Robert Reich: Hush money trial exposes Trumpworld’s depravity and 'ethical loathsomeness'

16 May 2024

If Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s final witness in the hush money/falsified business trial, the prosecution may officially rest its case this week.

Judge Juan Merchan was hoping the trial would move along at a rapid pace, and he is getting his wish. Cohen's testimony follows testimony from Bragg's other star witnesses, including adult film performer Stormy Daniels, former National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker, and former Trump White House adviser Hope Hicks.

During his testimony, Cohen has detailed his role in hush money payments made to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election — and he hasn't hesitated to say that he takes no pride in his actions.

In an opinion column published by The Guardian on May 16, liberal economist Robert Reich laments that testimony during the trial shows just how much corruption and depravity there is in Trump World.

"The trial has introduced us to a world of moral and ethical loathsomeness in which people use and abuse one another routinely," Reich laments. "It's Trump World."

Reich doesn't use his May 16 column to preach sexual morality. The former Clinton Administration labor secretary emphasizes that he doesn't automatically condemn Trump because he "had extramarital affairs," and he writes that "adult film stars" like Daniels "are entitled to do as they wish to make money."

But the behavior described during Trump's trial, Reich writes, takes corruption in politics to a whole other level.

"I am not naive about how the world works," Reich writes. "I've spent years in Washington, many of them around powerful people. I have seen the seamy side of U.S. politics and business. But the people who inhabit Trump World live in a more extreme place, where there are no norms, no standards of decency, no common good."

Reich continues, "There are only opportunities to make money and the dangers of being ripped off. It's a place where there are no relationships, only transactions."

Robert Reich's full column for The Guardian is available at this link.

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