Donald J. Trump never was, is not and never intends to be a public servant.
Trump's entire life no matter real estate developer, TV star or President has been about the enrichment of Donald J. Trump and the glorification of Donald J. Trump.
Ethics, laws and taxes are for the little people.
And as disgusting as this makes him, he has never had to alter his plan. Who has held him accountable for one lie, one cheat or one fraud?
No one.
He's POTUS now for heaven's sake!
That's on America folks.
Our institutions and fellow citizens have failed in so many ways.
1
Meet the New Swamp
Same as the Old Swamp
Yeahhhhh! We sure got fooled again.
Same as the Old Swamp
Yeahhhhh! We sure got fooled again.
Does anyone else have the image of "Get Smart's" cone of silence when they think of Pruitt's $25,000 privacy chamber?
2
Richly paradoxical on so many levels. Say, let's ask the sucker tax payers to believe the one about the tax cut for the middle class...
I guess at my age (55) I shouldn't be shocked, repulsed, angered or dismayed by all this hypocrisy. But I am. I am very angry that these useless clowns have been allowed into public service with not an iota of what public or service even means. They sure know what grifting, thievery and fecklessness means though.
1
With education so much more available than ever before, with information literally at our fingertips as never before, we seem to have greater problem, as never before, with people being unable to tell right from wrong and truth from lies. Intelligence and intrinsic common sense, it would seem, have fallen by the wayside in favor of rote education to make everyone equally qualified - but in what? People are less able to spot a crook even when they prove themselves as crooks. People are unable to spot the lie even when the lie is visibly evident - don't they believe their own eyes? Is intellectual laziness the brilliance that the technological revolution has created? Because it would now seem as if you can fool most of the people most of the time - or those who matter anyway; like just about everyone in Congress not doing much but nodding their heads and scratching their chins accordingly while biding their time and hoping - for hope is all they've got apparently - for something different in 3 years and 3 months.
This should be no surprise, the orange one indulging in all of the duplicitous and self serving actions that as narcissist in chief has made it quite clear it is all about him. It is only natural that all of the minions would follow suit in stuffing their own pockets. What is astounding is that despite the majority of voters realizing the orange one for the fraud he is slightly less than half of registered voters couldn't be bothered to vote. How could they not be aware of the true nature of the orange one. What an embarrassment for your nation. You want to make America great again? Start with dumping his minions in 2018 and finish up with him in 2020
2
Everyone forgets that the champion of public service, our beloved Obama, spent $80 million dollars of taxpayer money on his vacations. Yes $80 million. That's a lot of money to combat poverty and provide housing for the homeless...
3
Forget Clinton's emails. Comney threw a major hissy fit because after all the investigations he had to admit she did nothing criminal.
1
And still Trump has an 84% overall approval rating amongst registered republican voters. This group would only be appaled by this article if those infractions had been committed by an Obama cabinet. Corporate/Political Welfare and fraud are fine if you're a wealthy white man. This group, whom are the likes that deride those that protest against the clear and blatant discrimination that doggedly persists in this nation will never abandon Trump and his mis-begoten message of white supremacy and nativism. Yes, the truth makes these volk very uncomfortablle. Sad that these patriots are so silent about the disrespect shown by those waiving the confederat flag.
4
If they really lower taxes and the gov't has less revenue where will these " swampers " fleece the money to live like
1
Trump,your corruption is the worst I've seen in years,look at yourself,now you
Resign,before you're impeached.
1
It really is typical that with all of the disgusting nonsense that Donald Trump was spewing out about Hillary Clinton, emails, foundation, Bill Clinton meeting with Loretta lynch.....you name it, not only has Trump been exponentially worse in every instance, it's poetic justice rarely seen in the real world with Trump being not only so incompetent, but showing himself to be so far in over his head, it's embarrassing.
5
too bad he didn't mention the nightmares . . .
1
A new White House slogan: "A fox in every hen house."
4
Memo to General Kelly:
"If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas"
4
I'm tired of all the winning and the swamp draining.
2
There must really be an exultant air filling the editorial board room these days. It's nice to know someone is happy during all of this.
Ouch, I sure don't like Trump, our Archie Bunker President. But the hatred that dripped off those lines runs like acid. Do we care about fairness? You folks fall off the balance beam every week.
2
Guessing no private jet trips to PR?
3
I'm sure Maxwell Smart and Chief can help Pruitt with his cone of silence.
1
What is Trump hiding in his tax returns?
3
The Trump administration emulates Putin's Russian plutocracy, and
probably is part of it.
2
A mini-example of how the rich got and stay that way.
2
Now that Price has resigned, the Times must call on others mentioned here to do the same. I'm holding my breath for when you finally call for Trump's impeachment. Don't take too long! :-)
4
Thinking that Mr. Kelly would bring propriety and sanity to the cesspool that is also know as the trump White House is now shown to be nothing more than "magical thinking." Nothing seems to be able to stop the wholesale debasement of our country and the unbridled, unethical greedy behavior that everyone but the "deplorables" expected from this cabinet and this pathetic excuse of a man. And please stop lauding MacMaster; he has shown himself more than willing to be a mouthpiece for trump's inane policies.
4
Please compare with use of private planes by members of Obama administration. How much worse are these guys? We don't know because you never thought to look. I will be outraged when I find that none of those cabinet members used private jets.
1
Donald, Pruitt is wasting taxpayer funds creating his secure communications booth, completely unnecessary at the EPA unless it's to hide corruption, so where is his firing? What about Mnuchin's or Zinke's or, again, Pruitt's waste of tax funds on private jets? Have you directed Kelly to fix this and collect resignations all around? And Donald, what about your own violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitutiion, waste of taxpayer money on your weekend commercials for your own properties, and so much more? Is your own resignation imminent?
1
The FSM spoke to me today during lunch.
It says Price will depart in shame and humiliation around 1:00 today. Give or take.
Ramen.
1
I remember that our former president insisted that no one but a man who cheated on his tax return could be the Secretary of the Treasury. When ordinary taxpayer tried to use the same excuse that was used by Mr Geithner to justify his “mistake” they were laughed out of the US Tax Court. I don’t remember many readers of the NYT objecting to that nomination
1
Thanks to the Editorial Board for reminding these Executive Branch leaders of their responsibilities.
Clearly, it is a heady experience to be a executive member of the White House staff or a head or senior member of a Federal Agency. The team must guard against the cognitive impairment of judgement from a swelling head.
It is tough because the protocols and amenities of office are designed to show respect for the time and importance of the individuals appointed to these critical positions can accelerate head swelling and cause the executive to forget that they are servants of We the People and are accountable to the law on a more demanding regime than citizens in carrying out their agency missions as defined by law.
It is a awesome responsibility requiring mature and selfless judgement and the sagacity and sincerity to educate and persuade the public on the nature of social, economic and environmental problems and the solutions that they have persuaded the President, the Congress, and the media will work.
No one is perfect but it is more difficult to achieve consensus if the deciders are distracted by being self-absorbed by their own importance rather than focused on the evidence of the problem and the welfare of Americans.
Early policy responses to income distribution, over dependence on fossil fuels for energy & transport, crumbling & aging infrastructure, deterioration of international security, & failing health & education services show signs of swelling.
All these luxury trips at the taxpayers' expense by Trump's cabinet members and aides (besides Price, we have Pruitt, Zinke, Conway and so on who also took trips on private jets) are coming to light. What say you- shouldn't the rest of them leave too?
And let's not forget that while the luxury trips were happening galore we have 3 million Americans in PR without power and water for over a week now.
Trump has not drained the "Swamp" he has only restocked it with new "ALLIGATOR'S" of a more vicious nature.
Who ever coined the term that Power Corrupts has been proven correct again!
2
The use of private jets doesn't bother me. High level government officials should have access to these perks. Anyone who has worked in public retail, customer service or the restaurant industry knows how unruly and ungrateful people generally are- So imagine what it's like serving a nation? Give these people a break.
People don't have enough ice their glass and they want their entire meal for free- I use that as an example because everyone on the "no private jet" bandwagon has at one time used their position as a "guest" or "customer" to shake down a business for a freebie.
So you are all a bunch of hypocrites! Be quiet and stop whining!
The irony is not lost on any of us. The call to lock up Hillary it turns out to be a ruse.
If we are going to start up locking up people (I will leave that to Mr. Mueller's bunch) we can start with a good number of Trump's people and family members Jared.
10
There are so many more substantive issues that trouble the Trump Administration's policies. Frankly, this Editorial is all about sweating the small stuff.
With Trump being given a total pass by congress on conflicts of interest, emoluments, self-dealing (his DC hotel), pay-to-play (Mar-a-Lago) and not showing us his tax returns, is it any wonder his staffers and cabinet members feel free to break the rules?
14
Under George Bush II administration, there were many who enriched themselves. Data point one was Dick Cheney and Halliburton. It may have been that the entire Iraq War was just to enrich Cheney et. al. as Halliburton's stock went from $4 in early 2002 to $40 in 2006. Ten-fold increase!!
But perhaps the real problem was not just the corruption and self-dealing of the Bush administration...but rather the lack of consequences under Obama.
Whoever follows Trump needs to punish these people for their financial crimes and self-dealing as a stern warning. Otherwise, whenever the Republicans get into power... they will just steal and self-deal with impunity.
The next administration needs to send a very strong message: you steal from the US public and self-deal at your peril.
No more get get out of jail free card with a new administration.
Hold these thieves accountable!
14
Is an ideal example of public service being paid $400,000 for giving a 23-minute speech to Cantor-Fitzgerald executives in midtown Manhattan?
America elected a snake oil salesman as its president. Now it has to work out how to get rid of him when a good percentage of its population either genuinely believes that his snake oil works, or is too ashamed to admit their mistake.
This feels like the script for a very old movie. We're watching you America: you'd better get it right.
7
The media goes on day after day recounting the dishonesties and exaggerations of Mr. Trump and his family entourage but never seems to get beyond name calling rather than demanding Congressional action to rid the country of the whole sorry mess of corruption and ignorance. How about some fist raising demands for Congressional action now to remove the affront to Uncle Sam's intelligence that Cheap-talk Trump and his kin represent?
5
For those who paid attention to DJT's cabinet picks and to their confirmation hearings--we knew from the get-go that those picked to serve the people of the US had no previous experience with serving anyone other than themselves or special interests. How could we expect Price to not take private planes when he had used his time in the legislature making himself into a millionaire. How can we expect the secretary of education to hold the line on college campus sexual assaults when she and her whole family have lived in their religious bubble and tried to play the system to get privately owned charter schools to bankrupt public schools. As I write this, Price has resigned--but that's a little too little too late. This administration rots from the head down while the rest of us get up every morning, go to work, pay our taxes and take care of our kids--and not just to post our actions as parents on Instagram. Price made the mistake of getting caught--how much corruption are we still unaware of and when will this Trump nightmare end?
8
How do we explain the unethical, reckless, irresponsible, corrupt, and lawless behavior patterns of the highest-level political appointees of the Trump Administration? Simple. They have been converted to the political theology that embraces two axioms: (1) Government is not the solution, it's the problem; and (2) Greed is good.
5
You mean to tell me that a shady, selfish, & narcissistic business man with questionable financial connections lied about his intentions to gain power? And the GOP Congress, despite majorities in both chambers, will only pass one major piece of legislation this year, one that gives huge sums of money back to their rich donors at the expense of the middle class?
This was obvious from the beginning, at least to those who weren't suckered by the right wing media machine.
10
The AP reports that "Trump has been telling associates that his health chief [Tom Price] has become a distraction, overshadowing his agenda and undermining his campaign promise to 'drain the swamp' of corruption." I suppose what Price, Mnuchin, Zinke, and others, don't understand the only swampy creature allowed in D.C. is Trump himself. Only he can abuse power, his office, and enrich himself et the expense of taxpayers. And no, they don't get to do it just because he does it.
3
The editiorial did not mention Congressional leaders turning a blind eye to all the corruption in the Executive branch. Deaf, dumb, and blind describes both sides of the aisle when it comes to questioning or confronting Trump and his Cabinet and WH staff. Since this most certainly was not how Congress conducted itself during the WJ Clinton administration, nor the Obama presidency (though there was no corruption under Obama, just Congressional obstructionism taken to the nth degree), one must ask: why not? What differs now except tweets and planted faux news?
4
I want a television news crew to hand out copies of this editorial to members of the Senate and get each senator's response on record.
What's their excuse for not unambiguously condemning this outrageous behaviour?
And what's Trump's excuse?
Sickening. Just sickening.
8
Have they no shame? No, none. No more America the Beautiful, no more "This Land is My Land, This Land is Your Land"....this is now America for the rich, by the rich, only for the rich, so help me God. The dreams of our forbears, of our founding mothers and fathers, are daily demolished and diminished. Cry, the Beloved Country.
6
Members of the Trump admin. thinks that they should live like kings while serving their friends and themselves.
3
When a country elects an ethically-challenged President, it shouldn't be surprised when improper conduct occurs in the Administration.
2
Not to worry. Trump's chumps think it's all good. It is blind masochism on the part of his supporters. They are beyond reason in their Trump euphoria.
1
Thank you, editors, for choosing to refer to Tom Price as "Mr." and not "Dr. Price." Professionally, I would like to distance myself as far as possible from this man. A physician does not try to take away insurance coverage from the people he is supposed to help and protect. A physician does not use his position of power for financial gain or personal convenience.. whether private plane use or dubious stock deals. Mr. Tom may be a licensed orthopedic surgeon, who is entitled to have MD after his name, but he is no physician .
7
I don't understand.
Prince Tom is a member of the royal entourage.
Doesn't this entitle him to complete access to the treasury?
Doesn't his participation in the house of Tsar Trump entitle him to military airlift capacity?
Prince Zinke and Prince Pruitt seem to suffer under the same privilege of nobility.
PS: it's amazing that Little Hands cannot get a comped room at his own hotels. oh wait.....that's a conscious decision.
4
I believe that the very worst of the "PAY TO PLAY" no-bid US government contract awards might be President Obama's $650,000,000.00 CGI Federal ACA software contract to create the new "Obamacare exchange web portal" website.
That is 2/3 of a billion dollars.
This interactive website could have been created for a tiny percentage of that amount.
This was a gigantic waste of taxpayer's money?
Ask any of your computer programmer friends how much their company would have charged to create the ACA "Obamacare exchange web portal" website.
Was the remainder of that $650 million CGI Federal government no-bid contract just "PAY TO PLAY" free cash money paid to presidential campaign contributors?
I believe that some of the people that were in President Obama’s government administration need to be arrested, tried, convicted and then sent to long prison terms if US taxpayer citizens want this type of corruption to dis-continue.
1
The article opens: "Electing him, Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail, would 'make every dream you ever dreamed for your country come true.'"
Here's Pedro, running for class president in "Napoleon Dynamite," delivering -with equal persuasiveness- exactly the same message: "If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true."
http://www.tzr.io/yarn-clip/0d47321f-436d-4543-9258-a73880437a5e
Donald should be ashamed for plagiarizing poor Pedro, and we should be even more ashamed it succeeded so well.
2
Anyone who believed Trump's rhetoric during the campaign and since is very foolish and non-observant. I see projection from day one.
Trump and his hypocritical band of thieves have been lying, looting and taking advantage of every 'perk' and that won't stop.
When you have people like Shaub and Painter cringing about the ethical behavior of these folks and repeating their concerns you know something wrong.
What troubles me more about this is how that looting is also meant to harm vulnerable people in this country and reward only those who are considered worthy...rich billionaires and corporations.
Those who still believe anything coming from this White House are fools, soon to be separated from their money.
We are in trouble here. Mueller's investigation closure can't come soon enough. We already know that Trump will do nothing to self-correct himself or his team.
All that is hidden will be revealed ultimately. There is where I have faith.
3
Trump is a con man. He's out to enrich himself any and every way he can from the taxpayers of this country. Trump grudgingly and ineptly stumbles through 'the whole being president thing', but what he's really interested in is ginning up feverish crowds at rallies, playing golf, and feeling self-important on world stages and the daily news. Trump doesn't care much about being good at governing, so long as the governing is good for Trump. His "tax reform" proposal, just incidentally would save his heirs "literally billions and billions" of estate taxes, and the "pass through" rate proposal would reduce his tax rate from 39.6% to 25% - these are just two small examples of his self-dealing and personal corruption. It is no surprise that he surrounded himself with grifters and corrupt people who accumulated wealth by stretching the dark-gray edge of legality. Tom Price, knowing what his House committee is going to determine regarding certain medical interests... can easily deduce the effects on his stock portfolio. No blind trusts here! The ethics of Congress are shaky enough already, but Price dealt himself a winning portfolio, personally benefiting from his insider knowledge... maybe not illegal, as of now, but definitely, certainly, undeniably unethical. Private jets, chartered flights, the entire attitude of 'we're entitled to this' that permeates the Trump Cabinet, this attitude starts at the very top. Trump is the most corrupt modern president ever.
4
I think it is time we put Trump in jail. He took the oath of office and violated every letter of the oath he swore to. He is worthless and is not fit to be an American.
9
Is it true #45 still conducts Trump Inc. businesses while on Government time?
Does he forgo his yearly salary as he promised?
He should stay in Washington DC and take care of the people's busiñess. Don't worry about football.
4
At this point, my hope is that Gen. Kelly is hanging on to collect evidence that he will be revealing as a witness in (hopefully, many) upcoming trials.
And a "secure phone booth"? Who, exactly, would be spying on the EPA?
7
When the Party in power's principal axioms are (1) government is the problem, and (2) greed is good, what else can go wrong? Now that the Party is finding ways to accommodate the third axiom," Only people like us are entitled to the rights guaranteed under the Constitution," the position of the world's remaining Superpower is secure.
4
I don't want a civil war but I DO want an amicable divorce from anyone in his base and all the Republicans who still claim they approve of him. The lies alone should be enough evidence for an uncontested split. Otherwise, this can only lead to a civil war in one form or another. Face it, we have all tried to think of ways we can possibly leave the other side to keep drinking the Kool-Aid and have a country devoid of rational thought. A divorce plan is needed. For the sake of the children....
4
I am now of the opinion that Putin favored Trump, not only because Tromp was less bellicose towards Russia than HRC, in fact almost reverent of him, and potentially a convenient partner in international politics and business, but rather because Putin astutely realized that Trump's ego and vengeful traits, combined with bravado and pathological self-esteem would severely undermine American democracy through his lack of governance and leadership experience, and his sheer ineptitude in assembling an effective and functioning support team. As the column clearly points out, Putin's hunch is paying off well; the swamp is ominously expanding, intransigence is the clear consequence.
9
But only Hillary's home computer was connected to Government Secret information stored in a SCIF environment, with access to the names of our US government employees, Narcotic Cartel informers. and our ISIS foreign citizen informers for the USA to be identified, betrayed, and then die horrible deaths because of the lack of security protocol by Hillary Clinton with her personal computer that was not located within a SCIF facilities as US government security protocol and law requires.
On July 05, 2016 President Obama’s FBI director Comey stated on TV in his news conference that “Hillary Clinton was “extremely careless” and “grossly negligent” with her sloppy and reckless (or stupid) behavior while committing e-mail activities that harmed the USA.” President Obama’s FBI director James Comey had previously publicly documented almost 100 criminal violations of federal security laws on TV that Hillary Clinton committed where Hillary’s actions did indeed violate 18 U.S. Code § 18 U.S. Code § 798 - Disclosure of classified information – PL 114-38 Federal Law, Title 18, Section 2071.
That was the time and place for President Obama’s FBI Director Comey to arrest Hillary Clinton.
Why did Comey let Hillary walk?
Is anybody else mad over this preferential treatment and selective law enforcement bestowed by Comey onto Hillary Clinton?
1
Just like under Nixon I recall, the same folks yelling about excessive fed spending once they get into the hen house abuse it unmercifully. I think there is some unwritten code of conduct in the GOP that when one wins an election, one should take every possible opportunity to steal from the govt and take care of one's pals.
7
This is the problem when you stack a cabinet with businesspeople who are used to the perks of their high paying corporate jobs. In this case, government positions, even high ranking ones, pay less so my guess is these former corporate honchos think they are deserving of perks like private jet travel and the like. Price, Mnuchin and Pruitt are likely shocked they answer to the taxpayer. They should reimburse the country for their wasteful habits and our dime, when they can well afford to pay their own way.
Trump and his family are also straining the budget of the secret service and spend millions on their own frequent travels. For Trump to be "fuming" over this matter is a joke.
Who's minding the candy store (Please, don't even mention Gen. Kelly)? Why are hard-earned taxpayer dollars being squandered? Are we on the road to bankruptcy like many a Trump venture? Where's the fiscal responsibility?
6
Concise, accurate, and infuriating, all the more so because no one in the GOP Congress really seems to care about it, so nothing will get done. In the mean time, they continue to rob us blind.
7
I would like for Mr. Robert Mueller and the FBI to also investigate the reasons why any (and almost all) of our present and past “MAINSTREAM REPUBLICAN” and “MAINSTREAM DEMOCRATIC” elected US officials voted to create any and all of their new US federal legislation, and also their awarding NO-BID contracts paid by the US Treasury to their campaign contributors by this and all past administrations.
2
Mr. Trump promised a return to the politics of his youth, not to refrain from installing corrupt people in office to serve at his pleasure. Thus we have the use of public money for chartering planes to the tune of $500,000 when commercial flights would have been fine, military flights that cost a bundle making special runs and the sense of entitlement that the government should fly honeymooners to their destination, at a time when anyone else would have been settling in to do a good job.
There will be no real change while Trump is in office, because he is the worst abuser of all, flying to his own properties where the Secret Service must rent facilities, maintaining two homes for months, requiring them to rent a floor in his building, continuing to hide his finances, allowing his own family to use private email while abusing Clinton for doing so, and that's just for starters.
America was great before he was in office. It will be great again when he leaves office, preferably sooner than later. But it will not be great while he's in office, not only because of the corruption but also because he has abused our allies and taunted our enemies, he has no sense of decorum let alone diplomacy and most of all, he is a shallow little man whose own opinions are the only ones that matter.
5
Is it really a surprise that the swamp is now broader, deeper and smellier than ever before? Trump set the tone with his evasion of standard ethics rules and practices. Then he hired a cabinet of wealthy, entitled white one-percenters to undo as much of the Obama years as possible. Why shouldn't they do exactly as the boss does and flaunt the rules wherever they can? The real question is, do the Congress and GOP leadership have any ethical standards themselves? What would the president and his cabinet have to do to motivate the Congress to take action? Maybe shoot someone on Pennsylvania Avenue in broad daylight?
4
I guess if you are in the 47% of the country who are takers it's hard to change.
1
Government of the Grifters, by the Grifters, and for the Grifters.
It's the flag that matters, not the Constitution.
3
Editors, your last sentence sums up Donald Trump perfectly. All he wants it to get it while he can, the adulation, the power, the money. To "win" by whatever means necessary. He will stop at nothing to get "it", including inflicting hardship and preventable deaths on the lives of millions by eliminating their health care insurance, and by recklessly provoking war, cocksure of his ability to commit millions more non-Trump-family lives to his cause.
He is vulgar, unscrupulous, fraudulent... but we know that. And we, the vast majority of Americans, want to get rid of him, NOW. But we are stuck in a system that gives us no way to do it. It is maddening to realize that day after day, Trump continues to get away with "it".
2
The Times readership does tend towards liberal policies and the Democratic Party but usually there are a small percentage of comments that support Trump and his administration. But after spending some time glancing through the comment section of this editorial it seems like even those NYTimes readers that support Trump can't bring themselves to defend him now. There have been so many times I thought there was a turning point where Americans would see Trump for how he is. Will this week with the slow response to the crisis in Puerto Rico, the disastrous tax plan and the revelations about his advisors and Cabinet be it.? Or will we have to endure more tragedies and incompetence till a slow but steady drop in support rids us of this horror show?
5
I fail to understand how a President who won't show his tax returns to the American people, can be allowed to orchestrate a huge tax overhaul. Smells like swamp to me.
