“It is an extraordinary incident of bald self-dealing, even in an administration where such blatant corruption has become de rigueur.” – The Guardian
By Marc C. Johnson
I’ve written a column for the Lewiston Tribune newspaper in Idaho for a long time now. I’m glad “the Trib” still tolerates me on its editorial page.
The paper is special in Idaho – and the country – for being fiercely independent and outspoken on its editorial positions, a not always comfortable position for a family-owned newspaper in a very conservative state.
I wrote the piece below for the Trib this week … thanks to those good folks and to all of you.
Let’s consider a hypothetical, a hypothetical that after this week may not be all that fanciful.
Let’s say it’s 2029.
Former Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a decorated Navy veteran, has been elected president of the United States. In a close 2028 election Kelly defeated former Vice President JD Vance. Vance had the endorsement of Florida billionaire Donald J. Trump but was also weighed down by the former president’s political baggage, including ethical and policy failures for which he was never held accountable. Now Trump is relaxing at Mar a Lago, enjoying as much as a man in decline, out of shape and 83-years old can, the billions he made while president.
It was quite a run for the Orange Man.
Now a Democratic president has inherited his piece of this new Trump Era reality. As Richard Nixon infamously said, after he’d been forced from office by the Watergate scandal – “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
It can be quite a run for the next guy.
Let’s imagine a Democrat – or anyone else – doing this
Mark Kelly, who had been investigated by Trump’s Pentagon for reminding active duty military personnel that they have a duty to reject an illegal order and then was investigated a second time for allegedly improperly discussing the shrinking U.S. weapons supplies during Trump’s long war with Iran, decides it’s time for payback.
If Trump can do it, Kelly thinks, anyone can do it.
As president, Kelly sues his own Department of Defense (DOD) for $10 billion in damages for impugning his reputation just as Trump once sued the IRS, an agency under his control.
In fact, Kelly, like Trump, is actually suing himself. He’s in total control of how his case and his claim will be disposed of. Maybe, like Trump, Kelly strikes a deal with himself that hands over $1.8 billion from DOD – your tax dollars – that in turn will be doled out, without transparency, to Kelly’s friends, political supporters, even family members who feel they were also damaged by the allegations against the new president.
Trump supporters are outraged by this corruption. How can Kelly get away with this they shout on Fox News? Why can’t Kelly be stopped? Maybe Congress should be a check on such vile corruption, but Democrats control the Congress so why bother?
The new standard has been established. Anything goes.
End of hypothetical
If Donald Trump’s corrupt “settlement” with the IRS stands over the release of his tax returns the barn doors are blown off political corruption in America. Literally nothing will be off the table. Democracy becomes kleptocracy, “a government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.”
Welcome to the new American political reality.
I know, believe me I know, how the MAGA Republican base love their greedy kleptocrat. He could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue in New York City and shoot someone, as he has said, and they’d stand by their man.
Their kleptocrat can trade millions in stock in companies he owns and then in turn promotes, he can accept lavish gifts from foreign governments in defiance of the Constitution, he can destroy the East Wing of the White House and then demand that congressional Republicans spend a billion dollars – your money – to create a fantasy ballroom, he can pardon insurrectionists, some who reoffend after their pardons, he can even loot the Treasury of $1.8 billion because you folks who love him apparently love him more than you love decency, common sense or not being corrupt.
“It is hard to imagine that any previous president would have thought he could engage in such an audacious act of self-dealing,” said the New York Times.
“Sue the government he runs, then settle the lawsuit with himself by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns. And as part of that deal, hand over $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies.
“President Trump has used the federal government to advance his own personal interests and those of his family and allies more expansively and openly than any past occupant of the White House. Any review of history would suggest that it is not even close.”
Yup. But we love the guy, but will we love this blatant corruption when a Democrat is in charge?
Oh, and ask Sen. Risch, if you ever see him in Idaho, how he feels about the guy who rampaged through his Senate office on January 6 getting some of your $1.8 billion? Was that guy “targeted” by the federal government and improperly prosecuted? Maybe his payoff from the Trump slush fund will help keep him whole until his next act of political violence.
And if you ever see Sen. Mike Crapo, the chair of the Finance Committee, you might ask him, since he has oversight of the Treasury and the IRS and could stop this if he cared to, how he feels about embracing White House corruption on a scale that has vastly beyond anything in the country’s history.
It was once true in American politics that the coverup of a scandal or a crime turned out to be worse that the ethical of legal transgression of a president – think Warren Harding and Teapot Dome, Nixon and Watergate or Bill Clinton and that blue dress. But with the current occupant there isn’t a coverup. The crimes, the trashing of Constitutional prohibitions, the corruption and self-dealing is all out in the open.
You only miss what is going on by not caring, by looking away and by retreating into hackneyed partisanship.
Hackneyed partisanship looks like this: He’s our guy so it’s just fine if he loots the Treasury, engages in insider trading and, by the estimate of Forbes, enriches himself by a cool $1.4 billion just since he took office in 2025.
Tolerating this, allowing it to happen, not caring because you only root for your team and not for democracy will embed this corruption – this kleptocracy – deeply in the American system. The next guy will feel empowered to steal his share from you.
You might comfort yourself by thinking it won’t happen, that this is a one off just because we’re dealing with rapacious real estate developer who will eventually go away to count his loot.
You can say with some confidence that a man with Mark Kelly’s character would never pull this off.
But what about the next guy, or the next?
About me: I am a Nebraska native, grew up in South Dakota and migrated in Idaho after college to work in broadcast journalism. In 1986, I joined the “comeback” campaign of a legendary Idaho political figure – Cecil D. Andrus – who eventually served four terms as governor and four years as Secretary of the Interior, not bad for a Democrat in a very conservative state. I had a small role in helping Cece Andrus win his last two gubernatorial terms. I did communication and crisis consulting work, and since “retiring” to the beautiful north coast of Oregon have written three books on U.S. Senate history. I’m working on a new book on another legend – this one a legend in journalism.
You can find my books here:
I write this Substack to scratch my itch to connect history with current politics. I hope, in some small way, to contribute to understanding of this perilous moment for our democracy, for free speech and facts.
