A Trump victory would make federal government a 'modern-day Tammany Hall': legal scholar

11 April 2024

Critics of presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, including President Joe Biden, have been offering a variety of arguments against putting him back in the White House — from abortion rights to Obamacare to the fact that he openly admires authoritarians like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Biden has been warning that a Trump victory would be a foreign policy disaster, seriously undermining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on April 11, Caroline Fredrickson (a visiting law professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC) acknowledges that there are many valid reasons to vote against Trump in November. But the legal scholar stresses that for her, the #1 reason is that Trump would turn the United States' federal government into a "modern-day Tammany Hall."

"There are almost daily headlines now describing what Donald Trump would do if elected: the mass deportations, the pardons handed out to his friends and golf buddies, the Justice Department settling scores and waging personal vendettas," Fredrickson explains. "The former president has even promised violence if the election goes against him, warning that it could be a 'blood bath.' But as worrying as these prospects are, they are far from the biggest threats he poses."

Fredrickson continues, "What we should fear most is Mr. Trump transforming our government into a modern-day Tammany Hall, installing a kleptocratic leadership that will be difficult, if not impossible, to dislodge."

Tammany Hall was the infamous Democratic Party machine that dominated New York City politics for generations. Founded around 1789, Tammany lasted until the late 1960s and was especially powerful during the 19th Century. The mid-19th Century Tammany leader, Rep. William M. "Boss" Tweed (D-New York), was depicted in director Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" — a 2002 film set in Lower Manhattan's notorious Five Points slum in 1863 during the Civil War.

Tammany Hall was synonymous with corruption and patronage, and Fredrickson fears that a second Trump term would create a Tammany-like machine at the federal level.

"Recall how Mr. Trump operated in his first term," Fredrickson argues. "Not only did he keep his stake in more than 100 businesses, he made it a practice to visit his properties around the country, forcing taxpayers to pay for rooms and amenities at Trump hotels for the Secret Service and other staff members who accompanied him — money that went straight into his bank accounts and those of his business partners. Those interested in currying favor with the president, from foreign governments to would-be government contractors, knew to spend money at his hotels and golf clubs."

The "kleptocracy" that a second Trump term would create, Fredrickson warns, "could be fatal for our democracy."

"If Mr. Trump wins, America will have a leader invested in his own personal power, both financial and punitive, and supported by a much more capable team," the legal scholar writes. "When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America's leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it's needed most."

Caroline Fredrickson's full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).

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