8
Mr. Robert Mueller might be a good future presidential candidate for POTUS in 2020, and maybe he could "Drain the swamp!” Is he a Democrat or a Republican?
Almost all of our current elected officials should be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentence to long prison sentences for their criminal actions.
2
Hurry up, Mr. Mueller!
4
Thieves and liars, fleecing the rubes, again
surprise?
6
This image comes to mind of Trump as a slimy, large, orange bullfrog sitting on a gold-plated lily pad in a steaming, putrid swamp. Trump’s “neck” billows as he proceeds to croak his next lie. His advisors and cabinet members are green and have grown scales, and some, gills. They slither around in the muck as the GOP chirping crickets hop about to avoid Trump’s sticky tongue.
15
Brilliant!
4
This is one of the most vivid and accurate descriptions of Trump yet,
3
Great description. Like something out of Grimm's tales.
1
If you drain the swamp that is supposedly Washington, DC, as President Trump vowed he would do upon taking office, it would seem that what you have left is the president himself and his cabinet secretaries slithering around on the bottom.
6
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and all of the other self-entitled government officials who are recklessly spending US taxpayer money on un-necessary luxuries for themselves, and also those government officials who are taking money and/or other perks in return for favorable government actions should be FIRED from government service, investigated and convicted for bribery or treason, and then sentenced to long prison sentences of hanged if their actions damaged the USA,
3
The Washington Post is reporting that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also chartered a private jet for use, costing $12,000+ to fly from Las Vegas to Montana. That seems to be a pattern for him, as he had "issues" when he was a SEAL of using travel money for private use, for which he was reprimanded.
7
The upcoming tax bill will the biggest theft of public money in history.
America finally has organized crime as a government.
8
WELCOME TO THE U.S. BANANA REPUBLIC
If Joe and Jane Sixpack charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal and extravagant expenses to their employer, they would be fired and/or charged with embezzlement. But in Trump's swamp, the millionaires and billionaires get to gorge at the publicly financed trough. We the taxpayers get to fund Trump and Co's lavish lifestyles. How magnanimous of us. And how craven if we let them get away with this thievery.
11
I have a feeling that the end is near for Señor Trump. It's amazing he's held onto the job for this long - it's also amazing how his supporters continue to support him even if he did " . . .shoot somebody on Fifth Ave" or launch a nuclear war.
4
I can't understand all the criticism of Trump here; he just recently performed a public service by explaining to all of us that Puerto Rico is an island...an island surrounded by water. Big water. In contrast to all those islands surrounded by land or small water.
This explains a lot about something.
11
Another aspect to consider is how appointees to the Executive Branch can divest themselves of their assets and not pay taxes on the gains. There are some guidelines for the newly liquid assets as to how they are held and at what point in the future the tax bill might have to be paid.
But when you consider the GOP tax plan calls for eliminating the estate tax, how likely would any of those profits realized during divestment ever be taxed. If the gains were held until death, or if some loophole language were hidden in the GOP tax plan, it is entirely possible that it would never be taxed.
Now consider that Trump is lining his cabinet with billionaires. How would all this affect them if they were to pull the divestment trigger today, and the GOP tax plan goes on to shield them from paying taxes going forward?
The old Washington tax-two-step. Plus it is a great way for Trump to ingratiate himself to the world's uber billionaire club which he so desperately wants to be a member of.
2
Trump's base feels resentful of low-income citizens receiving government "handouts" at the taxpayer's expense, but seemingly is not terribly bothered by millionaires and billionaires doing the same thing. So, why is that? And what should Democrats do to shine a light on it in a way that everybody can get behind?
13
I spoke with someone who has friends working in the EPA. They tell him the core mission of the agency has changed. The new objective is to remove as many regulations as possible, regardless of the cost to our air, water and other natural resources. Pruitt does not meet with scientists. He meets with lobbyists. Most staff is not allowed to speak to him.
For those who think this is OK because it is good for the economy consider two things. While costs to producers may fall, increases in pollution come with real costs as well. Then there is the backlash. This group will not be in power forever. This kind of behavior Pruitt is engaging in kills cooperation and dialogue and encourages huge pendulum swings from over to under regulation. And guess what? That kind of constant disruption and unpredictability is bad for business.
10
One of the most disturbing behaviors listed in this editorial is "Scott Pruitt, industry’s best friend at the Environmental Protection Agency ... is spending nearly $25,000 to build a 'secure phone booth' in his office." As reported in The NY Times and elsewhere, Pruitt is aggressively pursuing "closed door" policies at the EPA, including prohibiting the recording or documenting of discussions and decisions that should rightfully be archived in the public record. This is NOT okay. Why does Pruitt need a "secure phone booth?" Why is he permitted such secrecy with regard to EPA decision-making and policies? What does he want to hide? How is this not illegal?
19
While we are going round and round about the same recurring topics of financial inequality and immigration policy, there are so many other issues that would really make America great: education, corrections reform, public transportation, electoral reform...and so many others!
3
Looking at this administration really proves the truth of the old saying:
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
6
Price, Zinke, Mnuchin, Pruitt all need to be fired!
11
Price is gone !!!
This article is a tad naive, the chagrin is misguided.
Trump is cleaning up the corruption rather well. He is ridding EPA of scientists, ridding the education and energy department of qualified people, ridding the corruption of Obamacare by introducing uncertainty. He has appointed top talent (his family) to top places just as he promised - to rule like a dictator of a banana republic. Promises made, promises kept.
He is encouraging cops to beat up suspects, encouraging white nationalists to run mayhem. This was a fundamental promise he made, and he is keeping it.
NY Times sees corruption one way. Trump sees corruption another way. What he thinks about "corruption" is that which gets in the way of robber barons. And robber barons take money from Saudis, charter jets for honeymoons at public expense. All this is building trust with his voters (see Hillary's email as an example of what destroys trust with the American voter).
He promised to make America great again; not make America great. I.e., he promised a return to a pre-civil rights sensibility when America ruled everything. He is keeping that promise.
Now, just drop out of school, throw out all books and buy a bible, outlaw science, turn every R&D and NASA facility into a revivalist church for honorable Mr. Jeffress, buy and burn some coal, tie up the women, and go out and lynch someone. Or are you not American enough? Isn't this what America voted for?
Kalidan
93
I know it is all serious but can't help but chuckle a wee bit. Scott Pruitt's 'secure phone booth'. Might he have watched to many 'Get Smart' episodes.
If Mr. Pruitt in the future is found talking to a tree and his defense is he was talking to a secret agent? That is your confirmation. The second clue will be he was caught while talking in his shoe.
8
He is an awful, awful man. I can hardly bear to read these stories.
20
John Kelly was doomed even before he started the job. Trump and his gang didn't want reform of the WH. All trump wanted was to get rid of Reince, Spicer was a surprise benefit.
Years ago, my father commented that he thought having a rich man as President would keep our country safe because the Pres would be immune from bribes. He must be turning over in his grave... What trump has assembled in his cabinet are people who are incompetent, uncaring and money grabbing (despite their own wealth). Why spend their own money when they can grab from the gov? The hell with the people who will lose their health coverage and get crunched in the tax cuts. It is ironic that Perry looks stellar compared to Price, Pruitt and Mnunchin.
Trump is a man with no public service in his past- he avoided the service with 'bone spurs' and can't seem to remember which foot is was in. So, why should we be surprised by his lack of empathy, sympathy and feeling? Many of the people who voted for him will eventually be the oneswho lose their health coverage and money. I just wonder how long it will take before they wake up?
This is a scandal ridden administration and we are only months into it. Trump has pushed us to the brink of war through his own incompetence and brashness. Getting into a war of insults with Kim Jong un is the ultimate act of stupidity. This is not his real estate business where he can insult and bully his staff or competitors.
As they say in the west, it's time to change horses.
10
It's not only the Administration, but its Congressional enablers (and sometimes leaders) who are responsible for the "get it while you can and to hell with the rules." Just ask Supreme Court Justice Garland.
What does the acronym GOP stand for? I pondered that and came up with three possibilities: (1) Greedy Old Plutocrats; this is certainly true of the only base that party officials really show allegiance to. (2) Gratuitously Obfuscating Prevaricators; "fake news" is the Big Lie taken to new, soaring levels. (3) Grandiose Opponents of Principles; there's not an ethical or moral bone in any of their bodies. Of the three possibilities, the answer that emerged is a fourth: (4) All of the Above.
4
What a sad joke on the American public. Where's the Republican outrage? The Republican Party the party of hypocrisy and fakery. The Republican Party the party of I've got mine and the hell with you. The Republican Party the party of racial dog whistles. The Trump administration is the culmination of the Republican Party's crazy talk (which includes Fox News) for the last twenty years.
20
Where to begin?
President Warren G. Harding must be laughing in his grave. He will FINALLY be displaced as the most corrupt President ever to sit in the Oval Office.
Price wants to pay a commercial fare price for his use of private jets. That is about the same as offering to spring for the price of a Greyhound bus ticket from Washington DC to Georgia when he went by Uber. After all, he used the whiole private jet. It never would have flown except that he asked for it. The man is a multimillionaire who is sucking at the government teat. Make him pay the ENTIRE COST and then fire him. He can keep his apology, because it is not accepted.
Mnuchin is another multimillionaire who is using the government as his own private enterprise. Nobody should wonder why. He has a mentor in Donald Trump, and Trump's family. They have been spending public money for their own personal benefit.
When Harry S Truman left the Presidency, he drove himself home to Missouri using his personal auto, without any Secret Service protection, at his own expense.
Donald Trump and his administration constitute a lesson in how NOT to behave as a public servant.
18
Trump and his pals who control the Republican Party are out to fill their pockets at tax payer expense. Trump's blind followers cannot see what chumps they are.
10
Since republicans are now the party of hypocrisy, traitors and thieves, they should change their name from.. republicans to "The hypocrites".
Pruitt, Pence, Price, Pai, should be changing the stationary and business cards by now.
6
Well, Trump supporters, are you still crying "Drain the swamp!" "Repeal and replace (on day one)!" "Build that wall!" "Lock her up!"?
Why not? And, by the way, are you all "tired of winning" yet?
7
........An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice......
from Bob Dylan's Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues
4
"potential" violation?!
Stop mincing words! It would be a glaring, blatant violation of federal law!
You all wrote this:
"Personal emails are not illegal per se, as long as those about government business are forwarded to government accounts.
Failure to do that is a potential violation of the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act, which preserve public access to government documents."
But the Editorial Board members and all readers should read this:
"Kushner’s use of personal email is no minor error"
by Eisen and Weismann of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
He's a senior fellow at Brookings, chairman of the Citizens organization, and a former chief White House ethics lawyer.
She's the Freedom of Information counsel for the organization.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kushners-use-of-personal-email-i...
7
Flying private aircraft '"to learn from the heroes on the front lines” of the opioid crisis — all while pushing for a replacement of the Affordable Care Act that would drain billions from Medicaid and addiction treatment.'
Yes, they are truly deplorable!
10
This editorial board opinion piece sums up again the unethical and illegal practices of Mr. Trump and his cronies. So, when is the New York Times going to stick out its neck and call for the immediate removal of Trump & Co. from office? We, the people, are so sick and tired of the daily insults and lies that come out of this WH. We simply can't continue to go on like this for much longer.
9
I want to sue them ALL!
5
Trump's cabinet is like Ali Baba and his 40 thieves. What made us think that it would behave any differently? When the Ali Baba in the WH starts collecting money from all and sundry, with a wink and nod, what do you think his minions would do? And then Price, Pruit and Mnuchin are old hands at these games. Like vultures, they can smell blood from afar. Didn't the doubling of membership initiation fee to Mar-A-Lago Club, overnight from $100,000 to $200,000, load the air with heavy smell of blood? Price, Pruit and Mnuchin are showcasing only the opening scenes of the Trumpian full feature movie. Wait until the last scenes when the Con Men of this version two Sting movie clean out every pocket in sight.
6
It's time to "Lock Him Up"!
It's time to invalidate the results of a tainted, stolen election, as Kenya has done.
Our nation's future depends on doing both of these things, quickly!
6
I recall reading rabid criticism of Democratic "corruption" in previous Times forums. But when their own prove to be so breathtakingly corrupt that their malfeasance dwarfs anything the Dems have ever done, Republicans say nothing.
Where are the hordes of GOP complainers now? Why is it all right for your elected officials to rob US taxpayers blind?
The majority of Americans didn't vote for these criminals. You Republicans put them in office. Get them out, unless you want to go to the poorhouse with everyone else who doesn't belong to the one percent.
7
Ask any Trump voter if they found out an Obama official had done anything these people had done and they would scream to high heaven to fire them. Now, dead silence. Hypocracy much?
The new american dream, to become a member of the "cheater class". The point where you can lie, cheat, and steal without being subject to the consequences that everyone else would be for doing the exact same things. Immunity is the new wealth.
8
I think "kleptocracy" is the word that you were thinking of..,
Yes, Trump and his family and well-placed friends have indeed turned us into a kleptocracy.
7
So what's the difference between an attempted robbery and an attempted defrauding of the government? Someone please explain why a cabinet officer can put the money back in the drawer and get away with it while a bank robber can't?
14
And only a tiny fraction of the money at that - far less than 10%, if you add the cost of the military flights overseas.
4
Because he said he was sorry to be so 'insensitive', OK?
I'm a W-2 worker. I have scraped and clawed and sacrificed to hold the job I have now, which puts me in a high tax bracket. While my income is high, my "wealth" is just a seedling, as I am part of the sandwich generation: supporting my elderly mother while simultaneously supporting my minor children; paying back my own student loans while simultaneously trying to save for my kids' college (my income likely disqualifies them from financial aid). In other words, I'm sure not living the high life, driving my Buick and wearing my Target clothes. But I'm being taxed like the yachting, socialite class SHOULD be taxed - but isn't - because their "income" is from "wealth," read, investments, whose gains are taxed at less than half the rate I pay.
(And before people pile on, yes, I've "checked my privilege," and I thank G-d every day for what I have).
Today, I read the paper to see that I have worked SO HARD in order to pay for barely-taxed multi-millionaires to joy-ride on private jets. Not to mention billionaire Mnuchin joy-riding on government aircraft.
Meanwhile, my countrymen and women are living in fear of dying a preventable death if they loose the ACA at the hands of ideologues in Congress who have guaranteed premium health insurance for life.
What the heck?
18
I'll tell you what the heck. Every calamity is relived twice, once as tragedy, then as farce.
Here's the tragedy preceding our current farce: In the post-civil war period, Social Darwinism was born when poor workers & immigrants agreed with wealthy industrialists that the "gospel of wealth" would be our national creed (put another way, "greed our creed"): so long as the poor could enact, or attempt to enact, the Horatio Alger story -individual advancement by intelligence, pluck, & a healthy dose of conformity & submission- without rigid class obstacles. As long as opportunity "formally" existed, the winners wouldn't be begrudged their loot, & losers agreed not to be sore ones (including by over-scrutinizing the traits most often rewarded: "pragmatism" was their benign catch-all terminology). "Anybody could make it." That gave us the Gilded Age & the mythology of the "American Dream."
Gilded Age II: Post WWII to the present: The Greed-Creed revamped Social Darwinist post-morality by reconstituting Marx's "money drives everything, all else being facade, pretense, 'superstructure'" dogma into neoclassical, "rational choice theory" doctrine that became the core of neoconservatism: "Marxism for the rich," eschewing 'morality' & 'fairness' as illusions based on envy or unwarranted guilt feelings. "Greed is good."
In both settings, getting as rich as you can, even at others' expense, is the highest public service, the ultimate virtue. Donating a hospital is your official crown.
Welcome to Feudalism.
"But I'm being taxed like the yachting, socialite class SHOULD be taxed - but isn't - because their "income" is from "wealth," read, investments, whose gains are taxed at less than half the rate I pay. "
There are precious few ethical public servants remaining these days. And the vast majority of Americans couldn't care less. Sad!
2
It's beyond comprehension that anyone ever took anything DJT said at face value. He's been lying in plain sight, publicly, in the open for the past 50+ years...
6
4000 lawsuits and 6 bankruptcies emanating from The Trump Organization: what were the voters expecting?
9
Let's face it. Trump has had a long-standing love affair with dictators and Russian oligarchs. He has no shame in exploiting the presidency and the American taxpayers as long as they fatten his, his family's, and his cronies' bank accounts. Putin must be proud of the way Trump has appointed unfit, inexperienced, and ruthless billionaires to head up the agencies that form the very core of our American democracy. Why are we surprised when this band of rogues is employing unscrupulous and unethical practices for their own benefit? As long as Trump is in office, we can expect more of the same unconscionable behavior from these hypocrites who are the first to call out a single mother for being on welfare. Well, Mr. Price, Mr. Pruitt, and Mr. Mnuchin...taking chartered airplanes at the government's and taxpayer's expense is welfare, too! And let's not even talk entitlements!! You have all become the poster children for those who truly believe they are entitled. Trump needs to come clean about draining the swamp...he just wanted to drain it so he could fill it with his own brand of creatures.
6
"Hands on lecture" will do nothing. trump and cronies need to be called out and then sent out, starting with impeachment of the donald. The wheels of karma are turning and now is the time to step on the brakes and for donald and his stooges to sow what they have reaped.
4
Oh, and let's not forget Ryan Zinke, Interior Secretary, who is so important he needs to spend $12,000 on a flight to Montana and use military planes as well. We will be lucky if all these grifters haven't drained the entire US Government of money before they leave.
6
Why on earth would Scott Pruitt need a "secure phone booth" in his office? To prevent the FBI or Mueller from listening in?
10
If I had been a patient of Dr. Price I would be wondering how badly did my wallet get skinned? Not if he did, but how badly did he defraud my insurance carrier? Price may be a licensed doctor, but his specialty is removing the wallets of taxpayers.
9
As a career government employee I am appalled by the lack of understanding of the role of a "public servant." Most of the career public employees I know went into government because they were inspired by John F. Kennedy, or Barack Obama or another figure to make a difference in the world. Most of us have have been paid far less than we would have made in the private sector, but we wanted to be rewarded in other ways. Officials like Mnuchin, Price, and the entire Trump team leave a stain on the government that will be hard to erase.
10
Don't Mr. Price and other members of the Trump Administration claim to be good, if not saintly, Christians? Perhaps they're just applying the precept "God helps those who help themselves".
9
Perhaps this is all part of Trump's determination to upend and counter everything President Obama did. Trump is all drama all the time. In 8 months, there have already been so many scandals in the Trump White House that its hard to keep track of them all. By contrast, President Obama operated on the No Drama Obama precept. In 8 years as president, his administration was free of any corruption scandals other than Clinton's emails.
7
Don't forget how so much of this was made possible by the SCOTUS decisions in Citizen's United and the freeing of the big $ into politics. Money does not equal speech, it means we get politicians who are bought and paid for.
10
Why is everything about Trump? What about our Senators and Congress men and women who are failing to share their thoughts about the inflammatory, provocative, and dangerous rhetoric occurring between Trump and "Rocket Man." Don't they have opinions, concerns, reactions? If they support the rhetoric, they should speak up. If not, don't be silent. The world needs the United States Congress to take a clear and concise position on this issue.
9
Why you ask?
Maybe because we know full well that there are congressmen and
senators who also find ways to abuse taxpayer monies for personal
reasons.
For any one of them who knows they're guilty, yet have gotten away
with it, to call out Trump; Price; Mnuchin, or anyone else in his cabinet
would expose them as more than hypocrites.
Price will simply claim this as an un-reimbursed employee expense on his taxes - and reduce his tax bill ... so no matter what - public still pays.
6
If they wish to use private stuff - personal e-mail accounts, private charter jets - they should get out of their "public service" jobs and go back to their private, for-profit businesses. Government service has no place for this kind of self-serving malfeasance.
8
Ironically, if you surreptitiously used private jets for personal purposes as an company employee you'd probably be fired.
In the end it means absolutely nothing to the 32% who think Donald is the second coming. Anything he does is fine with them.
5
the republicans put trump in power with only 304 votes. to get those 304 votes they prevented HUNDREDS of thousands of legal voters from casting their votes in states where trump "won" by only tens of thousands. that's the scandal. that's the elephant in the room.
8
For all Americans, including but not limited to those who voted for Mr. Trump, serious accountability will require that the news media pay close attention to what transpires under this Administration in the context of what Trump's campaign originally promised.
Such monitoring, distillation and reportage must be mercilessly persistent. Those who believed that the autocrat who promised to drain the swamp of self-dealing corruption need constant reminding that the swamp seems to have been replaced by a fetid cesspool.
This seems the least the press can do in light of its woeful shortcomings during the presidential campaign. By walking on its own bed of hot coal, news outlets can hold the Trump Administration's feet to the fire.
4
All US government employees except for the US President should be required to travel between cities using cabin class coach air fare, coach seating rail, or personally owned vehicle with no exceptions and comply with the Government employee Per-Diem reimbursement limits for food, hotels, POV, and other expenses.
Government employees should not expect US taxpayers to support their extravagant lifestyles.
How much tax dollars does US Taxpayers need to spend to support these silly elected and appointed officials each year?
5
Tom Price ordered those private jet charters. Therefore, he is responsible for the TOTAL COST to the taxpayer, not just his one seat on each plane. It was Tom Price who ordered the jet service, not his staff. Therefore, Tom Price must cough up the entire amount $400,000+ out of his own pocket. His attempt to push off the balance of the cost on the US Taxpayer is a fraudulent contrivance.
7
The "Email scandal" and swamp mentality of Washington helped elect Trump. The fact so many of Trumps family and officials, act as if no rules or laws apply to them, makes me wonder what other rules and laws have they already broken since taking control of the government?
4
Trump has been alive for over 70 years and he has never kept a promise, he is not going to start now! All he care about is that you believe what he says, what he says doesn't matter, especially to him as long as it is believable. He is the king of "double talk". The other day he said " I am very busy, I have a lot of time an my hands, I can do many things". What does that mean, nothing, but it sounds good?
4
It meant nothing because he contradicted himself in one statement. You cant both be very busy and have a lot of time on your hands. By definition, they are mutually exclusive.
People keep saying that the end of the estate tax will save Donald Trump a billion dollars. WRONG!
Actually, the number (if you accept his self-proclaimed worth of $10 Billion) is $4 Billion.
$4,000,000,000.00.
That is based on a tax rate of 40% applied to the amount over the personal exclusion of $5,500,000, or $11,000,000 per couple. So do the math for yourself. Trump would save about $4 Billion dollars in tax.
He says GE does not benefit under his tax proposal. If you believe that, then I am the King of Siam, and I will sell you a pair of bridges that connect Brooklyn and Manhattan for small money.
5
Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Gary Cohn?
Lock Them Up!
Lock Them Up!
Lock Them Up!
Let's keep the Trump train going, just like during the campaign.
Yeah, that will really happen, the swamp is filling faster than we imagined.
Oh, and will the President offer to donate his proposed $1B tax refund.
6
You forgot Conway, Price and Pruitt
3
Trump is a world class con artist and the American people are the latest victims of the Trump university model to enrich himself and family. White supremacist and those whites who feel threatened by the browning of America are only to happy to buy into the racist hype Trump fosters to his political advantage. Trump and his millionaire and billionaire cronies will get huge tax cuts, deregulation and all the best deals possible at his hotel down the block and the mara a lago white house pay to play. Trump's base of supporters will not get affordable health care, great factory jobs or white preference in society as they are conned into believing. Senator Moore will end abortion ,criminalize gays and allow law enforcement and straight white christian men to stand their ground and fire away at brown folks who might take their jobs and daughters back to 1950 segregation supported by that old cracker Sessions. It will not last too long facys and demographics will prevail over that carnival barker and his bombastic self serving lies. A fish rots from the head as the mooch put it so well the stench is getting unbearable.
3
Trump's Cabinet of Dunces were filled by him. Sure, he had lots of help from other Right Wing nut jobs, but it was Trump who anointed them, praised them, dubbed them the best and brightest people he promised he would bring to government to "clean up the swamp". Who was gullible and stupid enough to believe that hogwash? Millions, that's who. And now they're getting exactly what they deserve, good and hard.
