'Breadth of corruption': How Trump is ramping up to 'blatantly enrich himself in office'

Almost four months into his second presidency, Donald Trump continues to be one of the most divisive presidents in U.S. history. Trump is still adored by his hardcore MAGA base, while his critics are finding even more to dislike about his second presidency than they did about his first. And it remains to be seen how swing voters and independents will feel about him when the 2026 midterms arrive.

In an article published on May 17, New York Magazine's Ross Barkan argues that "corruption" is the main thing that makes Trump's second term uniquely bad.

"What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption," Barkan stresses. "No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge…. And then there’s his crypto hustle."

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Barkan adds, "Before he returned to power, Trump launched a meme cryptocurrency, $TRUMP, which allows investors around the world to enhance his net worth. The Trump family has reaped millions on transaction fees alone; its own reserve of the digital coin is worth billions, at least, on paper."

Trump, according to Barkan, "is far more unrestrained than he was during his first term because" the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in 2024, "that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for their official actions."

"Given the GOP stranglehold on the Senate," Barkan laments, "there's no guarantee a Democrat-run House in 2027 — the likely scenario — will impeach him like they did in the first term. Impeachment, as a political strategy, was a dud, with Republicans in the Senate refusing twice to convict Trump…. Is he setting a dark precedent for future presidents?"

Barkan continues, "Will tomorrow’s Republicans and even Democrats decide they too can turn the presidency into an obscene get-rich-quick scheme? Maybe. We won’t know until tomorrow comes. In the meantime, we must endure a breadth of corruption no previous generation of Americans has ever known."

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Read Ross Barkan's full New York Magazine article at this link.