U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a visit to Verst Logistics in Hebron, Kentucky, U.S., March 11, 2026. REUTERS Kevin Lamarque
Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney says there’s a very clear reason why President Donald Trump can shamelessly flaunt his wealth and openly enrich himself and his family through corruption.
Steven kicked off his rant after MS NOW anchor Katy Tur asked him if Americans are “drawing a line” between Trump’s sumptuous balls and parties and their own difficulty buying gas during Trump’s self-inflicted Iran war.
“The claim that he's ‘for you’ while prices are going up, [food] costs are going up, gasoline is going up, the economy is struggling for people that are not very rich. It's doing great for people who are very rich. And now you have all of these very suspiciously timed [insider] trades where just a handful of folks are making a whole lot of money,” said Tur. “It doesn't feel very American.”
“One of … [Donald Trump’s] ironies is he clearly hates his base. Donald Trump doesn’t want anything to do with these people,” said Stevens. “My god, he's a guy from Queens who spent his life social climbing in Manhattan, someone who used to call in false stories about who he was dating. So, he wants to be accepted by these [rich] people. And there's no better way to be accepted by this group than to help them get even richer.”
As for Trump’s corruption, Stevens said Trump has been flaunting his dishonesty ever since he backtracked on a promise to reveal his tax returns to American voters to the point now where Americans “don't even talk about it” anymore.
“And this isn’t going to be investigated by the Justice Department because the Justice Department is a function of Donald Trump,” Stevens added. “So, it is beholden upon Democrats, when they get back in power, to have to have the will and the intensity and the purpose to go back and prosecute this. And it's going to be called partisan, because Republicans aren't going to be for it. And people are going to say, ‘what does this have to do with, improving people’s lives.’ It has a lot to do with that because faith in government is essential.”