DD
Manhattan
5
Mr. Trump earned, yes earned, his money in the rough and tumble of private industry.
You have convenient amnesia for the multiplicity of, slobs, liar, thieves. criminals and cronies appointed, aided and lauded by Barack and Michelle Obama.
How democratic party of you!
Can you possibly even name three of these people???
6
Yep, he earned that money by stiffing his workers, contrators and investors in SIX bankruptcies. He cant get any loans from American banks because of his record. He got much of his funding from corrupt Russian oligaghs and Mafia figures, which opens him up to undue influence by them. I dont count that as a record of a successful businessman. He futher displayed his "smarts" by using every loophole his tax attorneys could find to avoid paying taxes then hypocritically claims he wont benefit from the current Welfare for the Wealthy plan.
5
I hate to be singing Trump's refrain but, "lock them up!" seems like the right thing to do. That includes the president who is using his office to enrich his business. The swamp isn't being drained, it's being flooded with more filth.
4
Trump and his tribe are acting as a truth serum.
They are proving the GOP stands for nothing anymore than greed and racism while protecting Russian subversion.
4
I absolutely cannot fathom how even with this clear incompetence, failure to lead and total lack of appropriate skillset to serve even on a city council, that roughly half the country still disagrees that Trump is unfit to serve as president. This guy is worse than Anthony Wiener!
1
So corrupt. So completely corrupt. And incompetent. This is truly ugly stuff. To save taxpayers money, they want to cut off healthcare for millions. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
4
Mr Kelly is having no sway over these people. How could he? They are the ones who've never or rarely had no said to them. Just rolls off their backs like water on a duck.
2
The only control the CoS has over Cabinet members is to control their access to the president. He does not have any oversight of their agencies. Now who he should come down hard on and fire is anyone in the WH who has any role in approving these abuses.
he never intended to "drain the swamp," he always intended to augment his "brand," create a dynasty for his heirs, and enrich himself beyond our wildest dreams. he's a snake oil salesman, and he used the *exact same phrasing*: "this elixir will cure ALL your ills - just watch me as I ride out of town on your hard-earned dollars." the only "ill" he's curing is his insatiable need for more money, more adulation, and more license to rip us off.
6
If the swamp gets any deeper they're going to need amphibious planes.
3
I think the Middle Class Miracle, Donald Trump was referring to, is that the we in the Middle Class are footing the bill for Trump Admiration to rape the country to fill their own pockets more than they ever dreamed was possible.
2
Sadly, Trump will just call this #FakeNews on Twitter and his sheep followers will believe him. This is a brave new world, no doubt, where America is being tested to its absolute limit and where anger is boiling - on both sides. Hang on America.
2
The double standards in the Trump administration astound me. They spoke on the campaign trail of draining the swamp but once in office it did not take long for them to become alligators in the swamp. Cant wait four years to vote them out of office
1
Fire Price and the indite him for insider trading. He should be dealt with like any other citizen. It now appears that the president is up to his ears in swamp water.
2
It is not at all surprising to see all the latest revelations of corruption amongst members of tRump's team ; he himself is the most corrupt president our country has ever had . During the primary and general election campaigns tRump himself revealed to the public how he used his numerous bankruptcies to his personal advantage and ultimately stiffed hundreds of private contractors in the process . He said that he was so "smart" in his avoidance of paying federal taxes . He refused to offer his tax returns , lying about his inability to do so because he was under audit by the IRS , but that he would surely do so later
Not much later Kellyanne Conway was telling the nation that the public wasn't really interested in those returns ( really ! ). He has used the presidency , as has his family and inner circle for financial gain in the crudest of ways . tRump is a true grifter , so corrupt and bold about it that he brags about it to us . Surely the culture within his administration is totally tainted by corruption and self-service ; it comes naturally to all these folks - it's what they've done and been used to all of their lives . His Cabinet is replete with ex-Goldman Sachs bankers who are accustomed to the very good life paid for by the public .
Can you just imagine the nerve of Mnuchin , seeking to have his honeymoon flight paid for by the public ? What's the origin of this corrupt culture in the White House ? Get out , Grifter , and take the swine with you !
1
In a mere eight short months this "administration' has already proven itself to be, hands-down, the most corrupt and incompetent "administration" of our lifetimes. Nothing else even comes close.
3
If Trump were really concerned about Puerto Rico, he would make his private 757 and helicopters available.
He could also make AF 2 & 3 available.
Where are they today?
IF he cared...
2
Quite honestly, all these lapses - to put it mildly - don't surprise me. Still, the hypocrisy from Congress and his followers is just nauseating
6
Apparently the press wanted The Con Don to destroy himself when they let him call in to television shows, talked about his twitters, covered his "election rallies" and promoted his name 24/7 in every major media outlet. They seemed to think people would find him, his beliefs and his actions so outrageous that no one would vote for him. They were dead wrong.
Michael Lewis has said he was astounded at how many young men decided to get jobs on Wall Street after he wrote "Liar's Poker" and unmasked the corrupt practices, backstabbing and stink of the brokerage he worked at. He meant to show people how bad it was but those who would rather steal than do an honest day's work used it as a learning tool.
We can bet our lives that people who do not want to work but want money will run to be a politician and join the Robber Baron crowd. WE had better wake up and make sure they aren't elected.
The Con Don, "his generals" and their Robber Baron paymasters want WW3. Watch Ken Burns' documentary on PBS about the Vietnam war to be reminded of the horrors of war and the damage done by the corrupt Nixon republican administration. Do you want that again? Do you want WWII and Hitler again?
No, neither do I. WE THE PEOPLE, all of us working together, are the only ones who can stop them and NOW is the time.
22
Keep it coming NY Times, no matter how much uglier it gets — and it will get much uglier.
Gen. Kelly is an honorable man, but essentially Don Quixote jousting with windmills.
Three years to go discounting the mid-term elections which despite the growing furor will not change the perverse travesty of the Trump presidency or his hapless administration a bit.
This could well be America’s Dark Night of the Soul.
11
Americans managed to elect a shameless conman as president. Everything he has said and he continues to utter is some version of a series of lies. It's appalling that so many people were taken by his obvious sales pitch of lies. Then again, the majority of us did not vote for him. And the Russians did hack our election. The election was not legitimate, but the conman continues to act in his own interests, trying to enrich himself and line his pocket using his ill-gotten position, and we're now face a real existential danger.
With all the unprecedented natural and manmade disasters that happened since November 8, I feel like I'm watching a Shakespearean tragedy where one terrible wrong unravels the order of the world, except I'm in it and it's real. We need to correct the wrong, Donald Trump.
16
This is a 3rd world despot government run by rich folks who are grabbing all that they can before running to the hills to avoid being impacted by the changes rolling in on the 21st Century: 1) the disruption of labor by advancing technology; 2) the disruption of whole industries by advancing technology; 3) the disruption and potential for cascading collapse of our whole economic model as a result of the above and the following; 4) Global Warming; 5) Globalization; 6) the rise of China and the far east.
It's not a government. It's a self service grab bag; an inevitable result of 40 years of sanctimonious, self righteous, self serving GOP policy and doctrine.
20
Is there any way to impeach the cabinet along with the felonious president and Vice President before there is nothing left in the Treasury, all out protections have been destroyed and we are relegated to a third world country?
This is the biggest gang of robber barons ever assembled in our history. They are stealing us blind.
How can we get rid of them?
22
Yes, all civil officers of the US can be impeached, including Cabinet officers, judges and Congressmen. The fact that there have been only 19 in the entire history of the country shows you how difficult it is. Only one cabinet person has been impeached in 1876, and he resigned before he was convicted by the Senate. Do you really thing this Congress has the guts to impeach anyone who used to belong to their club? All they will do is shake their fingers at them.
Mr. Trump’s idea of public service owes an enormous debt to the concept of service as it is practiced in the barnyard.
12
Since many Trump supporters get all riled up about welfare cheats, I sure hope they are equally or more riled up about Trump and his wealthy cabinet members' rip off of taxpayer dollars for their lavish travel arrangements.
13
General Kelly is kabuki theater, a partisan hack put in place to lend false legitimacy to the Trump presidency, a retired military commander waiting for his master to make him an oligarch. It this were not true, he would resign immediately in shame of the theft of taxpayer dollars happening all around him. A true patriot would never stand for this. Disgraceful.
15
I never thought of Gen Kelly in that role, kabuki theatre. But you are right, if he really is for the people whom he fought for while in the military and not himself, he would definitely resign; a man with ethics would never stand with people like that. I think it would open the door for impeachment of trump.
You are kidding right? You expect Trump to suddenly find ethics now that he's president? The same guy who bilked millions from unsuspecting people through Trump University, shorted and sued contractors, stiffed workers and creditors, is not suddenly going to become ethical. We may as well hope that unicorns will start dancing across our lawns.
12
And sadly, amidst all the sound and fury, Trump remains as popular as even among his base of deplorables, White supremacists, and assorted evangelical fanatics. Nothing he, or his minions do, can or will change that fact.
11
As long as the base deplorables are able to do what they want, they don't care. He's given the carte blanche to pursue their agenda.
Hilarity ensues when Trump complains about Price's plutocratic ways on the government dime (dole for multimillionaires, that is). Who is it that has broken the Secret Service budget with his and his family's jet-setting ways? Drain the swamp? He is the swamp.
11
Haven't we learned by now that everything that Trump and the GOP say is never the truth but always a raft of despicable lies to justify what they want. Their goal is to dismantle government, live the good life while "serving" and line their pockets and those of their wealthy friends. They have zero interest in serving the regular American people and no integrity.
It is best to take every single statement and promise and translate it to the polar opposite. This Administration is way more than a Swamp.
9
We were hoping that once Trump was elected, he would stop the campaign hyperbole, be fair, act Presidential, "drain the swamp", help the middle class and prove the naysayers wrong. Oh lordy, lordy!
1
The billionaire class in this country needs to be reigned in. In order to do this it will require the outrage of all Americans. Trump supporters, progressives, and moderates. Simply put, if the people allow themselves to be continually divided, there will never be an end to to the corruption that is now common place. Stop fighting among yourselves and realize all of us no matter our political leanings have a common enemy. The oligarchs don't care for any of us. Wise up!
13
Thank you for using the platform of a NY Times Editorial by the Editorial Board itself to summarize these abuses. However, how anyone is the least bit surprised by this behavior amazes me. It was always as clear as the nose on DJT's face that he had no intention whatsoever of draining any swamp, and every intention of behaving exactly as outlined in your article whilst surrounding himself with sycophants eager to follow his lead. "The fish rots from the head down" (as Anthony Scaramucci's grandmother undoubtedly said...)
3
Compared with this guy, Warren Harding's ghost emerges as a paragon of rectitude.
6
Trump and his cabinet exhibit the lowest form of morality, which is "wrong" is if you get caught. Take Dr. Price for example. Price charged the government over $400,000 for his use of private jets to get him where he wanted to go.
Politico caught Price with his hands in the people's money jar. Whoops! Dr. Price is very sorry--for what? Ripping off the taxpayers for his lavish lifestyle, or for getting caught? However, Dr. Price says he will make good on his mistake and will pay the government back $52,000. Now, if you and I took private jets for work related activities and charged it to our employer, what would our employer do? Let us pay back 13%?
Personally I would love to see Dr. Price flying coach class for every government trip he takes, and by the way, put him in the middle seat in the last row of the plane near the bathrooms.
Let's hear more about Dr. Price's and the other double-dealing cabinet member's background. How does an orthopedic surgeon make multimilllions--drug kickbacks? conflict-of-interest investments? If he is ripping off the government now, you better belief he has had plenty of practice before Trump made him Secretary of Health and Human Service.
What an arrogant bunch Trump and his cabinet are! We need to remind this ruthless, self-serving rich swamp dwellers every day that they are our public servants.
7
'But wait, there's more'. Love the parody - the kind of verbiage used in those post midnight come-on-buy-now tv ads. It's the essence of Trump's unending spiel of spew that whips up his gullible base. Keep 'em entertained. Whip 'em into a frenzy of thoughtlessness. They'll buy my stuff no matter the cost to themselves.
4
you see, the problem is, the rich have a different mentality about money then the rest of us. The rich can never have enough of it, and the more they have the more they want, and they hoard what they. When the rich look at their money they always want to see the total growing, always addition never subtracting. The rich also have a theory that nothing involving money is illegal as long as you never get caught, they also know if they do get caught nothing will happen to them as long as they know the right people and have greased the wheels of justice properly beforehand.
in summation: put the rich in a situation in which they have access to the taxpayers money as well as the clout of being in charge of just about everything involving finance and rules of governance and they, being the pigs that they are are sure to feed till the inevitable happens. They are addicted to money, and like most addicts they are the last to know just how sick they really are.
4
The Trump gang believes that the rules don't apply to them. They bully or buy their way out of problems like dough boy Tom Price reimbursing the government $52,000 for $400,000 worth of private jets trips. Price says that the $52,000 is paying for his seat, but this was a private jet and who else was on the plane. He owes $400,000 to the government. Dr. Tommy Price is playing the old hypocritical Republican game of Democrats are no good, but we can do anything we like. Again, the gang only has lame excuses for their actions and will and have taken advantage of anything they think they can get away with. Finally, if you elect a clown president, the circus will follow.
6
For most New York city residents all of this behavior by Trump and his cabinet, family and assistants is no surprise. We knew him for the conman, bigot, money launderer & thief that he is.
The question now is for how long and what will it take for the 35% of our fellow Americans that continue to support him to withdraw that support and call their elected officials to communicate their disgust.
I fear that these fellow Americans feel invested in DJT and would rather excuse all of his behavior regardless of the evidence and facts and will never face reality.
6
When the children misbehave, you call in he parents, not the grocery store clerk. The fault dear editors lies not in our (3) stars (general), but in our self-serving Congress, more specifically the GOP portion of it. They swore to uphold the Constitution and their failure to do that has been catastrophic for the nation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, but apparently they don't. Kelly is a hired hand, the rest are electe by the people +TO SERVE. If they cannot serve, then their control of the nation must be severed by any and all lawful means.
4th estate, do your job.
5
If the administration drains the swamp, they will be no one left. It has been clear from day one that Trump, his cabinet and advisors are all self-serving hypocrites.
Everything they do serves them and their billionaire friends and family.
4
One of the tragedies here is how many voters and followers continue to blindly follow POTUS and his administration like lemmings to the Pied Piper.
I would ask them to challenge their facts against the values and morals of our country and see if it comports to reality.
4
Misters Price, Mnuchin, and Pruitt, we the hardworking taxpayers of America, demand your immediate resignation and the full reimbursement (not just a measly "portion") of the costs of all non-commerical and military flights that you chartered.
A little jail time for defrauding the american people would be satisfying too.
7
I'm a physician and have met physician-turned-politician televangelist Price clones over the years and they're mostly the same money-grubbing narcisists of the Trump model.
Speed talking muddles of infomercial nonsense (play back something he says in slow motion and really listen to it sometime) plying on the 'I'm a doctor' nonsense to lend credibility having nothing to do with healthcare.
Get out of jail free worse than insider trading nonsense (so long as you're a Republican that is), with all the gov perks you can steal.
People should take a REAL close look at why the health profession is so expensive in addition to drug costs, etc. with Price as a model of physician behavior - do you really think he's that much of an outlier? If you don't like what you see perhaps you should wonder about the cost gouging that perhaps goes on in his former practice (and many many others) as well. Like unnecessary procedures?
You see - we in medicine hardly police our own - at all - unless someone dies and lawyers get involved. But if things this obvious can't get fixed then fixing healthcare costs is truly impossible. The physician's pen (now an EMS) still remains one of the most expensive things in healthcare.
3
What has been lost in the last year or so is a collective sense of shame. Lying, stealing, cheating, bribing: no problem.
Until recently these activities have sought cover. Under Trump's leadership they have become art forms. This is where the buck, literally and figuratively, both stops and begins.
3
It seems a bit naïve to believe one can "drain the swamp" in Washington. If we've learned anything in our 200 plus years it is that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" as the saying goes. There will always be a swamp and "swamp dwellers". What we now seem to have is a swamp that has removed the varsity team and replaced it with the junior varsity's second string. I'm sure there may be some very capable people in this particularly swampy swamp (after all Michael Jordan was cut from his JV team) - but it takes time to figure one's way around this very unforgiving system. If there are no mentors left point out the potholes then private planes and private servers will be part of a very steep learning curve.
Where are the accountants? Our state government has a layered defense against expense abuse. There's no way this sort of misconduct could fly at the capitol building. A legislator might steal some lunches for the interns or bill an Über on the government card. Golf clubs, private jets and honeymoons though? The entire state purchasing department would get fired along with the bean counters that backed them. President or no president, the administration's behavior is the bureaucratic equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Where is the red tape?
3
Moderate, main-stream, 'responsible' officials and journalists sold Gen. Kelly as the Hercules of this sad, swampy saga, sweeping through the stables to restore dignity and responsibility to the institutions Trump has corrupted. But how do you drain the swamp when you're up to your eyelashes in it? This week we saw a supposedly unimpeachable supreme court justice gratefully pad the balance sheets of both the president and the senator who placed him on the bench. Pretty swampy.
I mean, this editorial is... nice. But Trump's corruption is not reported as news. Rather, the access journalists who could do the most to pop this bubble continue to tweet things like 'One thing Trump dislikes is waste,' as if there was ever a chance of Trump's words matching his conduct. Trump is off to his golf course for the eleventy-leventh time today as his camp followers on the legitimate stage continue to pretend this is all somehow going to normalize, as if we'll find out in third act that Trump has something important to say after all. But all Trump ever says is 'me, me, me, me, me.
2
Here we go again.The pro HRC anti Sander's crowd is blind still.Trump is a public servant in the sense that he is not in it like HRC for the money, who got rich from"public service".Price said it was wrong to use private jet flights and will reimburse the Treasury.There is a huge difference between what HRC did and what Jarred Kushner did.Do you see the difference?
1
Trump isn't in it for the money...really, thats your take on a man who has refused to go by the emoluments clause, divest himself, rake in huge profits from his hotels and clubs, strike new deal for trademarks in China, spend at least 100 Million- yes million off his golf outings . and then after not disclosing his taxes put forth a tax bill that will save his companies hundreds of million...really, he's in it for the people.
2
When Hillary Clinton said during the campaign that some of Trump's supporters made up a "basket of deplorables" I thought that might cost her the election because many of Trump's supporters were not deplorable. They were people who had been robbed of their jobs and income by the corporatists and wealthy Americans who were content to accept offshoring of jobs and allowing major corporations to hide their profits in overseas tax havens.
Now, we've had the opportunity to see what Trump would do as president, precisely choosing wealthy oligarchs for cabinet posts. I believe Hillary's statement was a little premature and misinformed. The real basket of deplorables supporting Trump are mostly in his cabinet.
These cabinet secretaries were chosen for one purpose, to enrich themselves and other wealthy individuals by destroying the government agencies they were chosen to run, allowing deregulation on a major scale, which is also turning our democracy into a growing oligarchy. Incidentally, that was financed by America's oligarchs through Citizens United.
Did we get what we deserved as a nation? I think not. It wasn't until Trump took office that we learned who the real basket of deplorables were.
3
I had a Trump supporter tell me he was keeping his promise to drain the swamp.
Apparently, they think these appointments are ok.
A problem with vaguely defined abuses such as the use of personal email accounts for official business is where do you draw the line. For example, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has turned a blind eye to extensive use of personal email for official business by his appointees. If the press is going to highlight the White House's foibles along these lines, it seems only fair to ask whether other government executives are engaging in similar behavior and, if so, why they shouldn't also be included in this dragnet.
1
The idea that it is the Trump admin. that has somehow acted differently than others before it doesn't work. We've had these scandals before. Why there aren't firmer rules about what travel gov't workers can have paid for, what they can do to their offices, etc., is not a mystery - it's a known condition of humans. Given a chance, many people will simply take advantage of whatever system they are in in order to enrich themselves. I have seen it at any company I worked for and even friends and family. In fact, I have people tell me it is immoral not to milk the system (whichever system it is) or to play it in some fashion. Fortunately, not everyone does it.
September 29, 2017
As fast as Trump et al., drain the swamp he and his team fill it; but, at what projected results assuming he not out of office for his lack of presidential executive leadership. So he can't manger his own team and this is a deep wound on his abilities of ethics and allegiance to his voters and the oath of office. Either he runs his executive office or he must be force out on the street to move to his D.C. private complex.
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
1
So what does a country do when it is being run by a bunch of lying, self-serving men and women without a conscience?
With Trump, his cabinet, and the GOP, it's all about the money--specifically taxpayer money being transferred from the public sector to the private sector and to them personally. More GOP and right wing media well-funded hocus pocus trickle down economics and deregulation to aggrandize already wealthy individuals and powerful corporations--flagrant daily lies to take from the middle-class and poor to give to the rich.
How could Americans in good conscience do such a thing? Answer: Hirer the "right" business people, who have plenty of practice at double-dealing and little or no concern, even disdain, for the American people and this country.
Lots of millionaires and billionaires in Trump's pirates' den cabinet of "white" collar, well-dressed, living-high-on-the-hog, rip-off artists, who have no respect for the law or for the government positions they hold. What could possibly go wrong?
Because they have no conscience--and I suspect a variety of personality disorders within their ranks--they are completely lacking in self-awareness, concern for others, and they feel no shame or guilt. It is this kind of ruthlessness that likely got them where they are financially.
The Trump Administration and family is the fastest way in the world to "drown the government in the bathtub--the GOP's dream is coming true.
Be careful who you vote for in 2018 and 2020
2
I don't know if it will ever be possible to measure the permanent damage being done to our nation every day that this administration is allowed to openly flout the US Constitution. Trump is running his administration as a mafia boss in both the sense that he is directing his cabinet to create policies that are blatantly unconstitutional (immigration reform & militarization of police) and the sense that his family members are the ones sending out the marching orders. Why would any future president feel that it is necessary to be transparent in their tax returns, their business dealings, and their visitor logs after this presidency? Why would a future president have any incentive to be honest when compulsive lies are satisfying the voters? Why would anyone ever want to act in a bipartisan fashion when the GOP has successfully stolen a supreme court seat and accepted Russian influence in our democracy as a fair means to electoral victories? And exactly how does the electoral college serve our democracy in any constructive sense?
I truly believe that meddling in our democracy by the combined forces of Russian oligarchs, FoxNews, and the Republican Party has permanently crippled the legitimacy of our government and weakened our nation beyond measure in the eyes of every other country on Earth. And I don't see any effort to begin repairing the damage done.
5
In the category of self-dealing, how is the proposed elimination of the estate tax not the most grotesque form? A billionaire giving tax breaks worth -- at a minimum -- hundreds of millions to his children? That is self-enrichment, plain and simple. The estate tax hits only those whose assets exceed $11m; it thus already protects the middle class by exemption.
But Jared and Ivanka really need a few more hundred million from the federal treasury, while folks in Puerto Rico drown.
1
"Mr. Kushner seems to have a particular problem with official record keeping, having failed to list scores of assets on his government financial disclosure, and forgotten to include meetings with Russians on his security clearance form...."
And Jared was supposed to be the smart one!
I must have misunderstood when Trump said he would drain the swamp. I thought he meant AWAY from Washington.
Sounds like what Pruitt really needs is Get Smart's cone of silence.
Will entry into the EPA next require dialing a secret number in a phone booth hidden in a labyrinth-like corridor?
Shoe-phone anybody? Time for Pruitt to be 86'd.
So self-serving that I'm surprised the budget for the Federal prison system (their future home) hasn't increased dramatically.
2
Mr Trump assumes that the office is to serve him, rather than his accepting that he is an elected public officer who is to serve the people.
Mr Trump's self-serving attitude (with periodic rallies to boost his frail self-impression) sets the tone in his administration. Those closest to him follow in lockstep, believing that since it is okay for the President, then it is okay for them too, to loot the Government.
