Key Trump campaign promise is now the 'punchline to a sad joke': analysis

With President Donald Trump’s massive corruption pulling down billions of dollars for himself and his family, MS NOW producer Steve Benen says it’s easy to forget that Trump originally campaigned on “draining the swamp.”

“As laughable as it might seem in hindsight, Donald Trump told voters that he saw the political establishment as a corrupt cesspool that he’d clean up in ruthless fashion,” Benen said. “… A decade later, amid frequent allegations of White House corruption and reports that the president is profiting from his office in unprecedented ways, that vow has become the punch line to a sad joke. And it’s striking to see the problem spreading in systemic ways as the first year of the Republican’s second term comes to an end.”

The New York Times released a recent report on nearly $2 billion Trump and his allies raised since Trump won his second term. Benen called this “a staggering sum for an incumbent who can’t run for reelection,” which the Times wrote “hints at a level of transactionalism for which it is difficult to find obvious comparisons in modern American history.”

Subsequently, the donors received wondrous hand-outs for their generosity.

“The New York Times conducted a comprehensive investigation. It relied on previously unreported documents and public campaign finance filings, as well as interviews with dozens of people who are familiar with the solicitations or are involved in the fund-raising,” the Times reports. “It traced a large portion of the funds raised — more than half a billion dollars’ worth — back to 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. It also found that more than half of them have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements of Mr. Trump, the White House or federal agencies.”

Benen said “to fully appreciate the scope of the underlying concern,” consider that of the 346 contributors who donated at least $250,000, at least 197 of them, which is more than half, either personally benefitted or their respective industry benefited “from policies of and actions taken by the president and his administration,” including favorable regulatory moves, pardons, the dropping of legal cases, presidential access and more.

“If you’re a voter who genuinely believed Trump’s ‘drain the swamp’ rhetoric ahead of Election Day 2016, I have some very bad news for you,” Benen said.

Read Benen's MS NOW column at this link.