<\/p>\n

And Trump\u2019s performance in this second term is quite something. If he were trying to drag down his party, he couldn\u2019t have devised a more effective approach. The purported populist who first accepted Republicans\u2019 presidential nomination a decade ago with a promise to be the \u201cvoice\u201d of \u201cthe forgotten men and women of our country\u201d now spends his time as anything but.<\/p>\n

Instead, nearly six months in, Trump hawks a war he vowed never to start and which has spiked gas prices, depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles and caused death and suffering among the mostly working-class men and women who make up the volunteer military.<\/p>\n

He boasts of his economically dumb tariffs that raise consumers\u2019 costs and businesses\u2019 uncertainty. And now that the Supreme Court has declared many of the tariffs unconstitutional, billions in refunds are going out to corporations \u201cwith remarkable speed,\u201d the Wall Street Journal reported last week, not to Americans who paid the higher prices that the companies predictably passed along.<\/p>\n

In private and public, the president spends much of his time poring over plans not<\/em> for his elusive healthcare initiative but for his marbled and gilded vanity projects. (As for healthcare, at least 5 million families have lost Medicaid coverage since Trump and Republicans last year cut $1 trillion from healthcare to offset tax cuts mostly benefiting the rich and corporations.)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

All the while, the pol who once promised to drain the swamp has risen from its depths as the Loch Ness monster of swamp creatures. Trump is getting rich in office like no president before him ever contemplated, and spreading the wealth to family, cronies and donors even as Americans\u2019 wages have fallen behind the inflation he\u2019s pumped up through war and tariffs.<\/p>\n

First, consider the current state of the macro-economy. Spoiler alert: It\u2019s the opposite of Trump\u2019s fantasy version.<\/p>\n

Growth has slipped from 2.8% when President Biden left office to an estimated 1.8% for 2026. Gasoline, energy prices, inflation and interest rates are up. Wage growth and manufacturing jobs are down.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Trump\u2019s laughable pledge in 2025 to balance the budget \u201cin the near future,\u201d his tax cuts and military spending have driven annual budget deficits \u2014 and thus the overall federal debt \u2014 trillions beyond already unsustainable projections. Woe to younger generations.<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s microeconomy<\/h4>\n

Now, consider Trump\u2019s personal micro-economy. Spoiler alert: As powerhouse podcaster and former Trump tribune Joe Rogan recently exclaimed, \u201cHe\u2019s just on a grab!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: The wrong person overheard my wife venting about my co-workers<\/a><\/p>\n

In just his first year in office, Trump made at least $2.2 billion, much of it through cryptocurrency operations he once (rightly) condemned as scams, according to his mandatory released in June. Days later, a crypto analytics firm reported that nearly 1 million small investors in Trump\u2019s memecoin \u2014 how many of them Trump\u2019s \u201cforgotten Americans\u201d? \u2014 lost nearly $4 billion.<\/p>\n

The immediate cause of Rogan\u2019s outburst was learning from a guest on his show that, starting this month, the Trump Media & Technology Group is selling companies and big institutions early access to the president\u2019s market-moving posts on his Truth Social internet platform \u2014 for a reported $100,000 a month<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Since his first term, Trump\u2019s social media posts have been his outlet of choice for policy, personnel and political pronouncements. To now charge monied insiders for early access \u2014 well, you could hardly devise a more clearly corrupt connection between his presidential acts and personal profiteering.<\/p>\n

An astonished Rogan wondered for all of us, \u201cHow\u2019s that legal?\u201d \u2014 we\u2019ll see: a federal lawsuit was filed last week \u2014 and, \u201cWho\u2019s telling him this is a good idea?\u201d (My separate question: Why does Rogan think the kleptocrat can\u2019t come up with this stuff himself?)<\/p>\n

Recently, the crypto company that the Trump family created before his 2024 reelection, World Liberty Financial, announced that a Trump-appointed regulator had \u2014 surprise! \u2014 tentatively approved a charter for the firm to become a bank, allowing the Trump family to profit from newly authorized services to rich investors.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial has been a magnet for foreign investors\u2019 cash, especially from Middle East moguls seeking favor with the president of the United States. Separately, the Trump Organization has about two dozen real estate projects underway in foreign countries. Then there\u2019s Trump\u2019s unprecedented stock trades \u2014 roughly 3,700 in this year\u2019s first quarter \u2014 including in companies that soon got federal contracts that boosted their stock price.<\/p>\n

Ads write themselves<\/h4>\n

It seems each week brings another story of sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump taking interests in firms dealing in artificial intelligence, drone missile interceptors, critical minerals and more with business before their father\u2019s government. Eric Trump unashamedly went on Fox News to announce a $24-million Pentagon contract for military robots. Even 20-year-old Barron Trump is worth $150 million now, Forbes estimated.<\/p>\n

As they say in politics, the ads write themselves. Finally, however, Democrats are doing some writing. Senate Democrats put the talking points on paper under the title, \u201cThe Cost of Corruption: How Trump Turns Power into Profit at Americans\u2019 Expense.\u201d Among candidates, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia has modeled the message for months.<\/p>\n

When New York Times reporters asked Trump in January why he and his family are doing deals that he refrained from in his first term, he was frank: \u201cBecause I found out that nobody cared.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s wrong, perhaps because he\u2019s been too greedy. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a CNN poll last month said Trump \u201chas gone too far\u201d in pursuing his own business interests. And poll after poll shows his ratings for handling the economy are in the tank.<\/p>\n

Not to connect the two would be political malpractice.<\/p>\n

Jackie Calmes is an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times. \u00a92026 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Harriette Cole: So I\u2019m the bad guy because I want to set boundaries for our neighbor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monetizing executive authority amid widespread voter struggles hands rivals an ideal campaign strategy this fall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nCalmes: Trump\u2019s reputation for corruption is doing Democrats\u2019 work for them - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7926\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calmes: Trump\u2019s reputation for corruption is doing Democrats\u2019 work for them - 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