Mr Trump first of all must set an example. Stop the rallies. Stop staffing multiple homes with government security officers. Get to work. Stop claiming that he is working when he is golfing. Transparency of callers to his homes. And above all, release the tax returns.
2
I’m not worried in the slightest about the possibility of Price losing his slot at HHS. Trump has an endless stream of suitable replacements for him among his far-right supporters. Roy Moore, if he doesn’t get into the Senate, would do the job proud. As would Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Both men are highly regarded as mental health experts for their personal encounters with psychological abnormalities.
As luck would have it, O.J. is about to be released from prison after serving a nine year term for armed robbery. I see a really big future ahead for him in the Trump administration, partying and golfing down at Mar-a-Lago with the Prez, plus a big job in the Justice Department handling women’s rights issues and dealing with football players who won’t stand up for the national anthem.
Roy Moore, Sheriff Joe, O.J. and Trump making America great. Could anything be finer? These men all share a vision of the country that makes them ideal partners for each other. And working together as a team increases the chances that treatment for them may be more effective,
3
Was America founded on the principle of the separation of business and ethics?
1
And who is surprised by this? What campaign promises did his supporters fall for? Was it the promise to release his tax returns once the audit was completed? His promise to clean the swamp? How about the fact that he was so financially successful he wouldn't be owing anything to anybody? Only he could fix Washington? Health care would be cheaper and cover everybody? He could run the gov't and his business at the same time but would put his organization at arms length? What exactly was it Trumpers?
2
The White House cabinet has quickly learned an invaluable rule - its easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. This applies to email servers, private jets or private phone booths.
2
The White House is for sale. No time in recent history have we had a president and administration who don’t divest themselves of there personal financial holdings and expect to profit from them due to their position in the Government. There should be a law prohibiting this activity.
But wait - there is a law.
So why is it not being enforced?
3
I think it's time President Trump who campaigned on draining the swamp, better come clean about all the waste, fraud and abuse going on in this administration under his watch, before they start lining their pockets with another tax cut that will benefit them.
I think the American people have a right to know just how much money from the tax payers pockets and treasury are being spent on Cabinet members and Trump family members on private travel and where they are going.
I worked in the DOD for 32 years and couldn't accept anything from a private contractor for fear of conflict of interest, not even a donut and coffee. This administration in turning into a regular sleazy group of grifters that are acting like they are a bunch of entitled CEO's, rather than someone working in public service for the good of the country.
Just to put it in perspective, with their new tax proposal they raise the taxes on the people who least can afford it from 10% to 12%, while cutting the wealthiest highest bracket, as well as giving other tax cuts that will give them many more breaks.
All these tax cuts are being done while we have been in a foreign war on terror with troops and munitions that are being paid for by credit, this is not the time to be giving huge tax cuts to the wealthiest, we need to pay the bills for the last 15 years of bills racked up by our military commitment.
This is not just irresponsible, it borders on criminal.
178
" This administration in turning into a regular sleazy group of grifters that are acting like they are a bunch of entitled CEO's, rather than someone working in public service for the good of the country." I believe they were exactly that (grifters) before they went to work for the sleaziest presidential administration in modern history. Most of them were CEOs as well. Why do you think Trump would do anything? He's the worst of them all.
it IS criminal! Do something! Muller is good but not enough! We must march by the millions to Washington and demand that they all are fired! The cabinet are nothing bu
t croniesw who want to destroy everything while rapng the taxpayers without conscience. It is sickening!
1
@Chico re: "I think it's time President Trump [...] better come clean about all the waste [...]"
Just don't hold your breath. :-)
1
It's been clear for some time (to New Yorkers no doubt for much longer) that any relationship between what this president says, and what he does, is purely situational. Same for any commitment he might express to serve as president for any Americans beyond his rabid fan base. He seems hell-bent on clinging to that army of supporters who don't care if he lies, cheats, and uses government to enrich his own fortunes (including republicans who are now watching their party split at the seams and STILL proud of their new wardrobe). This often translates into self-serving tweets and speeches designed to drive wedges between Americans and assure members of his base that they're more patriotic, more American, and more deserving of first amendment rights than the disgusted, appalled and indifferent who comprise the electoral majority.
Trump will be undone by the press--the same press that collectively put him in office--at a time of Putin's, and his loan shark associates', choosing.
25
If you wrote a piece of fiction with the details and revelations of the last election and this administration under Donald Trump to date, you wouldn't sell a single copy because it would so outrageously defy credulity. Of late, I am starting to believe that I am actually no longer here - that I have actually died and gone to hell - the horribleness of every day occurrences with this government and Donald the Devil are so severe. And all the powers of sanity, normalcy and goodness brought to bear in opposition to the living hell that is Trump and his cohorts has had seemingly no effect. Feckless Congressional investigations seem to be producing nothing, except notoriety for their participants. Institutional protections, norms, precedents and practices are shoveled aside and buried by this administration. And that leaves only three hopes in my mind. Robert Mueller nails this monster in such a profound way that it is the rightful destruction of the Republicans and Trumpism for at least a generation, leave the country and renounce my citizenship or forcibly overthrow the government and start anew. Like I said, it seems like I am living in hell.
39
"Deja Vu all over again" - Yogi Berra. Or re title 1984 as 2017 and republish it. It will certainly be a best seller.
Rich, I share your pain. Unfortunately, Mueller won't make a difference. Overthrowing the Government is tempting, but the wing nuts have lots of guns and know how to use them. The only realistic option is to renounce American citizenship and join the ranks of world refugees. Sydney or Toronto would be nice destinations.
You *all* own this. American citizens have been were asleep at the wheel for decades, and were content.
No excuses, I Didn't Vote For Him. You are all complicit in allowing your system to elect him and his minions from hell. You made no real effort to change your system or your society.
The rest of the world will pay the price. You think 'your' price is high?
I can't read or watch anymore. I am sick of it, and have wasted too much of my life watching from the sidelines.
144
Boy, ain't it easy to point out mistakes from "the sidelines"?
2
I guess it's easy to say from a safe seat in Vancouver. Those of us who are here, also did not vote for him and are appalled each and everyday by what is taking place; what is destroying our country.
The majority didn't vote for him, lest you forget; the electoral collage made this happen.
1
I understand your anger, and your rage, and your sense (I'm assuming) of impotence as regard the current administration and the conman at the helm.
AND
I'm sure there are many, like myself, who have NOT been asleep at the wheel.
What, exactly, do you propose we do?
Because if you don't have a specific answer... well, neither do we.
I live in a city that voted strongly against this individual, and this party, for decades. I write letters. I check off boxes on emails (a fool's errand thought it may be) And what did it bring us?
Yes, I feel impotent.
Yes, I know it is everyone in this nation where I live that must make the changes.
No, I don't have a clue as to what else to do.
I will, nevertheless, keep dropping my little droplets on the flames of this travesty.
2
He bleated hugely about Obama's golfing vacations. Now he, and his brood, are all over the place, golfing traveling, promoting themselves and what have you.
35
This paper was silent when Michelle Obama flew separate aircraft back from Hawaii every year where the President took one of his his annual three week vacations. Michelle needed 4 weeks because 3 wasn't enough for her. Added taxpayer costs....millions and millions of dollars. She is a democrat...now I get it.
3
no, it wasn't an extra of millions and millions. 8 separate one way flights across the us? if they hired people to carry her on their backs it wouldn't have cost that much. do you have any sense of objectivity at all?
3
Oh,please. Look it up.
Trump travel and SS detail have cost 10 times more than initially budgeted.
5
Oh yes. That makes it all fine then. Not like you or I will ever get a free ride.
And they had the nerve to call Hillary crooked?
34
To be fair, Trump has been draining the swamp. It's just that his goal was to replace the old swamp creatures with far uglier and more lethal and venemous swamp creatures - Trump cronies, Trump sycophants, Trump clan and, of course, the ugliest, vilest, most disgusting, most lethal, most self-dealing, most corrupt swamp creature ever, Trump himself
44
The Creatures from the Black Lagoon.
Trump lies about everything, the truth is not in him.
I once thought Bill Clinton was the most egregious liar ever to occupy the Presidency, but my goodness, even Slick Willy can't compare to Agent Orange from KAOS.
32
Let me the first to call it "Chartergate".
18
I think the Tibetans got it right when they traditionally would elect the wisest person in the country as their Dalai Lama leader. Whereas we, the richest and most militarized country in the world, elect the dumbest and the most corrupt.
31
Tell us, Vet, does that apply to Eisenhower too?
The Dalai Lama is not 'elected', nor is he a secular political leader. He is 'discovered' by other Lamas, who locate his next incarnation by some form of prophesy and augury.
No one who has paid any attention to trump and his sordid behavior over the years or even just during the campaign should be surprised by this. The Republicans knew exactly who they were getting and were willing to create a Faustian bargain with anyone who appeared willing to serve their dystopian ends. The more rational among them were hoping that the office would change the man while completely ignoring that the Nazi's, the KKK, white supremacists and assorted other bigots were celebrating the nomination of one of their own. They were also very willing to overlook (and it appears increasing likely) that trump was installed by the Russians as part of a plot to destroy our democracy. The Russians have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. Change does not come to a 70 year old man who has been rewarded for dubious and sordid behavior in the past. Especially one who has the mental illnesses that trump appears to have, mental illness which have no known successful treatments.
38
"... no one should be surprised by this" There's an almost breathless rush to confirm the legitimacy of journalism by highlighting Trump's minions chartering at public expense of jets for their exclusive weekends. People: He Did Not Release His Income Taxes for public viewing, and that goes back to well before the election that put Trump in office. He has Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Do we know if he's giving party girls to foreign officials there? Or just making a bit of money off the governments that send their people to Florida for vacations? That sort of digging hasn't been done yet. But anybody with an instinct for the news surely by now is afraid we've lost investigative journalism and the country is suffering for its lack.
Samantha powers takes the cake for private jet abuse. While UN ambassador she boasted about accomplishing her goal of traveling to ALL 189 UN mission countries...at taxpayer expense. And what about Eric holder...another abuser of govt jets for him and his family jaunts.
4
Must have missed that episode of the Limbaugh report.
1
maybe they should have used chartered jets at government expense....
Did she use chartered jets?
Trump in particular and the Republicans in general are the most brazen and shameless hypocrites. There is no boundary of propriety and decency they will not cross.
27
His promises look emptier by the day? How about by the minute?
Arrogant, narcissistic, total disregard for any norms of decency? Trump and his vermin have created a theater of the absurd in Washington and they're enabled by a mealy-mouthed pack in congress (purposefully did not capitalize that word) that all deserve to be driven off to another dimension.
12
Is anyone at the Times investigating the Trump Hotel guest book and comparing it with visitor logs at the White House and federal agencies? You'll need a FOI request and possible court action to secure those logs. You can't clean up a swamp unless you can measure the extent of its filth.
18
It is hard for me to try to fathom the absolute disregard this despicable administration has for ethics, the law, or any semblance of governing this great country of ours.
trump said, during the campaign, "you'll be winning so much, you'll be bored by it!" (I may not have gotten the quote exactly right). Well, let's see how we are winning so far: We are closer than ever to a hot war with North Korea because of trumps fat mouth, playing right into the hands of Kim Jung Un's playbook of stupidity, we have lost a lot of status and trust from our allies because of trumps fat mouth about not supporting NATO and insulting our allies, we are more divided, as a nation now, because of trumps fat mouth of racist and bigoted remarks, and lastly, we, as a nation are witnessing the outright corruption and disregard for the welfare of our citizens by a bunch of hand picked blood suckers whose concept of helping this country is by raping our environment, destroying our National Parks, living high off the tax payer dollar, and caring little for the plight of victims of Hurricane Maria. I don't call that winning, I called that losing, and the dark cloud of corruption and disregard for the well being of this nation is only going to get worse, not better, under the leadership of these vultures.
Thanks GOP and trump, you have, in the past 9 months, done more to destroy the credibility and standing of this country than any other administration, Blue or Red. Now that's what I call losing!!!
34
Very good and well said. I don't usually read long pieces with no double spacing of paragraphs, but I'm glad I did in your case.
Not sure if this editorial was intended to shame Trump, but most informed people know that you can't shame a sociopath.
18
And will any of Trump's legions of mindless supporters care about any of this? Or believe it? Of course not. If Trump says he's draining the swamp, it must be true. If he says he won't personally benefit from his tax plan, it must be true. If he says that President Obama is a Muslim terrorist and Hillary is a murderer, it must be true. As long as they hear it on Fox news. Who needs the Russians? We have our own Putin in the White House.
24
Trump has set the tone for his administration, which is essentially "don't get caught". Ideologically, theft of taxpayer dollars is considered God's work, since the federal government is an evil that must be destroyed. Taken together, the present day White House and their enabling GOP are a cesspool. Most.Corrupt.Administration.Ever.
11
Actually, I think it is more like deny and distract. Getting caught isn't a problem for them because they never admit to the act. Never have we witnessed a such shameless, unethical behavior.
The Trump Administration’s corruption make the Tea Pot Dome scandal seem like the “Sound of Music” or “Mary Poppins.”
Trump is a nasty man.
13
Mr. Kelly surely must be aware that when you jump into the muck in order to clean the pigs you're going to come out covered in muck without changing anything on the pigs. Your cleanliness isn't going to rub off on them.
6
may we stamp out corruption in our lifetime, of both the Trump and Clinton money machines
1
You've got to admire Trump's hold on "regular" people, though. In spite of tons of evidence, of flaunting his racism, his corruption and his inability to get anything accomplished, his base totally adores him. Perhaps they are all on Prozac?
13
No, they adore him because, except for personal ea=wealth, they are just like him.
Can anyone name one actual scandal or malfeasance in the Obama administration?
11
Trump vowed to drain the swamp. And he did but he refilled it with pond slime.
6
I'm sure the Trump voters think this is "fake news." Trumps supporters think he can do no wrong because he stands up for their racist ideology.
5
And again, I say: the depth of ignorance of the 35% who still support this dope knows no bounds.
1
"Mr. Kushner seems to have a particular problem with official record keeping, having failed to list scores of assets on his government financial disclosure, and forgotten to include meetings with Russians on his security clearance form."
What about Ivanka's security clearance form? A Federal employee is required to report their spouse's foreign travel and contacts on their own form. Has she filed a correction every time Jared has? Ivanka has filed security clearance paperwork, right?
Her "First Daughter" position doesn't cancel out her "Senior Advisor to the President" requirements. Were Ivanka's travels to Croatia in August 2016 mentioned? That she was traveling with Wendi Deng Murdoch, who was rumored to be dating Russian President Vladimir Putin? Did Jared include Ivanka's travel? Because he should have.
Could the NYT look into this, please?
4
You have to be a real pigeon if you EVER believed that a con man with deep mafia ties, who has lied about every "charitable" donation ever made under his name, and who has never done a single second of philanthropic activity would be any less a corrupt lying charlatan that he is.
5
He promised to Drain The Swamp, and that's what he did, alright - right into the White House and his Cabinet. Top work, Red America!
2
Of course if this were Hillary's administration doing this the republicans would have already voted articles of impeachment. But, ho hum, tRump is a republican and myopia spreads like a plague.
6
Congress should change the name of The White House to "The Fright House"......I no longer believe even one word which emanates from 'The Mouth That Roared'. He generates as much Fake News as the Russians ever did. Consider: he claims his tax plan - which is nothing but words since Presidents do not enact laws - will be the biggest in history. Yet it would simply add that "biggest amount" to our deficit.....some tax cut. Another Fake News report: Mexico will pay for Trump's Border Wall. Mexico NEVER agreed to do that. Trump and his entire family and his Fright House should be treated as he recommended Hillary be treated: lock 'em up.
4
All I can add is, what if this were Democrats and Hilary?
3
One can barely keep up with this stuff...Politico is reporting a further $500,000 in Pruitt's airfare spending...bringing the grand total up to a million+. When has the man had time to be in the office sabotaging Obamacare..outsourcing I guess.
http://www.politico.com/
5
Corruption and incompetence starts at the top. It should surprise no one that trump and his minions feel they are above the law, and that the US Treasury is their personal piggy bank.
2
Really? That needs to be said?
More symptom-surfing detritus ...
When y'all gonna get fundamental, apply physics, evolution, complexity, etc., to politics, to the cultural network's manner of relationship interface with the geo, eco, bio & tech networks?
Again, I challenge any of your columnists to a written debate.
You know how to reach me.
Although the repugnant behavior of all these people polluting the highest office of this country, nothing, absolutely nothing, happens except than putting into print the revolting behavior of all, I mean, all Trump's people including, needless to say, Trump himself. Furthermore, on top of their revolting deeds, they are passing laws against anything with value for the good of us all. It's beyond belief that thise bunch of despicable people with unacceptable behavior still being the "leaders" of this country. Is this democracy in America?
1
"This is both dumb and richly paradoxical"..it's not a paradox it is simply hypocritical. The email "scandal" was an attack strategy not more, nothing less. We now see real naked corruption in an administration who came into office self-promoting its illusions of integrity. We're only 8 months into it too and he's got so many more opportunities to fleece us even more. We've given the Trump clan the richest mark in history and they're not going to waste a single minute getting every penny they can out of us too.
4
"Time now for him to round up top members of the administration for an all-hands lecture on the difference between public service and self-enrichment, and the importance of sunlight as a disinfectant."
I agree 100% with the editorial board's conclusion and yet wonder why the NYT still hasn't taken the lead in calling for Trump's impeachment.
3
Liars and Thieves in plain view. President Trump and his crew could not define “public service” or speak with honesty on the public good in any subject area at any department: Sessions at Justice, Price at HHS, Mnuchin at Treasury, DeVos at Education, Pruitt at EPA, Zinke at Interior, plus all those people who somehow innocently met with Russians . . . for about 2 years now . . . including one now coming up for a vote to lead the Criminal Division at Justice. “The Horror,” Joseph Conrad concluded long ago about a much smaller power and money grab in Africa.
1
Like the Eskimo struggling to find a word for cactus, the rich have no word for 'enough' - so $300 million+ rich twit Munchkin and his equally moronic wife see no difficulties whatsoever in billing the public for their private jet. It never even occurred to them this might be a bit unethical. It's what they do.
15
Twit is the right word! And should be preceded with arrogant.
Is the Trump administration more corrupt or inept?
Congratulations, America. You, scored twice! They are both.
17
Who knew "swamp" was just a synonym for "coffers"?
10
If there is anything worse than white privilege, it's white RICH PEOPLE'S privilege, The element of entitlement get added into the equation.
8
Grifters don't play by anyones rules but their own. In their view anyone dumb enough to open the door to their scam deserves to be bilked. To be honest I feel no sympathy for the fools who opened that door. Unfortunately a lot of good people will get to pay the price for their lack of vision.
12
The man sitting in the Oval Office is the most corrupt, inept, lying con man I have ever seen in my lifetime. Is it any wonder that his family and those working for him are the same way? Anyone working for Donald Trump at this stage has a large permanent stain on his/her reputation, even those that have not violated ethics protocols.
13
All this corruption because of the antiquated electoral collage and a brainwashed public sector that could not see the handwriting on the wall.
And the really sad part is that still so many people believe this ranting demagog.
12
Trump administration equates to a corporate hostile takeover. They have the 51% and are calling all the shots with it. Enriching themselves and the corporations that put them there. Try will rack up the debt and walk away with the profits. This is the new America, a corporatocracy. This is what voters didn't realize when they wanted to #maga. How could they have been so ignorant.
11
This is exactly what Secretary Price wanted all the time. If all the other Georgia boys could see him now. He is a real king, finally, with his own jets, paid by the United States Treasury, the king's personal bank account, sight unseen.
Thank God for dogged journalists. Price hates commercial air. His resignation will be handed in over the weekend.
13
I sometimes wondered why MDs quit their practices and became politicians; now I know. Instead of following the Hippocratic Oath, they now practice a hypocritical one.
At this point it's a blur as to what regime in history that this cesspool of an administration is more similar to. The court of Versailles, the Several Peronist in Argentina, Papa Doc in Haiti ?
The consequences ,if they are allowed to continue will be an unprecedented public outcry , or worse, violence,once the deplorables catch on that its not a TV show for their amusement any longer.
10
The hypocrisy of conservative voters is nauseating. If members of President Obamas cabinet had acted in such a high handed, spendthrift manner, conservatives would have had aneurysms from their outrage. I am beyond revolted by their contemtible cowardice and silence regarding the widespread venality of DJT and all his advisors.
16
Trump has been a liar his whole life and gotten away with it because he is rich. Pity the poor suckers who actually believed his campaign promises of helping the poor and middle class. We can see by his budget that will devastate our economy so the filthy rich can pass on their billions to their kids without being taxed. I am appalled but not surprised at what Price and the others have done in their short existence in the cabinet - they were all proven cheats before the confirmation hearings, the but republican sheep in congress voted them all in. What I want to know is just how much money the tax payers are spending on the Secret Service that protects Trump's millionaire kids while they fly around the world building Trump hotels, pushing Ivanka's line of products made in other countries and of course the skiing, golfing and hunting trips. I bet it hits over a billion if he lasts his whole term.
14
So what? They are simply following their leader or their father or their father-in-law. They are all flying high in Parasite and Scavenger Class. And it is all legal.
Having failed to divest all of his personal and family business assets and place them in a blind trust President Trump's idea is that the public serves him and his family business interests. Hiding his personal and family income tax returns and business records is part of Trump's scheme to convert his temporary occupation of the Oval Office of our White House to his personal and family profitable business advantage.
A White House Staff and Cabinet full of billionaires and millionaires should take no salary and personally pay it's own way when traveling. A White House staff that includes the First Son-in Law Jared Kushner and the First Daughter Ivanka Trump is a royal farce. While First Son Don, Jr. and Second Son Eric go gallivanting around the globe hunting for wild life and business opportunity at tax payer expense protected by the Secret Service.
Russia if you are listening pretty please give us all of the facts about who is stealing what, when, why and where under the immoral royal ruling reign of the House of Trump. Alas Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin can't stop smirking about the machinations of his Siberian President dummy puppet.
11
I am sick of Trump speaking his so-called "mind." His minions believe every lie he tells, ignore his contradictory statements, and excuse behaviors that they recently used to pillory Hillary. His little snowflakes bristle at the slightest criticism. Meanwhile, America is being given away to the rich piece by piece, by the most corrupt administration in my lifetime. I fully expect pieces of the White House to start showing up on eBay. Of course, the prices will, be far too high for the average American to afford, especially after we've paid for the tax cuts for the rich.
9
Trump is responsible for a White House culture now totally devoid of any ethical restraints and actively engaged in corruption. Because that's who he is. Ethics and rules never applied to him, and he has no respect for the law. He has no time or interest in paying attention to what his Cabinet and staff are doing, because he can't stop looking in the mirror or watching himself on Fox News. That's what happens when you elect a malignant narcissist. Way to go, America.
8
Price and Manuchin, in their hopelessly inappropriate, (and tacky) exploitation of the public coffer, demonstrate their utter contempt for all of us. Throw them out now.
6
Can it all implode on itself? Would that be best? Are all the actual hard working government workers (including General Kelly) an enabling force, propping up this regime of incompetent, corrupt clowns? It is hard to watch, but I like planet Earth and really hope lowly bureaucrats will save the world. Make a great movie!
5
On Thursday night, as he had done every night in his cognitive life, little Tommy Price knelt beside his bed in his favourite zoo-animal-print jammies and prayed.
"Dear God, Wasn't it a hoot?! After all those peachy-keen rides on a bunch of really cool private airplanes - who knew it was so much fun playing in the swamp?! - I was able to pay for my excellent adventure using the profits I made trading stocks illegally when I was a senator. Thanks heaps, God, for answering all my previous prayers and especially for repealing and replacing the natural law of hypocrisy so I could ignore my fiscal conservative protestations when I was just a lowly senator and had no responsibility for my weasely words or the opportunity to avail myself of such amazing perks. I have only one more request of you. Please give my hero and mentor, President Trump, a little compassion, if this is even within your omnipotent power, for his poor prodigal HHS sinner, I mean secretary, at least until our supreme leader gets distracted by another shiny bauble and the press start chasing after that fake news instead of the real news about me."
