Conservative Media Is Naming and Shaming Trump Family Corruption

(Credit: Erik Kabik Photography/ MediaPunch/IPX)

The walls aren’t closing in on President Donald Trump, but many sympathetic to his cause are discontented by his conduct in office.

Recent days have seen conservative media demonstrate not just a willingness to call the sitting commander-in-chief and his family out over alleged corruption, but give voice to a visceral disgust for their actions.

In a May 26 editorial, The New York Post lamented the “terrible” optics for his administration amid public outrage over the Trump Justice Department’s settlement of a lawsuit its namesake had brought against the IRS. Under the terms of the deal, DOJ was supposed to open up a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to dole out to Trump allies, and the Trump family itself was granted immunity from further IRS inquiries.

The Post argued that it was “on a par with President Joe Biden’s final-days blanket pardons for Hunter and the rest of the Biden clan,” while also noting that “it landed about the same time the prez disclosed that his personal account has made 3,600 stock trades with total values of $220 million to $750 million while he’s in office.”

It turned up the heat over the Trump children’s exploits in a follow-up editorial published Monday night:

It was bad when the Bidens did it, and it’s just as bad when the Trumps do it.

Insider deals, finders’ fees and backdoor introductions to family members are business-as-usual in Third World banana republics, but these slimy practices have now been normalized in the White House, to the shame of the nation.

The New York Times reports that Eric and Donald Trump Jr., sons of President Trump, and Kyle and Brandon Lutnick, sons of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, are tied to a billion-dollar tungsten mining deal that the US government is financing in Kazakhstan.

The prez himself actually called in to a meeting between Secretary Lutnick and Kazakhstan’s president as the deal was being finalized.

…

True, no one thought of Trump & Co. as unblemished saints, but who would’ve thunk that he, his kin and associates were going to use the Biden family template — virtually backing up the truck and stealing the carpets and silver — as a model of ethical behavior?

The Lutnick and Trump boys have been sloshing around in the muck since their dads came to power 18 months ago.

They’ve profited handsomely from cryptocurrency deals while the government their fathers control was setting crypto policy.

Then, on Wednesday, Fox News’ Dana Perino fired a similar shot across Team Trump’s bow.

“If they think this issue is not permeating across the country with people going, ‘Huh wait, what?’ They’re not exactly on the most solid ground here,” submitted Perino on Fox & Friends. “Then your children are involved in this. And if you remember, we spent a lot of time talking about Hunter Biden. Maybe his mistake was only asking for $10 million from Ukraine.”

All press is good press, with the notable exception of unfavorable comparisons to Hunter Biden.

Shortly after that, Perino’s America’s Newsroom co-anchor Bill Hemmer asked White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly about the mounting scrutiny of the first family’s business interests.

Right-wing shock jock Megyn Kelly, too, has joined the chorus of critics.

“I don’t feel great about our leaders, I’m not gonna lie,” mused Kelly during a recent sit-down with Sky News Australia. “The Trump family is grifty. There’s been like story after story about all the money his sons are making off of the government, these government contracts they’re getting, all that. I can’t stand that stuff and I love his sons, okay? So I say this as a true fan of theirs, but I didn’t like it when Hunter Biden was doing it and I don’t like it when the Trumps are doing it.”

The vibe shift is both real and righteous.

“Drain the Swamp” was among the defining battle cries of the president’s 2016 campaign as he styled himself as incorruptible thanks to his already-impressive wealth. With him as its standard bearer, the GOP charged both Clintons and Bidens of profiting off of high office and reaped enormous electoral rewards as a result.

For many on the right, that wasn’t just political posturing; it was a genuine expression of outrage over bad behavior that went largely unremarked upon — much less punished — by the Democratic Party’s media allies.

But with their second term comportment, the Trumps have made a mockery of conservatives’ commitment to good government.

And with the clock running out on their patriarch’s presidency, the Right is increasingly preoccupied with its post-2028 position, rather than defending the indefensible in the interim.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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