Trump's days of defiant bribery are numbered — here's why

18 February

People participate in a National Day of Protest on Presidents' Day at Washington Square Park in New York City, U.S., February 17, 2025.

Trump has ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the next six months and instructed prosecutors to refrain from bringing FCPA cases.

Trump’s order raises several questions.

First, can a president simply order that a law passed by Congress and enacted by a former president not be enforced, even for six months? That’s tantamount to repealing a law. Trump has no qualms about doing this, but it rides roughshod over Congress and the separation of powers that’s a keystone of our Constitution.

It’s not clear that the FCPA under Trump will ever be enforced. After all, killing it off was one of Trump’s priorities in his first term. “I need you to get rid of that law,” Trump told Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state and a former oil executive. But Tillerson knew better. He played a major part in stopping Trump’s idea. But now Trump is surrounded by lackeys who will do his illegal bidding.

Second, who benefits and who’s hurt by repeal of the FCPA?

Trump has long argued that the law banning foreign bribery stifles dealmaking abroad and puts American companies at a disadvantage.

Rubbish. When it was being enforced, CEOs of big American corporations could credibly tell foreign officials who sought bribes that their hands were tied.

Now, corrupt foreign officials will expect American executives to dole out bribes, and competition among U.S. executives for foreign business will likely increase the amount of these bribes. The cost to American corporations of doing business overseas is likely to soar.

Third, bribery is bad for democracy — here and abroad — because it invites more corruption and heightens public distrust. Officials who take or seek bribes are not acting in the interest of the public; they are seeking to enrich themselves.

The United States has an interest (or used to have an interest) in promoting democracy around the world. The FCPA sent a message that paying or seeking bribes to win business would not be tolerated, anywhere. The law has been a force for fighting bribery around the globe. (Roughly 4 in 10 defendants have been outside the United States.)

Fourth and finally, Trump’s effort to subvert the FCPA is part of a broader pattern of Trump’s encouraging or at least tolerating corruption.

Last week, Tump’s Justice Department pressured DOJ lawyers to drop the pending corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, for purely political reasons (leading to the resignations of six top Justice Department officials).

Trump also issued a full pardon for Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was convicted for trying to sell his Senate seat in Illinois.

Trump has fired almost all inspectors general across the government, whose job was to root out corruption.

Trump himself is arguably the most corrupt president in the history of the United States. He’s monetizing his presidency in ways that would make even Warren G. Harding blush.

A few weeks ago, Trump’s Media and Technology Group (of which he is majority owner) announced it’s selling financial products, including a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), aimed at what Trump calls the “patriotic economy.”

He’s unabashedly selling memberships in Mar-a-Lago, the Trump Bible, and other “presidential” merch. He continues to make money off his hotels, golf clubs, and licensing deals — opening the way for anyone to curry favor with him simply by buying his stuff.

He convened a meeting in the Oval Office between Jay Monahan, the top executive at the PGA Tour, and, via telephone, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chairman of the Saudi Arabia-backed league LIV Golf, to smooth the way to a planned merger between the two groups. The Trump family is a business partner of LIV Golf.

The conflicts of interest between Trump’s official role and his family business are legion. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Trump has transferred his shares in Truth Social’s parent company into a longstanding trust of which he is the sole beneficiary. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is the trustee.

His middle son, Eric Trump — who oversees the Trump Organization day to day — has said the family business will continue to pursue business opportunities overseas, dropping a self-imposed prohibition on foreign deals that the corporation said was in place during Trump’s first term.

These steps fall well short of the blind trusts and divestitures from private business interests that other presidents have used to avoid ethical conflicts with their job.

In Trump v. the United States, a majority of the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for any acts that can be deemed “official.” But as Justice Sonia Sotomayor observed in her dissent, this opens wide the door to corruption.

“Under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution.
Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.
Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune.
Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.
Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.”

Be sure of this: Trump’s open door to corruption will catch up with him and with other corrupt officials around him. His days of defiant bribery are numbered. Inevitably, Trump will overplay his hand.

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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/

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