On Friday morning little Tommy awoke and, even before taking off his favourite zoo-animal-print jammies, rushed to his mirror, I mean his TV and Twitter account, and discovered, much to his horror, that his prayer had not reached to God.
"Why hast thou forsaken me?!" he cried aloud.
The silence was deafening.
2
"Time now for him to round up top members of the administration for an all-hands lecture on the difference between public service and self-enrichment"
He would have to start with Trump - a fish smells from the head - and this Administration stinks to high heaven.
8
Originally from Dennis Green's (former NFL coach) mouth, "They are who they thought they were!" NYT readers could easily prognosticate these types of actions from slimy-inside-trader-Price and even-slimier-pay-me-to-pollute-Pruitt.
It breaks my heart that so many Americans believed the Trump lies and that, due to the bifurcation of news media (NYT / WAPO vs Fox News [or truth vs fiction]), they continue to believe in an egregious huckster and are insulated from the truth.
7
The news media must stop pretending this is a legitimate presidency. Investigations are under way in the Department of Justice and the Senate to determine if Trump:
1) Colluded with the Russians to rig our elections
2) Is involved in graft, corruption and emolument clause violations
3) Obstructed justice
How can we trust a man who settled a $25 million fraud case and refuses to release his taxes to create an equitable tax code? What will happen to all the executive orders and legislation signed by Trump if the investigations proves he colluded with Russia, is involved in fraud or obstructed justice?
These are the question the media should be asking every day about the man who presently occupies the Oval Office. We must end the pretense that this is a normal presidency.
17
Well said!!! Thanks.
2
Slow down, the people who elected Trump knew all of this but didn't care. They were too focused on their hatred for President Obama and Hillary Clinton. They still believe Trump's garbage and we, the silent majority, sit on ur hands like patsies. Get rid of Trump and his free loading family and cabinet.
12
Not to mention the systematic looting of the Secret Service budget to support Trump's failing golf courses and hotels. Kushner family selling visa's for apartments. Kushner meeting with Russian bankers. Conway hawking Ivanks cheap shoes on TV news. Foreigners padding Trump's hotel in DC. Flynn selling influence to Turkey and Mid eastern atomic plants. Carl Ican's corruption on financial regulation. China issuing patents to Ivanka and Trump. This is just what we know. Imagine what we don't know. We don't even know if Trump is a Russian asset. God help us.
10
Yeah, more appalling behavior and graft by Trump's people. What I seriously can't understand is why his base continues to support him-- no matter what. This is the swampiest swamp we've seen in Washington in decades, but it doesn't seem to matter. Why?
11
When I would talk with potential, or now current Trump voters, whenever you asked them about Trump's clear and blatant corruption they always, inevitably, go into a rant about Hillary Clinton, bringing up obscure and dubious "evidence" of how corrupt SHE and her husband is. One brought up Haiti, which appears to have been more a mistake than a deliberate, cruel vulture-like attack.
They rave about what a liar she is, drowning out ANY argument that all evidence indicates Trump lied blatantly throughout the campaign 3x as frequently as Clinton did.
It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull, and, ironically, like the bull is actually color-blind, they are totally blind to Trump and his team's virulent and even GLEEFUL corruption!
And yet, that same base, being ripped off just as much as the rest of us, simply don't seem to care. "Crooked Hillary Clinton"? We warned the nation that Trump would make Clinton look squeaky clean, and he has.
Not since the administration of Civil War hero, Ulysses S. Grant has there been such a totally, blatantly, corrupt administration, out to gorge at the public trough as deeply and quickly as possible. It's not just a national disgrace. It, like the entire Trump phenomenon, is a catastrophe for the United States and with it, the world.
15
People are suffering in Puerto Rico. The President is paying attention to NFL millionaire players who disrespect the American Flag. We are being threatened by a maniac who wants to use nuclear weapons on us. The Three Stooges would do better. We do not have a government.
8
I wonder if those who elected chump are still standing proud with him?
What has he done? Any jobs for coal miners? Any help from his cronies about
opioids?
Any new legislation on infrastructure?
Nope he told his cronies take while the getting a good!
Those people who elected me won't figure it out till I'm long gone!
Donald Chump
4
Dr. Tom should pay the Price!
4
Has anyone noticed that this administration is so corrupt that the words to describe their behavior don't even exist yet?
6
The Donald's "Make America Great Again" economic agenda:
1. Sink the Ship of State.
2. Drain the swamp.
3. Donald Jr. incorporates as Trump Salvage.
4. Trump Salvage sells the American Ship of State wreckage to China.
5. Impoverished Chinese children create commemorative busts of The Donald, licensed by Ivanka, in a Chinese Military sweatshop.
6. Red State families, now homeless from overwhelming catastrophic medical bills, pace about Trump rallies, selling Trump busts.
3
Nothing but pillage and plunder from this gang, now that they’re “in like Flynn.” Credit the clairvoyants who, early on, saw through the schemes, risked the reprisals of the bully pulpit, and called out the carnival barker for what he was. History will judge them kindly. At this rate, however, the commonwealth will be gone, along with the looters, before the imbibers of Trump’s “tonic” wake up.
2
Why am I feeling this "let them eat cake" vibe coming out of the white house?
5
This is a criminal enterprise masquerading as an administration. But we knew this was going to happen and we also knew that, as is typical with republicans, that everything that comes out of their mouth is a lie and the opposite of what is going to actually happen. "Drain the swamp?" More like "We will drain the swamp and then convert it to a septic tank."
3
Members of the cabinet indulging in the perks of power are only following the example of the Head Grifter and his family.This type of behavior and its consequences were obvious in the campaign.It surely reflects the fact that the Republican voters have engaged their flexible core values in full by accepting these behaviors and in voting for these cons sweeping their ethics and morals under the rug.It would now seem that the current administration is a continuing criminal enterprise in support of the con job being perpetrated on the country.
4
If John Kelly really wants to clean up ethical lapses at the White House, he may want to consider starting at the top by getting rid of his boss. That's the source of this administration's corruption, in the Oval Office and nowhere else.
3
Mr. Trump is truly the Bernie Madoff of politics.
8
It's more like how the public should service them--an administration of pirates and thieves.
5
Stephen King (um, the writer, not the politician) could not come up with a scarier storyline if he tried (although he did).
One could say that this administration is the personification of "It":
1) it is amorphous
2) it is evil
3) it continues to reshape itself ever day
4) it does not die
5) it scares the heck out of many millions
6) it strikes when one least expects it
7) it is cunningly deceitful
8) its acts are shocking and horrific
9) it does nothing that is good
And the biggest difference between "It" and this administration:
1) "It" is not dumb
'Nuff said.
1
I wonder if Ivanka, Jared, and assorted other bad actors in the White House realize that the NSA has copies of all their e-mail and cell phone conversations. These are probably illegally gathered, but that doesn't mean they won't some day be leaked.
2
Trump Thinks the money should be his. You are not important if you are not rich like he is, if you happen to owe money like P.R. then he does not care about you at all, and only thinks about it after someone points out that you are Americans, but because you can't vote for him, he still doesn't know you. Trump wants to rule the world out of his golf cart which is gold plated of course. He'd be a great dictator and would have as many wives as he could, just like other past kings and you all should buy his products just to keep his ego up, Oh and don't forget to cheer, he likes that too. As to being President, You know it is a lot harder than anyone knows.
1
There is more than one meaning of the word "service" and boy is the country being "serviced" by The Donald of Trump and his cohort of minions.
3
Tom Price, Scott Pruitt and the rest could reimburse the government ten times over from now, (that they are caught) until forever. That changes nothing. What remains is the sleazy , hypocritical, self serving ethics of these supposed "public servants." Given the opportunity, the behaviors and their underlying values will continue. They have no place in government. Rotten to the core.
1
No need to worry. The White House says they have launched an internal investigation of the private email matter. No doubt they will pursue it with the same vigor that Hillary Clinton was investigated -- wherever the trail leads! :-)
During the campaign, Mr. Trump bragged about having bribed politicians of both parties to get what he wanted. He also pretended that his wealth made him incorruptible. The fact that his supporters couldn't see the contradiction between those two arguments speaks volumes about the manipulated idiocy of American politics today.
2
Still, Trump's base and GOP establishment stand firmly behind their master and his posse of moochers.
Donald Trump keeps proving to be the end of the Republican Party. Decades of lying are finally paying off - anyone with half a brain can see what GOP is made of: pure greed. No conservative /Christian /family values. Just greed.
Word of advice to decent Republicans out there: jump the sinking (in a swamp) ship and start a new conservative movement because GOP is done for.
1
Don't forget Zinke and Pruitt's use of government resources for ridiculous expenses...oh, and Gorsuch's political speeches at a Trump hotel that's in the middle of an emoluments lawsuit!
1
Nothing but pillage and plunder from this gang, now that they’re “in like Flynn.” Credit the clairvoyants who, early on, saw through the scheme, risked rebuke from the bully pulpit, and called out The Donald for the fraud he was. History will judge them kindly. At this rate, however, the commonwealth will be gone, along with the looters, before the imbibers of Trump’s “tonic” wake up.
Price' s travel arrangements come as no surprise. The Supreme Leader's own conduct is so self serving that it's created the environment for misuse of public funds. Repaying $52k is an insult. I would have hit him with the full Monty in choosing charter travel in the first place. That's a better example of accountability.
As for the rest of the antics; selective amnesia, cavalier record keeping and 'go as I please' personal travel, the hypocrisy is flagrant. Meantime, happy bunny Trump jets off to weekend jollies to myriad homes, wifey persisted in a unique occupancy arrangement, between them racking up jaw dropping expenditure.
Trump is the swamp. The rest of the minnows just ride along on his tail.
1
La dolce vita! On the backs of the American working man and woman.
2
"But wait, there’s more: Americans have been learning...." This is the only misleading phrase in this editorial. True, most Americans have been learning about the profiteering, hypocritical Trump Mafia robbing taxpayers, so long as they follow reputable media, not FOX.
The full truth is many Americans - Trump's cult - have learned nothing. In their somnambulant bubble lives, truth is what Trump says it is; reality is fake. Even if they have heard of the Trump Mafia crimes (and they are crimes - not just quietly abusing the public trust, but in-your-face gaming it with a Shkreli-smirk, daring anyone to speak out), they think the stories are made up by fake news; and besides, they have more pressing concerns, like locking Hillary up.
What dwarfs the gagging odor of the Trump Mafia is the gagging odor of the Republican Party. Have Americans learned anything about Republicans???
Who took America into Iraq based on lies and slapped around the Middle East hornets nest with great braggadocio?
Who made it their highest priority to make a fail - make the country fail?
Who impeded America's recovery from the Great Bush Recession?
Who fights relentlessly to take away health insurance from Americans?
Who fights to give billionaires millions of dollars in tax breaks and to give the middle-class a few hundred dollars in tax breaks?
Who fights reasonable gun regulations to ensure the mentally ill cannot get military style assault weapons?
Who refuses to hold Trump accountable?
2
Golly, gee! If Mr. Trump says he's cleaning up the corruption in Washington, then by golly, he is! If he says it, its true! And, even if there is an eensy-weensy bit of overspending of taxpayer dollars for various junkets, its okay if you are a Republican!
Do Trump’s base voters even care that Trump and his cabinet members are dishonest and corrupt? They swallowed lie after lie during the 2016 campaign without batting an eye.
Gosh, I’m old enough to remember when honesty was a virtue out there in middle America, where I grew up.
1
Kelly looks like a very frustrated kindergarten teacher; Like many others, I am just frustrated to see the double standards this administration is flaunting with gay and frivolity immerse in an ocean of conflict of interests. And, getting away with it. I keep being centered and remind myself every day: This is not normal, this is far from normal, 7 years and 3 months to go.
6
Like the old time Tammany politicians, the motto of Trump and his corrupt cabinet could be "I seen my opportunities and I took em!"
1
John Kelly has failed. There is no discipline in the administration, much less compliance with laws such as those requiring archival of governmental, especially presidential records and communiques. The administration is a bold kleptocracy that extends from Trump to Cohn, both wealthy men disgustingly enriching themselves further at the public's expense, lately through a skewed tax structure proposal. What they are doing violates laws that Congress must enforce since the corrupt Justice department stand by idly giving hypocritical speech about freedom of speech. Kushner should already be in jail, but of course he would be pardoned, as was the racist Arizona sheriff who willfully violated Federal court orders.
6
This administration has no equal in our history for the amount of self-serving hypocrisy and lying they will engage in in order to line their own pockets and those of their friends. Until the Republican party is removed from their position of Congressional power it will not change. It is an absolute imperative for the Democrats to raise their voices in protest and provide strong candidates to put the "pigs of Washington" out of office in October 2018.
2
Wake up and smell the coffee Editorial Board! Real Americans don't want eight more years of decency and competence. Those blokes are part of the swamp America elected Mr. Trump to drain. No, real Americans elected a tough, rugged America first candidate who is going to make America great again, no matter the cost. So what if he restores the institutions that polluted our air and water, that bankrupted our financial institutions and depleted our pension funds. So what if he denies women and people of color the same freedoms white Christian men have always enjoyed. Big deal if he leads us to the brink of nuclear destruction.
We elected a man who will halt non European immigration, stifle automation, and end global trade. And once he cuts corporate taxes and ends environmental regulations, those big factories will come roaring back. And, once they're back, the angry and this disaffected will get off their couches, off their prescribed opioids and off the public dole. Once liberated they won't need Obamacare. That's what real America cares about. The rest, the daily lies, the graft, the self dealing, the racism, the sexism, the intolerance for transgender patriots, the bullying, the incompetence, and the disregard for our sacred first amendment is just window dressing. So, stop criticizing Mr. Trump for the little stuff. You'll see. It won't be long before coal miners and factory workers are fully employed again; and it won't be long until pigs fly.
5
I would wager you this corruption is but small potatoes for this gang of criminals. and additional heinous actions will soon be discovered. Here we are, less than a year into the Trump kleptocracy and his gang of gangsters has already ripped has ripped us off for more than several million. Imagine what they are doing that has yet to be uncovered?
1
Violations of Records Acts? Private emails after Trump threats against Hillary? Why not lock THEM up?
2
We always knew that draining the swamp was a good slogan that was never going to be followed. The history of Republicans is they talk a good talk by never show up. Emply critisism of the Dems on the deficit but the masters of waste. fraud and corruption.
2
These people have no shame. They are much worse than "the swamp". Their attitudes are hurting this country. Trump did not run for president to help anyone but himself and his greedy friends. This was never about making America great again. It was about self-enrichment from the start. These aren't public servants; these are greedy businessmen with no respect for our country or the law. America is in real trouble.
1
Trump punked/scammed those who voted for him. It is amazing how few recognize or will acknowledge that. He is a grifter without equal in modern times. Ryan and McConnell are just Triple A- Trump is major league.
His budget looks to throw countless people off of Disability for guess what- more tax breaks for the Rich.
He wants to kill the ACA- for more tax breaks for the rich.
He wants to cut Social Security- for more tax breaks for the rich.
He wants tax reform- for more tax breaks for the rich.
And for all the "I'm not with him" nonsense, the GOP Congress is mostly just fine with it. Do you notice a pattern? The Billionaire class and corporate America want their taxes cut and do not care if Grandma gets kicked to the curb. This Republican Party is the very same one that said Ketchup is a vegetable when describing child nutrition for public school lunches.
2
Trump not only didn't drain the swamp as he promised during his campaign, he turned it into a sewer where he, his family and his cabinet wallow contentedly in a slime of corruption so foul -- and so blatant -- it staggers the imagination. Ethics are nonexistent. Rules? What rules. The very White House is up for sale to the highest bidder, perhaps Putin.
2
The Times gives the so-called president too much credit: generosity toward his original intent, which was aligned with his behavior his entire life, namely me first. He has surrounded himself with me firsters. Totally in character, and totally predictable.
Maybe, hopefully, the Mueller investigation will shine a spotlight on the Trump corruption and the findings will be the "beginning of the beginning" of the end to this farce, this disgraceful and embarrassing administration. But don't count on it. I have a friend who is a member of Congress, a good person actually committed to the public good. His assessment of many of his fellow representatives from the Republican Party, many so-called Tea Party/Freedom Caucus members is chilling. The level of stupidity and outright obtuseness boggles the mind. The Republican Party is generally corrupted and in fear of the Kochs and to some degree the Bannonites. The billions spent of campaign donations and lobbying by the 1% have assured that the common people have no say anymore in government. The corruption, self-dealing and utter hypocrisy of the Trump Administration is mirrored by those who would in the past check their outright greed and ethical violations. But that will no longer exists. It is the same lack of will to indict and try hundreds of investment bank execs/mortgage lenders, et al, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The billions of dollars of fines were essentially paid by shareholders and the execs walked away scot-free with their millions and millions in bonuses. The "lesson" was learned: greed, graft, self-dealing, etc. were the norm of the day, just business as usual. And now Trump shamelessly lies about the new tax "reform" proposal, a great benefit to him.
1
The swamp has become a cesspool! Billionaires bilking the public. Trump's Supreme Court justice is giving speeches (unpaid?) at Trump's government owned hotel.!Price needs to repay the total bill. What secretsis Pruitt hiding in his sound proof phone booth? Security for this band of robber barons - where is Robin Hood?
You can talk about Price, DeVos, Carson, Pruitt, etc. Yes, they are all truly awful. But has anyone ever been a bigger zero than Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State? He may be the most ineffectual cabinet member of all time. He's not just bad. He's invisible. How did this guy ever make it to the top at Exxon? It boggles the mind!
1
What worries me more than anything this corrupt and self-serving administration does right now is what Trump, Kushner, Bannon, Miller, et al, will do with the knowledge they now have of classified information and foreign intelligence procedures. If they make it out of this White House legally unscathed, I have no doubt whatsoever that they will instantly be selling all of that knowledge to the highest bidder, which will probably be Russia, with not a shred of shame or guilt. Now that they know how it's done, they will be able to easily circumvent detection. I don't doubt, also, that they may be committing treason right now.
Now now! If Maxwell Smart could have his "secure phone booth" don't you think it's reasonable for Scott Pruitt to get a cone-of-silence?
At least organized crime has a code of conduct..
Our present administration is a criminal free for all..backstabbing on steroids
No one wants to sit with their back to the window..
1
In order to provide some perspective on the use of government, military and private jets by Cabinet Members, please publish the number of times that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a government, military or private jet during her tenure as Secretary of State and also provide the total $ cost for those trips. Thank you.
Speaking of (un)ethics, Brian Benczkowski, whom Trump nominated for leading the criminal division of the department of justice, was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. He didn't answer questions put to him by the committee, yet he was confirmed. He's on his way to being part of the corrupt administration. How is this possible? Jump on the gravy train! Now, about that swamp . . .
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke paid 12 thousand dollars for a flight home in an oil executive's plane! I guess we know where this is going. More cheating of the American taxpayer by a man who plans to gut our national parks.
just like the supposed concern over government debt by Republicans, Trump and his supporters will say and believe whatever suits their purpose at the time. Integrity is only for those they consider fools in the battle of winning at any cost
Trump`s idea of public service is skunk cabbage for the masses (and the suffering poor Americans in Puerto Rico). Who could have imagined 22 years ago that America would today be concerned with private Emails, private jets and the unforeseen massive abuse and corruption evident in the Trump administration? The wheat has beens thrown out and the straw chaff reigns supreme in the U.S. now. Anthony Russo`s stark illustration of the man sweeping up the White House in a dustpan is prophetic.
2
The Republican leadership is so corrupt as to defy belief. There are zero adults in the room. Instead we are being hoodwinked by the rich and powerful whose criminal actions have no boundaries. The idea that our leaders should be moral and ethical in working to make our country and society a better place for all seems to not even be a discussion point for this group and political party. Finally, it seems astounding that our Supreme Court upheld Citizen's United. Money, Money, Money is the mantra that drives our current batch of leaders and if you are not rich you are nothing.
The stink of corruption is choking DC. We are witnessing the greatest heist of our treasury in history.
Trump lied on the campaign trail about cleaing up the ethical swamp in Washington? My goodness! Who could have seen that coming? I'm going to have to seriously revisit my opinion of the man.
I'm just so tired of scandals, lies, confusion, tweets, ignorance, and corruption looming around this presidency. While the world laughs at him and its leaders trust us less and less, Trump steps over, around, or quite close to boundaries that all past presidents have respected: nepotism, divestiture, vetting of hires, accountability. And Congress continues to turn a blind eye while Trump plays at being the president. Will our United States survive this man?
8
The mile high club is for those who soar profligately on the wings of others. Let those others, the taxpayers cover the spread for the 1% elitist in the Administration.
Animal Farm adages abound in the saga of their duplicitous ministrations.
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
1
Trump has not squared with anything said in his election.
He even acknowledge that those things said were just for the lulz.
Why should he? His base revels in being deceived and lied too.
But then again, they have been brought up in an imaginary world and long for a daddy figure to be their authoritarian in chief that will smite any and everyone.
His base doesn't care and the other sycophants are just getting rich grifting, stealing and abusing the public treasury.
They don't care.
Lies are part of business.
This is the Republican Party.
4
You have to include Mr. Zinke. He was flying around the country with oil executives on flights that were paid for by taxpayer fund to the tune of $12,00 so far. I am sure they the oil executives were pointing out the National Park land they wanted for drilling. And poor little rich Betsy DeVos's security detail is costing us $8 million over the last 8 or 9 months. Hey, I thought she was a gazillionairess. All these people took these jobs to make money. Hillary was wrong. Trump and his cabinet are the real deplorables. They don't even have any shame about it.
4
Zinke is the head pirate on the pirate ship of state once called the Department of the Interior, holding 70,000 employees hostage, while he unilaterally changes their mission from "to protect and preserve public lands and Indian tribes" to pave the way for oil, gas, timber, and hunters and despoil the country's great treasure of public lands. These lands belong to the American people, not business interests. So raise the skull and crossbones on Interior's flag pole, and take down Interior's flag until the Department is recaptured by people who understand its mission.
Seems to me in this "Misadministration", where the "Price Is Always Right" to the American taxpayer, the clueless, aimless, shameless robbing of the American taxpayer goes ever forward. Oh, speaking of travel, where is the "Great Putterer" play this weekend?
1
I briefly watched some recent Oprah special, where she was "legitimately" listening to concerned voters. The voter under interview was explaining that she voted for Trump, because "we gave the democrats 8 years, so now it's the republicans turn. Let's at least give him a chance." That's it folks; that's how stupid an American voter is. Her decision was not based facts, history, or policy proposals, but on whose turn it was to be president.
So when we deploy reality to factually demonstrate that Trump replaced a scandal-free administration with his policy of rule-by-nepotism, it doesn't even matter, because it was the republican's turn to take drivers seat regardless of where they wanted to take us, which, unsurprisingly, is a place where the government is broken, functions to help the rich at the expense of the poor, and is used by its representatives to enrich themselves. And in 3 years they will again run on their position that government's the problem, regardless of the fact that they are the ones who keep breaking it.
4
Asking General Kelly to clean up this mess is ridiculous. Gen. Kelly has clearly failed in his mission. Supposedly focusing information to the President? Trump is massively distracted these days leading a clueless Oval Office. Tweeting obsessively about the NFL while Puerto Rico is in crisis and Gen. Kelly can't get anyone to realize at a minimum the bad optics of this? Gen. Kelly can't focus Trump or his advisors to do something about Puerto Rico? Or did he too just find out it is an island in the middle of a big ocean?
As for the self- serving of Trump, his family and the members of the administration, why, that is one of the major reasons Trump wanted the job. He and his family of greedy grifters set the tone even before the inauguration. This is why the visitor's log at the White House is not public. This is what Trump does when not watching TV, making deals for Trump, Inc. I would find it hard to believe that Gen. Kelly did not know about this going into his position. The whole grifting con is part of letting Trump be Trump for heaven's sake.
And the self-absorption and abuse of public funds by Trump's administration was a given for people like Pruitt and Price and they still were given the go ahead by the GOP Congress. The DC sewers are exploding.
2
I haven't noticed that much of an improvement under Kelly. Maybe there are fewer leaks, but with the investigations now interviewing White House personnel and so many lawyers involved, they might have dried up anyway. Kelly had been happy enough to go along with mass deportations of immigrants and considered separating children, even very small ones, from their parents which would have been an atrocity.
1
Mr. Trump's history of deceit, self-dealing, and cheating has been clear for decades. The only surprise is that anybody ever expected his administration to behave differently from his well-known record of dishonest business behavior.
1
What is really disgusting is that any of these people could afford to pay for First Class tickets out of pocket. If they want to make sure they aren't rubbing shoulders with the lower classes, they could pay the difference between the government authorized coach fare and the first class fare. Instead, these greedy money grubbers think the taxpayer should pay subsidize political and personal travel by using Charter flights. I'm sure they love that - no lines at the airport, no flight delays, not having to hob nob with the unwashed masses. Is there no end to their arrogance? It's mind boggling.
1
The trump-swamp, that we now know he brought with him, is getting deeper. It's able to accommodate more of the GOPers who now have permission to reveal their forked tongues. Seems to me this should appeal to all the Followers as it's a biblical reference.
Too bad for the rest of us, this isn't a fantasy.
3
Every day since January 20th, America learns of the antics, foibles, incompetence, corruption and criminal activity of the Trump Administration. After these many months, I have little to no hope that bad actors like Tom Price will be fired to go off to the lobby position that is being kept warm for them. The hypocrisy of the GOP in Congress is so thick and concrete that we could slice off a chunk of it and there would still be plenty left. I guess corruption is innately Republican these days. They certainly are protecting their own. Watching this toxic caravan continue its antics is sometimes impossible to bear. Now Trump has even poisoned our enjoyment of professional sports. America is certainly paying out the nose and from our pocketbooks to entertain this entourage of grifters.
4
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. Trump ruins everything he gets around. He's going to break his base's heart when he not only doesn't deliver, but takes what little they have away. It's in his DNA.
1
"difference between public service and self-enrichment"
Clearly, a distinction without a difference to these ethically challenged amoralists occuping our White House.
Eviction notices are in order.
1
You forgot to mention the rich Secretary of Education who has yet to step inside a public school. If it is not a charter school which can help her line her pockets it is beneath her to set foot inside. A reality check is needed for the entire side of the voting block that elected this egomaniac to office.
1
The one person who really stands to gain from the Trump presidency is James Buchanan. Historians will no longer relegate him to the bottommost of our Presidents.
6
This is Trump's idea of "draining the swamp". Good for those cheering crowds at his rallies who adore him like he was their Moses here to deliver them to the promised land.
1
This is a very simple issue...The problem is that for too many voters, the failure to recognize that our insanely narcissistic and greedy pseudo-President has NEVER IN HIS LIFE said or done anything at al that was not ultimately in his own self interest. As a result, he trained his family to behave the same way, and surrounded himself with a cohort of ultra-rich cronies who believe in the same self serving ideals.
This is the real Donald Trump in action...Being super rich, arrogant, and doing what ever will maintain and (more importantly) increase personal wealth is more important than any moral obligation to support the ideals, hopes, promises made, or expectations of anyone deemed "unworthy" of his attention, by reason of financial status, race, religion, ethnic origin, or political affiliation.
As a result, any transgression into morally and/or ethically questionable territory is publicly decried but privately ignored as long as the transgressors in his cohort remain personally loyal to the "fearless leader" of the "team" destroying our nation from within the White House.
We must take action to remove this nest of vipers and bloodsuckers from our government before it is too late...and that "too late" time is quickly approaching.
2
It sounds to me as if the FBI could simply take the computers and do a forensic search to see what those emails contained instead of trusting these people to supply copies. So far Kelly has not been proven capable of stopping ethical and maybe legal lapses. While Trump still occupies the White House and is surrounded by his entourage Kelly does not have a chance. We need another Deep Throat.
1
Remember back in December the trump transition team refused to take Ethics training because it was a ridiculous use of $1 Million in taxpayer money?
Kelly will fix this by finding the government employees who leaked this info to Politico and fire that person; then repeat this with EPA, Treasury and Interior disloyal employees.
1
There is no interest in serving people...by Trump's pluto-kleptocracy; it is a 'pure' self-service proposition, where incompetence is only superimposed on arrogance. Humility and repentance have been erased from their lexicon. We are witnessing an institutionalized violence, where 'our' public officers are liars, crooks and shysters (unscrupulous to the core). With such a 'richness' in malevolence and ill-intent, how is it even possible to expect an honest thought, a decent gesture, some words of compassion, for the ongoing suffering of the least among us? We elected a most vulgar bully, as corrupt as they come, unfortunately with the distinct support of a morally-deficient republican party, and the active servile contribution of Fox Noise, its propaganda arm. Conflicts of interest and nepotism, and Trump's irrational hiding of his tax returns, are legion. They all deserve to be placed in the trash bin, and disposed of, if this nation's democracy is to survive.
1
I don't think the core Trumpists ever thought that " Drain the Swamp" means what it did for the rest of us. It meant that the ones who deserve it, you know, the "right" people, finally get to have all the perks that the "wrong" people, those who didn't deserve them, had before. Why didn't they deserve them? Give you one guess; it wasn't their shoe size.
1
It's not hard to understand how this has transpired:
Americans have become accustomed to allowing their bosses and superiors to do whatever they want in the name of enterprise and capitalism. Heck, if the boss is enjoying a long vacation while you're slaving away, they must have done something to deserve the privilege, right? Never question their motives. Never complain (you're only whining). Never get "uppity" because you're just one of the peons.
Just remember that there are a lot of Americans who think this state of affairs is just dandy. They must believe they will somehow be the beneficiaries of such behavior. They're deluding themselves.
1
Trump's idea of the entire world is Trump. Public service is service to Trump. A closed system for a closed mind.
1
The first tip off should have been his wailing against supposed ties between Sec. Clinton and Goldman Sachs. He then turned around and hired many Goldman Sachs current and former employees including Mnuchin, Ross, Cohn among others. His tax plan should save him and his family 1.1B dollars. He and his family continue to ignore not only rules but as this last weekend showed, ignored the US Constitution. His rollback of federal park land shows he sees no land without an opportunity to build and monetize it. He has eliminated regulations that protect our health, including safe drinking water. He is sabotaging the ACA despite it being the law. And he lies and exxagerates over and over again, all the while making himself the center of attention. The only thing he drains is a result of his constant self gratification.
2
Trump is positioning himself to rival Harding and Grant for the most corrupt administrations in our history.
2
Are these cabinet members avoiding commercial flights so they can ensure that they will not have to encounter tax-paying citizens on those flights?
11
And then we have the Trump voters, who look at these self-absorbed, manipulative, evil people and think, "Gee. I wish I could live like that." So they do. By proxy. They imagine themselves with the jets, the servants, the endless money and admiration ….. then they open their eyes and get back to the endless, back-breaking toil that’s paying for it all. Just like congregants who swell with pride at the size of ‘their’ church, or lonely souls who glue themselves to their so-called reality TV ‘families’ for hours on end, they live their dreams through others.
12
Trump is, as someone once said, the poor man's idea of a rich man.
2
Orwell's Animal House writ large. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
The funny thing is that this editorial, and many others recently, continue to sound as if this was unexpected or newly discovered. I predicted this back in June 2016 at the RNC convention. It was obvious then that Trump was as two faced in everything he said and does as the mayor of Halloween Town.
And I don't expect it to change anytime soon. This motley ship of fools is not even 1 year into its administration and the number of ethical and legal violations, outrages, and corruption is staggering. And I predict it will get worse. Give 'em enough rope and they'll.....
7
Just remember this all started with Trump insisting that his crowd was the largest in history of presidential swearing in ceremonies, contrary to all physical evidence. It has been all downhill for the country since. Anyone who has ever believed a word spoken from the liar in chiefs mouth is in dire need of a physiological evaluation.
9
This has some interesting angles:
1. A presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
2. A man in the White House whose congressional jury would be driven by partisan concerns.
3. The ongoing Mueller investigation is not so much concerned with overall corruption as with the Russian probe. That investigative body supposedly now has a body of T's financials, supplied by the IRS, which might include his tax returns (we may not know for a while): http://fortune.com/2017/09/26/irs-trump-mueller-russia/ .
4. The man in the White House would never care about the private jet issue, were it not for the press and its "fake news." He has been forced to listen to a few around him, because of the optics.
5. No matter what happens, his core supporters will not care--not about corruption, lying, narcissism, nepotism, using the office of the president for personal and family gain. They don't care. They will not be convinced of the mess created (they like the mess), they will not care if they are the ones to be most damaged by his "policies." They will not care that the nation is forced to "reason by Twitter" (well, a few complain about his dependency on his Twitter fingers).
5
I can take care of #5. Do what *he* tells everyone else to do.....FIRE THEM. From whatever job they hold. Then arrest them for non payment of their bills (they can’t pay cause 1. No job or prospects. 2. No unemployment checks. 3. No charities willing to give them a banana, let alone money). Put them in work camps, in the south in the summer, in winter clothing (they must wear), then in Alaska in winter, in summer clothing, the winter stuff left in the south for the next summer. Oh, most will cry, wail, & beg. This time the trash men won’t get it. Every bigoted remark they make, recorded & used to add a decade to the whole families sentence. Yup, back to the days when the whole family went to debtors prison. Until debts paid. Usually by a wealthy friend. This time there won’t be any friends. No sitting in a prison either. Hard work, no education for the kids, no shelter from sun, wind, snow or ice. Then maybe they will blame themselves & the idiot they elected who will be swinging in the wind on the Mall. Though I doubt it.
Greed has permeated the lifestyle of the rich and famous in Washington. That the wealthiest Cabinet ever would so plunder for themselves speaks volumes of the culture set by DJT.
5
Aside from the fact that obviously no one is minding the store, Price needs to repay all monies, not just some and with compound interest on it. Someone needs to turn these rich cheapskates upside down to empty out their pockets! So typical of those who have made millions to be so cheap in this way.
5
This is the golden age of grifters. How are none of these people in jail for misuse of public funds? Surely we have laws against these blatantly corrupt actions.
2
It’s called treason, which *he* has proclaimed is not a felony, just an oops.
1
TV talking heads continue to blather that Trump and the repub congress have gotten nothing done. This distraction must make the crime syndicate occupying the White House giddy. Through executive orders and administrative action by its horrifying band of cabinet secretaries, the Trump cabal is eroding our public school system; gutting regulatory protections of our air, water and food; handing over large chunks of public land to natural resource exploiters; feeding billions into the black hole of defense spending; deliberately undercutting the ACA's health care options; ruining the lives of former immigrant children; and, making lying to the American public the norm. They're getting a lot done.
4
I realize that analysis of the U.S. Presidency by the newspaper of record conventionally presumes the existence of an underlying framework of rationality. But it seems silly to highlight, for instance, that the pocketing of public resources and the squandering of the public's trust by the swamp creatures of Trump & Co. contradicts his campaign promises, when we know for a natural fact that everything he says has no mooring in truth or intention and is just another note in the snake oil salesman's singsong. (Just look at the words - "make every dream you ever dreamed...come true." That's Disney, not democracy.) It's appropriate to report these many instances of Trumpian self-service at the public's expense but we always knew that this is the kind of "presidency" we would get with Donald Trump.
4
Corruption can't be rooted out when you are the root of it yourself. This is the most corrupt, intelligence-insulting, cynnical and self-interested-only administration in this nation's history.
And, just for grins, let's not leave out Ryan Zinke's bilking of taxpayers for a $12k flight to his home, in Montana, on a private jet, owned by oil and gas interests. According to WaPo, flights from Vegas to his airport regularly sell for as little as $300. It's the only one known so far, but does anyone reasonably think, given the utter bankrupt ethics of this group, that's the only one?
A banana republic by any other name.
4
Who do we turn to? This corrupt behavior of the privileged has to be illegal -- right? And now, Trump is using the tax code to his billion-dollar benefit. There is no shame or end to this, at least not yet.
5
Nancy the Founding Fathers gave us an Obligation & the means to carry it out. They knew a regime like this would come someday, as it comes to all governments when the people let down their guard. The Obligation is in the Declaration of Independence, that is to revolt. Rule of law means nothing to the lawless at the top. They gave us the means in the Constitution. The 1st & 2nd Amendments. Why did they give us the right to ‘bear arms’ when they lived in a time most everyone owned a firearm? When everyone could carryone. Even women who where not considered fully human. Even slaves. Handed a rifle, powder, & shot, & told to go into the forest & shoot food. Guns, & honest gun owners were everywhere. Why would they think the day would come when most Americans would not own guns? But, they gave us that right. The second half of the 2nd Amendment gives us the right to form a country wide, many millions strong, militia. Not like the ones the people who expect the apocalypse any day now have. Or the ones started by bigots afraid of melanin, who hide in the woods, singing bigoted songs, praying to their god for help. But, honest citizens, who wish it had not come to this, but, who know that using cowardice (wait for the next elections) will not save this country. If any of the bigots try to ‘march’ out & stop us with their tiki torches (off the market most places now till next spring), they will learn they do die so easily. Won’t matter if they are male or female.
Seriously NYT don't you understand that Trump and his team are above the need to follow rules and regulations? They are for enemies and lesser beings and if push comes to shove can be swept away with a wave of Trump's pen. After all this is the man who claimed he could shoot some one in Times Square and be absolved of it. and in the rest of society our moral sense is dissolving as if it never existed.
2
General John Kelly ought to quit now and separate himself from the corrupt Trump administration if he wants to preserve a modicum of his personal dignity.
4
And his retirement income, maybe mostly his freedom. He is now so close to the ‘power’ that when the regime is removed. Quite possibly by violence, he will either be one of the first to die (standing in front of his master), or convicted of treason, & either hung or given a reprieve & sent to solitary in the same prison the Boston bomber is in. To never see another human being again in his life. Not family, not friends, not guards. All that is done will be automated. Food delivered robotically, cell with a shower (over the toilet), with hot water 5 minutes a day, on a random schedule. Never to leave the cell conscious. If ill, will be totally sedated, treated, returned to his cell then allowed to awake. A metal slab as both table, desk, & bed. One thin blanket, no pillow. No laying down between 4am & midnight. Lay on the bed or floor out of time, get shocked. Oh, whole cell will be steel. Food will be supremely nutritious, & disgusting. Unflavored tofu. Boiled greens. One 8oz glass of the water the greens were boiled in per meal. One potato roll per meal. All meals exactly alike. For the rest of his life. He should be proud to be sentenced to life like this. He chose to accept a job from someone guilty of HighTreason. He will go down in history with Benedict Arnold.
He is only doing precisely what people who know anything about him, would expect him to do. He's a con artist and the Heartland fell for it, hook line and sinker. I do not know why we continue to see stories suggesting that he might do different. Worse, some people are still waiting, thinking that he might change. He's 71 years of age. He knows nothing different than what he always does. He has never served anyone other than himself.
2
Often he doesn’t even serve himself. He tweets, signs his name in black folders he cannot read what’s in them, lies (even when truth would serve him better), hires dimwits as ‘advisors’. All of which does not serve him well at all. He works against his own interests.
He allows others to do things he has said should be criminal offences (for others), which is just stupid. Right now the words of the day are ‘private email’, which proves that everyone he hires is stupid, makes him look even stupider than he really is, & won’t end until we remove him, & the total regime (including congress).
Trump's misrule reminds me of two things. When my sister married a Texan she flew to Brownsville for her first visit to the Lone Star Republic. In a pickup boys-against-girls volleyball game, the other women explained to her, "We let the good ole boys win down here!" when it was obvious that the women would prevail. Just a few weeks ago we visited Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, where my wife unctuously laid pennies and dimes on John D Rockefeller's tombstone. His grave, like that of the many other robber barons and plutocrats interred in that burial ground, was unadorned by any vestige of belief in a deity. Instead it tastefully refrained from self-aggrandizing quotes or dollar signs, though they hung unspoken in the air beneath the towering obelisk that memorializes that clan...Trump is a plutocrat and cares only about his personal gain. He was able to attract his hangers-on that we have to suffer under by promises, like those the devil is supposed to make, of great wealth and earthly power...
2
Scott Pruitt's soundproof phonebooth in his office is the perfect metaphor for this administration in general and his EPA antics in particular. As he take calls to find out which billionaire polluter needs what environmental regulation gutted or ignored, he needs complete concentration, and of course, privacy...since everything he's doing is unethical, illegal, or simply immoral.
5
gwb43.com mean anything to you? Bush "lost" 22 million emails, arguably a incommensurately larger and material loss to the public record than emails and there weren't 8 investigations much less cries of "lock him up".
Yet the public record has never been a substantive issue other than the inspiration it gave to a raft of leakers from Manning to Snowden to ensure the administration couldn't just bury skeletons out of reach of the public eye.
The lock her up "email scandal" is simply a hypocritical bone for the intellectually challenged and or cynical hyper partisans to chew on. Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act? No more important than the emoluments clause to this administration. I'm sick of distractions to non issues when real corruption is afoot.
4
Trump never cared an iota about Hillary's using a private email server--that's proven by the fact that he doesn't blink over many people in his own administration using private servers. The Hillary-server thing was simply red meat thrown to his "Lock Her Up"crowds. I hope that whoever runs against Trump in 2020 has his/her followers chanting "Lock THEM Up - And HIM too!"
4
He said it himself to a crowd of gleeful supporters that he said what he needed to to win an election.
Mr. Trump has been doing "public service" his entire life! Enriching himself at the cost of every other citizen of this country. "Let them eat cake!" is his public service message borrowed from the same people he imitates in his NY digs!
5
It is said that a fish rots from the head down. Well, the grifter and his family along with His lackeys, cronies and other corrupt individuals who feel entitled or above ethics and the law are proving that saying to be true.
1
Trump has surrounded himself with wealthy, yet morally bankrupt individuals, who will take advantage of their office appointments at every turn. If this is what Trump considers “draining the swamp”, I would hate to see what he would consider leaving the swamp intact.
3
For the (no)Trump,, the term Public Service is an OXYMORON. The objctive of everyone loyal to him to mae himself/herself rich and evryone not loyal should be punished.
1
Electing him, Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail ... would be a government free of self-dealing and one devoted to public service. “If we want to make America great again ... we must clean up this corruption.”
Who ever dreamed that a con man would lie? Or that a career criminal would appoint other criminals to public office? Or that someone with no government experience would behave like an amateur and ignore established norms?
The Trump revolution is revolting.
It would appear that the only thing Trump is doing is draining, allegedly, one swamp and filling another.
3
Republican Representatives in the House and in the Senate were whipped up into a state of extreme hysteria over Hillary's private email server. They declared that she opened up the nation to having hostile foreign powers learn vital secrets and that this was a "criminal" act.
The very same people, are now silent or insistent that somehow when DJT or his minions do it....that it is somehow entirely different.
The GOP is a manifestation of organized hypocrisy. The party's followers are a textbook example of willful, blissful ignorance. I don't want to hear any of them talk about the need for "bipartisanship" or a return to "civility." They have utter contempt for both and for democracy itself.
5
This is just preview of what is yet to come. If we do not unite and protest, it is going to accelerate out downwards slide.
The editorial refers to Mr. Trump's "field of vision"—
He has no field of vision except self-aggrandizement, period.
This statement, or that statement . . . made by Donald John Trump—
Are absolutely worthless and should have no weight given to them.
Frightening situation we have on our hands.
1
RE: Pruitt's $25,000 secure phone booth. Anyone from the 1960s could have told him that the cone of silence doesn't work. Sorry about that Chief.
1
Our democracy lies in ruins. It's time for a protest bigger than the Vietnam march on Washington. Bernie is our only hope. Both parties are a joke.
We must start by overturning Citizens United.
The corruption is so complete, saturating every aspect of this "presidency" that Americans need to take heed.
Can we really afford to lose control of OUR country to grifters?
The corruption, abuses of "privilege," and attitude of this administration is such an affront to the United States and its citizens. Every day they show evidence of their sheer contempt for us, and their complete and total disdain for the rules and government structure that got them to their positions.
We really need a revolution. We need to clean house and get every single one of them OUT of office, starting with 45.
2
None of the broken promises matter, because Trump looks to working hard to fulfill his greatest (though only hinted at) promise: make America white again.
Three young men wearing "MAGA" hats recently intimidated an acquaintance by staring and sending hostile glances to her mixed-race grandchildren, whom she was treating to a fun lunch at a chain restaurant in middle America. Their stares didn't say they were concerned about economic disparity or cleaning up the swamp. More recently, another acquaintance in the same community was told that the hurricanes are God's way of getting rid of sinners.
We can be constantly shocked by the lying and hypocrisy, but it doesn't matter - Trump supporters do not care. All that matters is making America White and Christian.
What exactly did "drain the swamp" mean? (If anything?) Turns out, something like "drain the public pockets"!
Pity those associated with Mr. Trump, Mr. Kelly included, who will be forever tainted by their association. Sorry, but future contrition or forgiveness will not be rendered.
Time to address the elephant in the room...the presidency is not legitimate and must be ended before any irrevocable damage.
Let's get to it people!
2
It's time to talk about the self-loathing of the voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All this was as predictable as the situation in Puerto Rico.
1
It should not be surprising to read of this conduct. Many observers prior to the election viewed this motley crew as insincere at best - those who would lie, cheat and hoodwink in their advance to personal power. That they have descended into naked self interest once in Washington would be in keeping with an amoral core identity - utterly unconcerned about the care and well being of the nation, unable to co-operate even with one another.
1
Self-enrichment is the point. Please, name one republican that left office, ANY office, with less money. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Still waiting.
1
trump and the GOP are turning DC into a superfund site - and the EPA won't have the money to clean it up...
1
It's a shame the US Constitution doesn't have a part about NOT stealing from the American people while in office.
2
Statute of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Trump Administration: "Give me your rich or those who want to live like the rich yearning to get richer with tax cuts and deregulation; cutting health care and other social services to the wretched refuse of those deserving to be poor; and closing our borders and shores. Come and help yourself to our golden door!"
1
This is an outrage, but I've been sighing and shaking my head for years when Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama talk piously about their commitment to lives of public service. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are carting away millions of dollars in "speaker's fees", and all three politicians' and their families are doing very well from their "public service."
1
Please do not blame the Russians, Twitter or Facebook for our national ethical crisis.
“We the People” elected Mr. T. and his bankrupting, tarnished brand of Tomfoolery.
Complacent, numb, bombarded by "fake news," whatever, too many of us sat out this election. “We” believed the polls excused us from voting. (And a multitude of other mistakes, so on, ad infinitum).
I have to wonder, along with so many older others here, “where have all the flowers gone? When will we ever learn?”
3
This just in to the Fake News Desk: Secretary Pruitt requisitioned a TARDIS not a secure phone booth. He used the term "secure phone booth" as a dodge, believing the government accounting office might suspect a requisition for a TARDIS. Sources say Mr. Pruitt's motive for this unusual requisition was to travel into the future to make sure his policies didn't choke the planet to death while he was still in office.
Even before being elected Trump made himself the poster boy of dishonesty in politicians (no small task) and hypocrisy. If we as the electorate become cynics -- it is only because the glass is REALLY not even half full and emptying fast.
To me, Scott Pruitt is the really the one to watch. His dismantling of the environment is the worst. The fact that he needed a soundproof phone booth in his private office is a man who is dangerously paranoid and obviously trying to hide destructive conversations to the US environment.
The rest taking charters are acting no different than those of the Wall Street crowd with their "I'm rich and better than you" attitude. Let us all hope that this is for only a four-year period. Not sure the US can handle more than that.
1
Price and Pruitt are in violation of the law as they are overtly sabotaging healthcare for Americans and anti pollution regulations in effect for the purposes of protecting our environment. Their actions will result in the forfeiture of lives when tens of millions of people will not be able to afford medical care, and for all of us whose health will be fatally impacted due to contamination of water and air in America, our natural resources supporting life.
They were not appointed by Trump, the greatest danger America has ever faced, to do their jobs but to UNDO their jobs for the sake of more profits for billion and trillion dollar industries and the one percent of Americans who control all the wealth. They are his saboteurs.
They are not there in our government to serve America or the 99% of remaining Americans and they do not care who knows this. They have the support of the most unfit president who ever achieved the presidency, by fair and foul means, in American history.
First in order to save ourselves, and our country, Trump needs to be removed from office, and then his entire Cabinet of saboteurs must follow. This administration is attacking our household budgets, our personal safety, our national security, and our health and welfare. This vicious cycle has to stop. Michelle Goldberg nailed it in the title of her first NYT op ed article, we are under the tyranny of the minority. This is not how America works.
1
The actions by Donald Trump and those who work for him makes our government seem that we have been taken over by Noriega-like drug cartel.
Meanwhile, what is the GOP doing about this?
Acting as they usual do, nothing.
Because, they, like Donald Trump, are very likely stand to profit from this lack of oversight and lawlessness, just like their former colleague Tom Price did when he was a member of Congress.
9
For Trump and his clones, it's public self-service, not public service.
5
I said it many times, even during the campaign. This entire embarrassing spectacle is a money generator, for the entire Trump Clan, AND their enablers. They will have huuuuge piles of cash coming in, for decades to come. Without paying a dime in taxes, of course. Because Emails.
Thanks, GOP.
9
Tom Price was a member of Congress in November 2008 when automakers were taken to task for flying private jets to Washington for hearings related to the bailout. Mind you, it was on the company dime, but since they were seeking aid, it was considered arrogant in the least. Pruitt reminds me of Oliver Stone billing the government for a security fence around his private residence. The cognitive disconnection between this administration's accusations of others and an examination of their own actions is simply stunning.
8
I meant Oliver North
“a government free of self-dealing and one devoted to public service.”
To achieve this you must have a leader who is himself devoted to public service and puts in place like-minded individuals. Trump, his family, and his appointees are the polar opposite. They are bankrupting us morally, spiritually and financially.
5
Mt. Price’s idea of reimbursement is a novel one, apparently he believes that if he chartered a 30 seat private jet for $30,000, he will pay the government for HIS seat, or $1,000. With this kind of mathematics, he is clearly in the wrong Trump cabinet post and should be heading up the effort to explain why the new GOP tax plan and its Laffer Curve and “dynamic scoring” will result in economic nirvana for all us peasants
10
I thought it was delightfully ironic that the article refers to the "hoovering up" of White House documents! Of course, the obvious reference is a Hoover vacuum cleaner, but given that it's the FBI, it could also harken back to former Director J. Edgar Hoover, who was infamous for gathering dirt on politicians for leverage to maintain his control of the organization!
4
Welcome to the oligarchy! Donald Trump was not elected President; to him it was just a merger of the United States into the Trump Organization with its Board of Directors (aka the Cabinet) entitled to all the perks and privileges that it provides. These are the billionaire "makers" entitled to living the grandiose life they've earned "by hook or [in this case, it seems] by crook." It is what Trump most admires about Putin--government by kleptocrats. And now that they've been caught in the public's cookie jar, they're trying to legalize it all with what they call "tax reform." Remember Trump's famous motto, "Why pay when you can use other people's money!"
5
This Price thing and other airplane ripoffs are straight up grifting. This kind of gross overreach and entitlement is maybe the only thing that the Trump base might ‘get.’ Next up: what exactly is it costing taxpayers for Trump, Secret Service, and staff to travel to and stay at Trump properties? (Money for our pockets directly to his).
3
His base will never "get" it. That's why they're his base.
The Secret Service had already paid over $60,000 to rent golf carts at Trump's golf courses by August. That goes directly into his pocket. That's only a small portion of what Trump is taking in. Oh, but I forgot, her emails!! When will the House do something? The US is no longer the leader of the free world and no longer s beacon of democracy.
PLANEGATE
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chartered a flight from Las Vegas to near his home in Montana this summer aboard a plane owned by oil-and-gas executives, internal documents show.
The flight, along with private flights during a trip to the Virgin Islands, could propel Zinke into the growing debate over the costs of travel by Cabinet secretaries, some of whom have chosen expensive charter jets and military planes at high expense to taxpayers over the cheaper option of flying commercial.
2
When Trump promised that we would tired of 'winning' when he became president, we forgot to ask who would be doing all this 'winning. Now we know and yes I am tired.
6
Absolutely none of this is surprising, to anyone with the ability to read, hear, see or think. Unfortunately, the electorate that holds the power in Presidential elections seems to be challenged in these areas. They're a lot better at Keeping up with the Kardashians, cheering on their NASCAR favorites, and being willing and gullible pawns of the likes of Alex Jones, Rush, Steve B and let's not forget: Vlad. They brought us this mess. And they will blame someone else when it all comes crashing down on all of us.
7
Generally speaking, it appears that the most pious andvociferous elected officials who loudly preach morality in others are also the most vicious offenders and hypocrites of the highest order. Their hope is that we listen to what they say, rather than seeing what they do. Unfortunately for them, we now live in a world of Twitter, Facebook and other social media which instantly and virally report their misdeeds. They deserve the attention they get, and we deserve far better.
2
Sounds like the current administration can reasonably be described as a bunch of racketeers, colluding with Russian agents to enrich their donors, and themselves. They have utilized their positions to influence people and other organizations to assist in fleecing the government while, at the same time, crippling government agencies to the point of affecting the agencies ability to complete their missions. The republican party, who have enabled this behavior as organization is also corrupt. The investigation into these matters must continue, unimpeded. If Trump does "beat the clock" and fires Mueller, the Attorneys General of any state willing to step forward should step up and prosecute under RICO.
4
Noteworthy is that these businessmen and women Trump has appointed don't think they did anything wrong, as they think the peasantry should just grovel to them, and be thankful for their leaders "great" minds, and an occasional job offering from on high.
1
Shouldn't there be a little voice inside your head that automatically tells you that such brazen uses of government funds are not right? Why do reporters have to be the emissaries of such moral news? The fact that these thefts of funds for personal uses were made without some internal struggles, without doubt or shame is itself an issue. When brought to light, they could offer no explanation, no righteous accounting, just vapid apologies. These are the self righteous plundering of our national coffers that offend the memories of troops who have served and died for this country, not football players bending their knees during the National Anthem.
4
The extent of ethical improprieties and possible violations of law by key members of this administration and the president's family is breathtaking.
One hopes that Mueller's investigation can keep up with each and every potential act and,if unlawfulness prevails, charge every miscreant for every single wrong-bar none. We can't be overwhelmed by the volume of misconduct.
Wrongdoers can't benefit by the quantity of their wrongs. Justice must prevail in order for our country to prevail over this toxic infusion of despicable behavior.
3
Enriching themselves at the public trough, constant lies, and an arrogance that assumes they are not subject to laws and ethics -- these are the characteristics of the Trump crime family and corrupt cronies in the cabinet. While Trump distracts everyone with his current twitter vendettas against top NFL black athletes and bizarrely adolescent insults of the North Korean leader, the Russian investigation moves on and closes in.
I once knew the daughter of a sultan who grew up with children of other East Asian autocrats (the type with death squads), and she said one of their games was to ask what they would take with them if the palace was attacked by rebels and they had to flee by helicopter.
I'm getting that sense from Trump and his push towards tax cuts for the wealthy that would personally benefit his family by billions in addition to all the corrupt profit his businesses have been making from his position. How much money can he grab from the public treasury before he flees the law? Beyond power and ego, there is a bottomless pit of greed in this group.
3
Hillary Clinton's real mistake was co-mingling private emails with those involving government business. She did it for convenience and, maybe, to keep secrets hidden. I have no doubt that these people, so close to Trump himself, are doing the same. If you have suspicions about the Clinton emails, what do you think about this news?
2
One can suppose that Donald has never considered exactly what the word Ethics means. Those ex-legislator's certainly should understand the meaning of that word, but perhaps they know they can ignore it when the WH leader doesn't seem to care about transparency or ethics.
2
I never believed a syllable Trump uttered. Still don't. I actually expected this. If there is one thing Trump is good at, it's staffing his cabinet with grifters exploiting the public dole. Expect it from ANY republican, really, who generally believe at the core that public money should be returned to citizens. But, in the case of elected repubs, that money is returned preferably to the "givers", and not the "takers".
2
Many more emails went missing in the Bush administration when two top officials were found to be using private email servers. That was okay. Many more embassies attacked and staff killed under Bush, too. Also okay.
Now republican supporters will suggest this is okay just as they're okay eating their microwave dinners and paying their taxes while their president avoids paying his and gives his rich cronies a tax cut.
It baffles the mind.
3
Believe it or not, I still see cars festooned with Trump stickers out here in nutty red state country. The drivers believe he will lower their taxes, which are low anyway, except for regressive ones such as sales taxes on household supplies. Property taxes are low, but real estate is expensive, and rents are high. These expenses hit the working class and poor very hard, but often they are subjected to barrages from Fox News, infiltrating public airwaves everywhere. It is truly saddening to see a population so deluded.
3
The swamp widens, its substratum grows more resistant, and the stench is ever more putrid.
If Trump truly understood how swamps work, he would have never made his bold claim (but this is true of all his claims).
This Britannica explanation of a swamp and its "dead matter" is worth noting:
"The flow of water ... is slow because of low gradients and retarding effects of the vegetation. Dead ... matter settles rather than being washed away. The slow replacement and lack of turbulence in the water result in a low rate of oxygen supply. Decay of the dead vegetation quickly uses up what oxygen is supplied, so that the mud and bottom waters are low or lacking in oxygen content. Under these conditions, the decay of organic matter is incomplete. This causes an accumulation of the more resistant fraction (humates and tannins) in the substratum."
2
This administration is, and always has been, a kind of criminal enterprise carried forward from the "glory" of the Trump business empire. investigations are needed, but the sycophants in congress will probably just look the other way.
1
This is all so unfair! As a multimillionaire, Price is accustomed to luxurious elite concierge service in all aspects of life. It is, therefore, both inappropriate and cruel to ask that he travel on regular commercial flights--thereby lowering himself to the level of ordinary Joe and Jane Schmos (e.g., unemployed coal miner, laid-off Carrier worker, former Sears retail clerk). We all know that greatness--like rot--starts from the top. If we ever hope to make America great again, we must start by lavishing this greatness on the multimillionaires. That's clearly what all those Trump voters demanded last November 8!
2
The writers of this editorial had the same problem everyone has in writing about Donald Trump and about the people around him: there so many sins, flaws and lies that the writer does not know where to begin.
When corruption involves a Democrat or even a hapless Republican who has crossed President Trump on some issue, he rails against it loudly and often.
When the corruption involves him, his family or his inner circle, President Trump calls it privilege and claims immunity. If the media complains, Trump wallows in victimhood.
Meanwhile, we move from dodging another dishonest and cruel Obamacare replacement scheme to facing a dishonest and cruel tax-relief plan for the wealthy. Trump, of course, claims that the old trickle-down magic will pay for it.
2
Trump and his (what's the right word?) accomplices came to Washington to take as much as they can, and to treat public resources as their own possessions. They won't stop until they're forced to. It's that simple.
5
Trump, his family, his advisers, his Cabinet members are a wound on this country, a deep, penetrating wound. We are slowly bleeding out.
1
It is also about the image of money spent foolishly on a $25000 phone booth to every person working hard; a person bringing home far less per year with few if any.
And let's not forget the many times Trump told us he was so rich that he didn't need stuff, that his rich appointees would be above reproach. Prior to the election, the Trump family paid for their own security. Now, besides the expected expense of the First Family, we pick up the huge tab for the very expensive habits of the adult children. I did read that Junior has tired of being followed around and is no longer using Secret Service protection??????
And was anyone else on that airplane besides Tom Price? Was it going there anyway? If not then Price should pay the entire cost unless he feels that his local coffee maker should pick up the tab. I too want to fly privately, alas I am squeezed into coach usually with someone spilling into my space.
1
Do you remember the amount of historical White House owned items that Hillary was forced to return when the Clintons left office the first time? $300,000 worth of items. Included was White House china and even Abraham Lincolns chair. This is easy to verify. Simply do a Google search. I remember it when it happened it was all over the news.
I thought the electoral college vetted people first, who were about to be president? Failing this function so badly this time around they need to be held accountable on the “gong show”. They were asleep at the switch! Thanks guys!
2
Does anyone really think that the President did not encourage or at least tacitly approve of this? I can hear him now:"When you're rich and powerful, you can do anything you want." "Go ahead Tom and Steve-you deserve the best."
3
Working for Trump is an open invitation to get fired by
Trump. The cabinet members all swore allegiance to Trump at a meeting
held June 12, 2017.And Price is in danger of getting fired because
of his flying on private jets. Of course, the public has no
idea what the expenses for the Secret Service Trump protection at
Trump's homes in Florida, Bedminster, Manhattan, and the
White House are. Yesterday, Gary Cohn outlined
Trump's new tax plan. He was talking TRILLIONS, and Trump is
worried about flight costs. And the Mueller investigation
goes on, until Trump decides to fire him.
2
A cabinet member who has been striving to take away health care from millions of Americans spends $1 million of taxpayer funds on private jet charters. Is this not, to quote a White House spokesperson on another issue, "a fireable offense" ?
3
Well the depression of 2008 basically served to transfer all the money to the 1%. Other than Madoff, no one was punished (and he was punished because he swindled the rich). Now, the presidency of 2017 has transferred all the integrity, statesmanship, detente to...I don't know where, but it is gone. What, as the middle class do we have left? STOP texting and binge watching cable. Get out there. Vote. Protest. These are desperate times.
6
I encourage whoever the 2020 nominee is to hammer these issues in the campaign. Hit back at Donald with his very own tactics. Sweet, poetic justice.
1
I also read this morning that price wants to reopen the “Executive Dining Room” in the Department. Sounds like he’s looking for a free lunch too!
2
Not since Harding . . . and that level of systemic White House corruption left Republicans holding the reins for over a decade, and required the Depression to finally get them out.
2
None of this is news. People who were paying attention knew this would happen. Because they know nothing Trump says is based on truth, facts, true intentions, any ethical standards, or even rights and wrongs. Everything Trump says is about Trump being great and Trump winning. It is the only thing he cares about. Period.
3
Justice Gorsuch speaking yesterday at the trump hotel in Washington certainly reinforces the notion that all trump appointees lack a sense basic propriety.
5
Yet I sit here at age 53 reading this stuff, did all I could to put three kids through college, pay my mortgage, wife and I both professional careers. She a public school teacher who carries our health insurance, after three years without a raise received a 1% increase this year, while the premium for the health insurance has effectively doubled for us for that period. I have faithfully contributed to a 401k with the hopes that another crash doesn't wipe it out. 8 years now of repeal and replace and nothing to show for it but a nervous market and a fearful public. Now a tax overhaul that will jeopardize long term economic stability with gifts to the wealthy. We sit here and wonder about the fate health care and social security, with an aging population, and have to listen to this nonsense day in and day out; the corruption, the phony culture wars, the personal attacks, the assault on our core democratic principles?. This is truly out of control. Democratic leadership, go on the offensive and start jumping up and down, put forth a plan, this is your moment. Start running campaign adds now like he's doing, please, for the countless others out here living through this uncertainty, do something and don't stop!!!
469
This could have been written word for word by me. Thanks
2
Yep, it's like the news just keeps getting worse and worse..
yes! Democrats DO SOMETHING!!! Call for prosectuion ans impeachment now. We know enough to do that. Start telling Americans the truth,...I don't hear any of you!
I don't think HHS Secretary Tom Price is the first and only cabinet member who took this opportunity to have a good time. If we are really serious about this issue whether it is a corruption or "legalized corruption," we should dig deeper to single out every one who did this before. Although I don't think this investigation will fly because Washington D.C. just has too many dark secrets they don't want us to know. On the other hand, I would like to thank the press including NY Times who works diligently, long and hard to nail down Trump's promises and faults.
2
Its bad enough that the credo of the 1980's, "greed is good" spread throughout the private sector, now its spread to the people at the top of our government. That's because the same people in the private sector who bought into this are now serving in the public sector. Time for all of us to rethink that dictum.
6
I think that Trump went into the heartland of the USA, to the small towns where the majority of residents have rudimentary education, narrow viewpoints, , and united and inspired them with pride at his rallies. And now he's forgotten all about them, having surrounded himself with wealthy capitalist friends and family who have no intention of helping the people of America. They just want to help themselves. Maybe someday it will dawn on the small town USA citizens who voted for Trump just how they have been duped, used, and then dumped, like an innocent young virgin. It's the Trump game strategy.
6
Such insensitivity to ethical standards is a perfect example of what has been known for a long, long time. Those who represent the current administration don't know how to "govern". They only know how to "rule". They have no understanding of how our government works and of their responsibilities in that regard.
3
If I recall correctly John Sununu, who was Bush 1's chief of staff, used a government plane to go to a stamp show in New York. Shortly thereafter, he was fired. Given his multiple uses of private jets, it is long past time for Secretary Price to go.
4
The oligarchs, the owners of the Republican party, do care about public perception of their coup.
However it is simply a matter of manipulation, much like the selling of cars or deodorant.
The citizen reduced to commodity.
3
I wonder what the direct cost of Trump to the government is each month: the trips to his properties on Air force one, the security, the cost of travel of other officials who travel with him. When he traveled to Alabama to help Strange in his campaign against Moore, is that presidential business, what did that cost the people of the United States? Where do all the people who go with him to his places on weekends stay? At his properties? The food, the lodging, the cocktails, what does that cost? Obscene.
2
This editorial could have been written on day one of the Trump presidency, sure in the knowledge that events would unfold like this with more revelations sure to come along later today.
I'm reminded again that America is living small. Navel-gazing, distracted by the shiny object of the day. Where is the inspired call to collective action to address our opportunities and our problems? I see many calls coming from citizens to drop everything and help our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico but no corresponding call to work on climate change. That work might well include having a national conversation about where to rebuild and what to let go as seas rise. I see many calls to support millionaire football players express themselves (which I of course urge them continue to do) but no national dialogue calling us together to support changes in the systemic poverty, police brutality, and day-to-day humiliations that our minorities suffer. We can do so much better.
5
You are absolutely right, the shiny object of the day, the Russian investigation has clearly shown us how the male titans of technology were to stupid to realize that the Russians were stealing our election. Watch the CEO of Twitter on CSPAN for all their money they have no concept of the real world. We are going to make the world a better place. Smug rich smart aleck business people. Well the Russians fooled you all. Any business student knows if you do A think about B however they were to busy to consider negative consequences. Zuckenberg told President Obama he didn't know what he was talking about. What is the net worth of the consultants technology employee's of these companies assisting the Russians we know they were paid very well. Mr. Price is just one of the iceberg tips, this administration has done nothing but make fools of American public the same way Wall Street destroyed this country the world, in 2008 the president is acting like Puerto Rico lost billions on their own, look to Wall Street which is this administration for the destruction of this country.
1
Betsy DeVos has investments in companies involved in collecting student debt and in companies involved in funding for-profit colleges. It makes raising the interest rates, changing policy about collecting student debt, and re-opeing for profit colleges to government funding suspect.
Steve and Marie Antoinette Mnuchin deserve the people of the US to provide transport because they give so much back.
Donald Trump was under investigation for fraud with Trump University, and has something he doesn't want disclosed in his tax data, and openly discussed that being rich allowed him to grope women, and we elected him anyway.
Rick Perry is in charge of our nukes - the department he couldn't even remember - and Ben Carson is discovering if running HUD is or isn't brain surgery. The people looking for housing after several disasters may find out.
What did we expect? Trump blasted empty words over and over, and did completely different things all through the campaign. Why would we think that he wouldn't be out to out-Harding the Harding Administration?
5
The Editorial Board, on a designated day of every week, should feature and expose the ongoing corrupt conduct in office of specific Trump appointees. It will, of course, never run out of salacious material. I'm certain that there are numerous, potential whistleblowers most willing to aid the Board in this vital public service effort. The name of the recurring column could be entitled "The Swamper of the Week"!
1
I don't know about you, but in the past I would have just thought that all these scandals would help the opposition in midterm elections. Now, I really don't know. It seems like America has crossed the line into third-world government and all corruption is met with a shrug.
My wife and I have been watching the new season of Narcos on Netflix, and even the Cali Cartel themselves could probably pick up a few tips from Trump's team...
1
We have a bunch of amateurs in the White House - all playing Big shot - they don't know or care to play by the rules. Beyond this, I worry more about the mindset of this president's supporters who yell and cheer him on at his rallies. We need to improve education. School budgets have been cut to the bone - Music and Art - well forget that - it's gone from school curriculum - But Civics definitely should be brought back so kids can learn how our government works.
It's so incredible to me how some voters can believe what this man dishes out.
5
There is nothing illegal or corrupt about White House officials using their personal email accounts for government business as long as they forward the messages to their official email accounts so the emails can be archived for national records. It is a practice that should be discouraged, but it is not comparable to Hillary Clinton setting up a private email server in her home basement and using it to conduct all her official State Department business, including the exchange of classified information. A FBI investigation did not clear Clinton of criminal wrongdoing. FBI Director James Comey recommended that Clinton should not be indicted even though she mishandled classified information in an “exceeding careless” manner because he concluded she did so without criminal intent. However, the statue making mishandling classified information requires no showing of criminal intent. The statue is designed to prevent federal employees from carelessly handling classified information. It is designed to prevent carelessness, not espionage. FBI directors make recommendations, but do not determine guilt or innocence and do not determine who should be prosecuted. The FBI investigation gave the Justice Department all the evidence it needs to prosecute and convict Clinton of grossly mishandling classified information and violating the National Records Act if it wanted. She is protected because an indictment would be construed as part of a political vendetta.
Is he? Has he?
"Price is paying the price for his use of private jets and has agreed to reimburse the government for that."
The "price" should be Price's loss of a job. Criminal prosecution is probably "out" because he got each of those expenses formally approved. But he should go -- immediately if not sooner. Even if he got every expenditure "approved," he should have been savvy enough to understand that "appearances" count too, and the "appearance" of flying around on private chartered jets, at taxpayer expense, is not a good one -- especially for the short distance from Dulles Airport to Philadelphia. Advice to Tom Price on that one: it's only 130 miles -- drive next time. Whatever you do, don't charter a plane for that 130-mile stretch, especially at taxpayer expense.
What was this guy thinking? Perhaps a better question: WAS this guy thinking?
1
Tom Price makes Trump appear saintly! Tom Price is well known for his lack of ethics and corruption in Georgia, his approach resembles an organized crime boss with inside trading secrets made possible by his legislative opportunities. Tom Price is no friend of the poor and the least fortunate, yet, he is in charge of HHS. He is not a public servant, but a self-interest servant with the goal of self-enrichment at any cost. He is perhaps one of the least ethical politician ever to come out of Georgia, and this should be alarming enough.
6
Recently I have been rereading one of my favorite books, Robert Graves's "I, Claudius."
It's astonishing and chilling to realize the parallels between the last years of the reign of Tiberius/the reign of Caligula and the reign of Our Fearless Leader. The utter corruption, the mindless grasping for power, the looting of Rome's treasury, the endless lying, the cowing and terrorizing of the populace, the outright theft of people's fortunes and livelihoods, the "I don't have to follow the law because I am the emperor" mindset, the sacrifice of honor on the altar of avarice, the occasional but all too quickly snuffed out courage and integrity of a few good men and women, the utter and unending rot at the core of the greatest and most powerful country the world had ever seen.
It is astonishing, and unnerving, and deeply troubling. We should all be very afraid.
5
Price's destructive administration of HHS included slashing funds to organizations that assist consumers with enrolling in the ACA, and increasing their knowledge of how plans differ from one another. The money he has wasted on travel for himself and his staff could have kept the doors open at several of these organizations that find themselves in financial straits now.
3
Americans need to connect the dots of history. Remember how Reagan railed against big government and the Beltway Bandits siphoning off taxpayer funds to their estates in Virginia horse country? Well sure enough, under his administration, federal revenues flowed to a new set of contractors to an extent that dwarfed anything Washington had seen since the Civil War. Clearly, the term “public service” really means “serve yourself to the public’s monies”.
1
This is just the tip of the corruption in play with the Trump administration as it was said the fish rots from the head, Trump and family have been cashing in wildly on being in the White House. The Hotel down the block ,Maralago White House private club at $200k annual membership. The lobbyist and super rich are able to meet with Trump and his power brokers and gain favors some which remain secret. Trump is anxious to lift sanctions on Russian oil deals which sure the Trump family would get its cut. Deliver Ukraine and break up the western alliance is worth a fortune to Putin I;m sure Don and Jared would get a cut of those offshore profits. What foreign bank could turn down a loan request from Jared son in law of the most powerful man in the world. Putin and Trump seem to be working in tandem to destroy American democracy and divide our country there must be an enormous payoff for Trump or a lot of fear of what Putin has on Trump. Mueller needs to explore all these links and if the GOP can get the courage to impeach Trump if criminal activity on Trump regime are revealed or will they cower in fear of his thumbs on twitter
1
Everyday I get that deeper sinking feeling about being "had", not me and many of the NYT readers for sure, but the masses of Americans who bought what Donald Trump was fast selling. Over time (and it will take awhile) the truth always rises. We're 9 months into this mess and the truth keeps bubbling up.
1
Brian Williams asked no less than Ken Starr earlier tonight if he thought the President would be called to testify. Yes or no.
"Yes," Starr said. A chill went up my spine.
I'd like all of this to be over quickly, cleanly. But I think the drama really only has just begun, and the nastiness will be like nothing we've ever seen.
1
Tom price has said that he will give back some of the money he stole. You should give him some credit for his generosity. It might inspire the others.
1
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None of this matters until the Dems get the House back, and that is in no way certain. Although, in a decent country with more decent people than not, it should be as certain as gravity.
Right now, we have the physical obstacle of time against us. Nov 2018, will tell us if we have the moral obstacle of votes against us.
2
When your president thumbs his nose by refusing to turn over his personal tax statements, brow beats industry owners to manufacture goods here in America not overseas or south of the border while his own and Trump family members goods are produced overseas, what kind(s) of message(s) does that send to members of his administration, especially his cabinet? Really now, we all know, as the saying goes, "It starts at the top".
And why isn't this notion of 'What's good for the goose is good for the gander?' ever discussed at press briefings? Why isn't it asked "why doesn't the Trump Family have their goods manufactured here in the USA? Let them use their billions to build factories here in America, in the regions still suffering from the exodus overseas of our manufacturers?
2
If you thought that stacking the cabinet with the rich would result in their using their own money for honeymoons and such rather than raiding the public till, you were sadly mistaken. One of the reliable hallmarks of the rich is that they always avoid using their own money. It's never enough, you see. And never will be.
1
Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Jesus meant that a man's wealth implied that he wasn't doing enough for the poor. But Jesus might have also found suspect the means by which the rich came by their wealth. He knew that it often wasn't just hard, honest work or inheritance that amassed their wealth; unethical behavior was more often than not involved. Case in point is Trump. Makes you wonder about most of his cabinet choices, too.
1
From railroad barons getting rich with free land from the government, to war profiteers, to a long long line of others who have received special deals on taxes, cheap federal leases, etc., etc., etc. Trump just got in the line and when he announced that would likely make money from campaigning, we all should have known that there would be no dark cloud for him as he lines his pockets with public silver.
1
As the attendance at Mr. Trump's rallies suggest, his supporters applaud this behavior and the complete absence of a coherent policy in any area, including ethics.
It is truly mind boggling.
1
As they say in parenting, the best thing you can do to raise ethical, upstanding, and truthful children is to model the behavior. Unfortunately, modeling behavior works the other way too. Trump's own disdain for any rules, ethical behavior, disclosure of information, transparency, liquidation of assets, etc. and general attitude that what's 'right' is whatever he can get away with promoted the idea that it was not only OK but deserved. Of course his staff - whether they had a similar predisposition of entitlement (likely) or not - read those private and very public signals as a sign that it was OK for them too. 'Get what you can get and do whatever you want to do, just lie about it so that you can get away with it' seems to be their collective credo. We can't and shouldn't understate their own personal responsibility, lack of morals, lack of decency, lack of judgment, or lack of duty to fellow Americans at all. They should be held responsible. But to use an analog heard in my childhood, 'the fish rots from the head down' certainly applies here.
3
Tom Price chose orthopedics for his medical speciality. No surprises here. Doctors who choose to specialize in orthopedics are, by all accounts and studies, the highest paid of all medical specialists.
2
I can't help recalling the famous line, "Only little people pay taxes." To DT and his minions, we're all little people. We're the ones who fly commercial, use official servers for official business, disclose our finances to the public, avoid mixing public and private gains, etc.
Of course DT and his team don't worry about such trivialities - they're not "little people."
1
As others have asked, how does this happen physically? I travelled for years as an employee. I had a company credit card which I was responsible for paying. If Roseanne downstairs did not buy my reason for purchasing that ticket, or if I had not completed the contact report for the meeting, I was on the hook for the ticket. Someone somewhere in Price's office approved this unless he did it himself from his government issued smart phone. I thought we were going to run government like a business: you know, the boss makes the rules and the rest of us follow them. Maybe the boss was not paying attention?
1
My general rule of thumb, in place since the advent of Trump's (mis)administration, is to listen to what he says and then take the opposite to be true.
As Chief-Grifter-in Charge, is it any surprise that members of his Cabinet saw the public treasury as their private piggybanks, functioning solely to fund their 'lifestyles of the rich & famous' travel expenses? And what about Scott Pruitt's 'cone a silence' at EPA? How is it that a government official functioning outside the WH needs a sound-proof communications chamber? What communications is he trying to hide?
To Trump and his ilk, the concept of public service is more akin to personal service: let the treasury cover us while we shaft the public.
1
"We need to run the government like a business, we need a real businessman in there." Well, the purpose of a business is to turn profits for the businessmen. Welcome to the Trump administration.
1
This is how people behave when they don't think the rules apply to them, and, when they're getting no instructions to the contrary from leadership.
1
The basic editorial argument appears to be that rent seeking and sloppy, irresponsible behavior is rampant and tolerated under Trump. I’m afraid I find the argument unsupported by fact.
First, the incidences of such behavior by officials are only significant in specific individuals, and not a lot of them. Second, that behavior is highlighted under Trump as energetically as it would have been under any other recent president; and not hidden. Finally, Pruitt’s fate in the wake of his excess with private planes is very much up in the air – Trump’s comment about that fate (“we’ll see”) doesn’t bode well for Pruitt, given that they’re the same words Trump used when answering a similar question on the fate of Steve Bannon. Stay tuned for his thoughts on Mnuchin.
Then, nobody has disproved the contention by Jared Kushner and others that use of private emails was limited, not sensitive and primarily the outcome of other people sending emails to THEM.
Seems like a contention the editors see ideological value in flogging, desperately going in search of justification, which persists in being thin and unconvincing.
2
It's like you are a textbook case of how to miss the point.
Richard: If you are going to diss the Editorial Board, at least get your "facts" straight - it is Price who is being investigated for putting over a million dollars on your tax bill for private travel. Pruitt is just being castigated for spending $58,000, plus the $25,000 for his secure phone booth - wonder who he does not want any ears listening to his conversation with?????
Trying to put politics aside, is there anything positive to say about this Administration? The President insults world leaders who are our allies; he boasts, he brags, but, so far has accomplished little; when criticized or simply questioned, he becomes petulant and threatens. He has little grasp of or interest in most world affairs. His only domestic concern seems to be his personal wealth.
Members of his Cabinet, etc. are now bilking the public treasury for their own benefit
69
Two things. I'm wondering why nobody stopped the secretaries from chartering expensive flights in the first place? There are very clear rules in the government about how much you can and cannot spend on travel and other things. Why is it that these secretaries can so easily break the rules?
The other thing is, email in the government is a nightmare. The press never spoke to this with Clinton, had they done so they could have cleared up a lot of confusion. Just logging in to a government email account is tedious beyond belief, it blows any convenience that email might otherwise give you completely away.
I am not saying that anyone is justified in using private email, or expensive travel, but the *rules* for public servants can create unnecessary hassles and it's actually a problem for everyone in government, not just the executives.
12
While I agree in principle with what you say, government email is not the only venue where these kinds of issues exist. As an RN in a hospital, to check my email from home (which I do need to do on occasion), I have to go through four steps (count them: four) consisting of various logins and sign ins. Of note, until three weeks ago, it was seamless. Then they decided to improve the process. Every time I attempt to log in I have to call IT to assist me (and I'm not a technophobe, believe me). The problem is not isolated to the government.
6
The press would have been blamed as complicit in apologizing for Clinton.
The right wing media has too much power.
What I do not understand : if you are not allowed to charter a jet or take a government plane, how do you actually get on the plane and request it to take you somewhere ? If Price is not supposed to be able to charter these planes, how does he arrange for payment ? Where are just the fundamental financial controls that any business would implement ? I am pretty sure that if I chartered a jet on my corporate card, it would raise some pretty interesting red flags before I have a chance to even board the plane. Businesses need to build in systemic controls for just such scenarios, because sadly there are people like Price everywhere, looking for any and every personal advantage, ethical or not. Why is it even physically possible for Price to break the law and abuse us in this manner ?
40
mcdevo--the rank and file never dreamed anyone in the cabinet would ever do such a thing, without permission. Perhaps they are not accustomed to the higher-ups not following the rules. WHAT am I saying? :-O
2
There's no one watching.
2
I wish someone on this newspaper would research this question and tell us the answer! Seems like this info should be part of the article/opinion piece, or whatever.
1
This Administration is run by the "donor class" of billionaires & multi-millionaires who place their self-interest above all else. In their view, the US government is to be used a personal piggy-bank to benefit themselves. This is the government the Trumpeters demanded because these "businessmen" (& almost all are men) know how to run things. They know how to run things into the ground & they are doing it. With more tax cuts for the rich & corporations the middle-class will see no infrastructure spending & no wage growth. Expect more cuts to our park system, to scientific research, to education & to health care. It's the Republican way.
69
This latest attach on young men in NFL by Trump is purposeful distraction. It seems his base loves to hate. Throw a few protesters under the bus and suggest unsportsmanlike hitting as just something that's part of the game and it's a great feeding frenzy for this less than charitable base. An accident? I don't think so. This is food for that love of anger. Gives them something simple minded to focus their hate on and it occupies them so they don't see all the empty promises and self promoting. Next will be some Bill Riley style "Merry Christmas" stupidity. That could carry the base right through January.
53
This is so true!! Let's put the focus on the NFL so that we don't look at Trump! Problem is that for someone is supposed to be so "smart' he is certainly stupid. That is so transparent.
1
Ironically, "merry Christmas" are two words Jesus never said.
Mr. Trump has consistently violated laws, and he appears not to be checked by any moral or ethical boundaries that society agrees to uphold. His appeal is to those that want it all, without putting in the time and effort to earn it.
His shallowness makes him a perfect anti hero for tabloid newsprint and cable television.
That his cabinet members are of the same low character as he is unsurprising; who with any scruples would willingly work along side of him to advance his agenda, no matter the paycheck or the perks?
36
The entire Republican ideology is built around the Ayn Rand/Rand Paul conviction that personal enrichment is the highest moral principle, that greed is good for America, that a sense of entitlement is justified for the rich but never for the poor, and that any attempt to pull back the curtain or interfere with the accumulation of wealth by hook or by crook is an infringement on liberty. How else could they be expected to behave in power?
72
According to Fortune magazine, 86% of businesses organized as pass throughs already pay 25% or less. Most small businesses get no tax relief under Trump's plan.
Any business with few employees is a small business, even an investment partnership trading billions of dollars. The 14% of pass throughs that pay the top rates are mostly tax partnerships, law firms, and tax havens. And they make most of the income from pass through businesses.
Trump has 500 pass throughs.
When are small business people going to realize that they are being used? Over and over the Republican Party sells tax cuts and other breaks for the rich by selling them as help for small business.
The scam for government privatization is similar. There is a limit to how much government employees on union salaries can scan the governor for. But with giant, no bid, cost plus contracts, profits made off your tax dollars are limited only by their level of chutzpah.
How many small businesses are getting those contracts? How many global corporations are getting those contracts?
And how many small U.S. businesses have overseas profits sitting in foreign bank accounts, waiting for a tax holiday, so they can pay zero taxes. When global corporations that moved their factories to other countries, taking your customer's income and giving it to foreign workers, pay no taxes on those profits, who do you think will make up the difference.
The rich are using small business people.
30
The result will be that small businesses pay under the table and under report their income. How else shall they survive under this plan?
6
The hypocrisy regarding the email accounts is bigger than you realize. Secretary Clinton's emails were on a private *server*, with stored content only accessible to the server administrators, presumably trusted government employees. But private email *accounts* are run by hosting companies. Given their ubiquity, it's likely that one or more of the accounts involved are gmail accounts, which are expressly scanned by Google.
42
I hope sure that this 8 months ride puts and end to the notion that all CEOs are smart and they know how to run government better than anyone.
There are smart CEOs but majority are weak- like Trump/Jared who are there because they're there. They can't even run their own personal budget or follow process w/o help and worse then all of Military members.
CEOs can't run public office never ever because Public office has a goal of helping citizens and not making money from the customers.
37
I don't know why anyone would be surprised by Mr. Trump or his appointees' actions. Trump's moneyed backers got exactly what they paid for. We now have a Presidency wrapped in the arms of every lobbying/business faction that has tried to influence our government since World War I. If you think these first few months are interesting or corrupt, wait until they get finished with their tax legislation. Trump has unveiled the most corrupt Federal government we have ever seen. It is only going to get worse.
35
Our doubts about Mr. Trump's ability to lead by example have now been resolved by the self-dealing corrupt behavior of his lieutenants. When President Trump's impeachment becomes imminent, it will be interesting to see whether he tries to pardon himself.
25
President Obama is an ethical man so he surrounded himself with ethical people. Trump has always been a self serving showman so of course he is surrounding himself with people who are equally if not more self serving. I'm not really sure why people are surprised anymore by the behavior of the people in this administration.
All we can do is hope that the press continues to report on any and all ethical issues so the voters can act accordingly in the next election. Sadly not all people who go into public office do so for altruistic reasons. While we would hope that all elected officials are in the mold of President Carter or Vice President Biden, sadly more than a few are more like Tom Price and view politics as a way to build personal wealth.
38
Love your eval, Ami. Ditto!
If we can't be enraged for ourselves maybe we can at least want what is best for future generations. As we let our government waste money on wars and private jets, the expense goes on our national credit card - the national debt which must be paid for by our grandchildren either in future taxes or an impoverished lifestyle. The same goes for stupid tax cuts for the wealthy and an elimination of the estate tax. And don't forget degradation of our environment, public safety and public health. Right now, I don't want a tax cut, but I do want to breathe.
23
All true but one point: the national debt doesn't have a maturity date. It never comes due. Our grandchildren won't pay it off any more than we did, unless they choose to. (Remember, we were going to, accidentally, as we ran a surplus in the 90s. Then we elected Bush.)
We should raise taxes, yes. The federal government spends 20% of GDP, but takes in only 17%. That's not sustainable indefinitely.
The Republican remedy is a tax cut, naturally, accompanied be specious claims of economic growth et cetera. The right answer -- one that would decrease income inequality and pay for useful improvements to education, transportation, and healthcare -- is a more progressive tax code, one that raises rates on the wealthy.
That's what the Democrats did with Obamacare. The whole country benefited, and promptly elected Republicans who promised to undo it.
Let's just say it's not the national debt that's an existential threat to the nation.
3
With regard to personal emails, the criminal issue has always been whether these emails disclosed classified information. That is what the FBI investigation of Ms. Clinton was all about. Everybody knew she was using a personal server but the FBI didn't consider charging her for that. Nor was the FBI concerned about technical violations of Records Acts. Ms. Clinton was the Secretary of State. Her emails included pervasive statements related to foreign affairs. That's what concerned the FBI. Comparing Ivanka Trump's emails with those of Ms. Clinton is ludicrous Ms. Trump is nowhere near the top of the foreign policy hierarchy. Her email practices don't remotely pose the threat of those of the Secretary of State. To suggest otherwise is a gross distortion of the issue at hand.
3
Ahhh....you've seen Ms. Trump's emails, I see. Perhaps, you could share some of this information with the press or the public. I'm quite sure that there would be a great deal of interest.
2
Breaking protocol is breaking rules. No difference.
2
Don't you think it those Emails should be read before you claim I.Trumps innocence? Russia if you're listening....Au contraire, Ivanka is a close as one can get to the foreign policy hierarchy and the President. Who else can walk in a cabinet meeting to confer with Daddy.
2
The Price issue is emblematic of the entire Trump mentality. Trump has always scoffed at the law, and while he has expressed his displeasure with Price, taking advantage of the system is endemic to Trump, so his indicating that he's "not happy" with Price is lip service. With the swamp now overflowing, I don't think even a steadfast patriot like Kelly will be able to tolerate much more of it. And once he goes, there goes any inkling of a salvageable presidency.
16
Donald Trump's legislative successes are virtually non-existent, but Donald Trump the opportunistic politician has been very successful at destroying the traditional process of legislative governing in Congress. He has capitalized on the Public's steady erosion of trust of formulating legislation through compromise by substituting "Pay to Play" and individual relationships for traditional legislative procedure and he has reduced Executive political policy formation to mean whatever is important to the individual/corporation willing to be the highest financial bidder.
13
Draining the swamp means reducing or eliminating those federal employees who act and believe that they are the government, they resist doing what any conservative administration might want. Eliminate whole departments that are basically obsolete, and reduce those that have achieved a lot of their mission.
3
Right. Obsolete departments like State, Education, EPA, Interior, the CBO, Ethics. This is not a 'conservative' administration, this is a kleptocracy. How many businesses has our good POTUS bankrupted, how many small businesspeople has he cheated? He is not and never has been a public servant, he is loyal to one person only, and that is himself. The cronies that he has placed in positions of great power are like him, no sense of personal or professional ethics, no hesitation in using OUR money to make nice with those who can advance their careers and personal wealth. There are a multitude of civil servants who have spent their careers trying to keep America great (diplomats for example) who are leaving because the WH is so corrupt. It will take many many years for the damage this administration has done to be repaired.
2
Draining the swamp never meant anything. It was a slogan invented to appeal to persons like yourself who suppose the president can or even wants to do much about self-dealing in Washington.
There are no agencies in the federal government whose purpose is obsolete or largely accomplished. Things like national defense, environmental protection, and education are ongoing projects.
That doesn't mean there's no self-dealing. Tom Price used his office to enrich himself, and he's hardly alone. But the idea that any president can do much to curtail legal-but-shady dealing is mistaken, and the idea that this president would is doubly so. He's appointed a bunch of crooks, and daily violates the emoluments clause. If you don't believe me, look at his tax returns. Oh.
1
Trump has no personal experience serving others, so it is hardly surprising he has no concept of public service. Unfortunately, most Americans have no experience with public service either, with only a tiny fraction serving in the military or in any level of government.
Voter turnout is low compared to most advanced countries. Over the past five presidential elections, turnout averaged slightly under 56%, while turnout in the 2014 mid-terms dropped to a 70-year low of 36%. The Trump presidency and the Republican Congress result from too few Americans exercising their most basic right.
Our first reality-show President is doing incalculable damage by driving expectations for public servants even lower. This comes at a bad time in world history, as rising nations like China are better able to compete and old adversaries like Putin's Russia challenge us in new ways.
It would be a good time to have an effective government grappling with the challenges of the 21st Century, but instead we have a backward-looking regime that does not give a whit about the common good.
We are left with the hope that a dedicated public servant like Special Counsel Mueller will bring an early end to the corrupting ways of the Trump administration. When Trump is finally gone, it will take years to repair the damage
37
As a businessman with customers he has experience serving others, just not that traditional type of experience in politics or government. In business when you don't serve well you go out of business, in government you just have an excuse and try again.
Yes. In business if you don't serve well you go out of business. And how many failed businesses has the President had? I don't quite remember but let's see: Trump University, Trump steaks, a casino or two ...not a sterling reputation or recommendation.
2
That's not the kind of business Trump is in. Those who run the hotels he franchises might be, but he isn't. Just look at how often he is sued or how he treated people as as a landlord.
Further, honestly, when did you last feel like customer where the company felt it had to work to keep your business, where you didn't feel you had to follow THEIR rules, sign the THEIR user agreement, accept THEIR terms and conditions. Large companies of the type Trump might be involved in now impose their conditions on the customer who should feel grateful to be fleeced.
2
this is what his supporters want, they wanted the swamp drain, they just didn't understand the scum you find at the bottom is always worst then what at the top.
Let's hope they finally kill obamacare and cut taxes, this way his support get screwed by the very clown they elected, now that justice at least for me, to see them suffer.
14
The swamp has not even started to be drained, see what happens over at State for an example of what it will entail. Lots of traditional and long term employees are retired, or fired.
1
Republicans hate democracy. That's what you want - to live in a dictatorship.
1
Where I grew up in dairy country farmers would bring in a bull to "service" a cow.
This administration is all bull .... and the public is getting serviced.
39
What a joke, and what happened from that "service". the answer was valuable cows to maintain their business. Being served to produce value is what those that support the president desired.
Washington has given swamps a an undeservedly foul reputation. Natural swamps serve important ecological services as filters, buffers, havens for wildlife, much of the latter at one time a major source of protein for the table.
Swamps have been equated with sewers, but about the only shared element is the solvent, water. Washington, though, is better compared to the man-made sewer with a slightly different shared solvent: cash.
125
Or through foolish union rules, career employees who think they are in charge and should control the government. That is the "swamp" or cesspool.
I've always had the same reaction to "draining the swamp." Swamps are essential. Great post, Glen.
3
Exactly, Trump's use of swamp instead of sewer and sewage is one more example of how Trump's narrow neural pathways, due to his incuriosity, has resulted in his ignorance of science, instead of him bestowing the understanding and appreciation it deserves.
3
Just had my annual government ethics training. How is it that I can't accept a $20 lunch from the ABA while making a legal presentation at a conference, but others can charter private jets??? We work for the same government... what am I missing? And the list goes on and on.
456
Rich Republicans don't have to follow the same rules as the commoners. It's the law, unwritten, but still valid after thousands of years of history.
1
As a small farmer, if I give my part-time worker lunch because we are working longer, I am supposed to add that bologna sandwich in to total compensation for taxes. A private plane with a stopover for vacation? I've just been thinking WAY TOO SMALL!
1
Here's what you're missing: you're thinking too small. Forget about that $20 lunch. Set your sights much higher. You have plenty of role models to guide you.
2
Expecting Gen. Kelly to rein in anybody on the Trump money-train is like expecting snow in the Sahara Desert. Kelly, the former Sec'y of Homeland Security, is on record as being a classic racist who reveled in rounding up people suspected (not proven) of not having the necessary documentation proving American citizenship. Along with other military generals, Kelly now reluctantly holds the reins on the bellicose Trump.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Kelly to rein in anybody.
136
One set of rules for the USA,
One set of rules (no rules) for Trump and his cohorts.
175
Talk about abuse of power - How did Bill and Hillary Clinton acquire a net worth in excess of 50 million dollars during their careers as government employees, aka "Public Servants"?
Marine d'Arc. Why don't you look at their 30 years of publicly available tax returns. It might help you understand the difference between illegal public corruption and legal private enterprise.