Trump is King of the Washington Swamp: His Corrupt Practices in Three Ways
Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 repeatedly claiming that he would go to Washington to drain the swamp. Instead, President Trump became King of the Washington swamp.
As the Swamp King, Trump and his administration have embedded unprecedented corrupt practices in our government. Three key ways include:
- Unprecedented abuse of his presidency for personal gain
- Unprecedented abuse of the justice system for personal revenge and retribution
- Unprecedented abuse of the pardon system
I have spent more than 50 years working to help prevent the corruption of our government and public officials. Neither I nor anyone else could have imagined – not even in our wildest dreams – the breadth and magnitude of corrupt practices and abuses of power that dominate the Trump presidency.
Unprecedented Abuse of the Presidency for Personal Gain
President Trump is one of a kind when it comes to abusing his presidency for personal financial gain. He’s a unicorn in American history.
Trump campaigned on making the United States “the crypto capital of the world.” His policies are designed to carry out this goal, to the immense benefit of himself and his family.
An analysis by The New Yorker published on August 21, 2025, found that Trump and his immediate family had pocketed approximately $3.5 billion during his time in the White House, with much of this coming from crypto.
An article in The Wall Street Journal, on September 1, 2025, then reported that “The Trump family notched as much as $5 billion in paper wealth on [September 1] after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency.” According to the Journal article, “Critics of World Liberty (the Trump family holdings) say that it is a potential vehicle to influence the Trump family and that its growth is spurred by partners and investors who are seeking help from the White House.”
Unprecedented Abuse of the Justice System for Revenge and Retribution
According to a Reuters analysis, “At least 470 people, organizations and institutions have been targeted for retribution since Trump took office – an average of more than one a day. Some were singled out for punishment; others swept up in broader purges of perceived enemies.”
Under Trump, the Attorney General and FBI Director do not see their roles as dispensing justice. On the contrary, they see their jobs as serving Trump, including his revenge and retribution interests. Trump falsely sees himself as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
Thus, civil servants have been purged from the Justice Department, the FBI, and U.S Attorney’s offices because they were just doing their jobs under the previous Biden administration.
Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Senator Adam Schiff because “they’re all guilty as hell.” Comey and James were indicted but the cases were dismissed because the U.S. Attorney was illegally appointed. James is expected to be reindicted soon. Schiff has yet to be indicted.
These indictments rest on flimsy cases that only exist to satisfy Trump’s insatiable desire for revenge and retribution.
Unprecedented Abuse of the Pardon System
President Trump is a convicted felon and appears to have a soft spot for other convicted criminals too.
On the first day of his second term, Trump granted pardons to some 1,500 individuals who were involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol (a key effort in Trump’s failed presidential coup) that injured 140 police officers.
Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, a billionaire executive who had pled guilty for the cryptocurrency company he founded being used for criminal activity through money laundering. He was pardoned shortly after Binance had provided significant benefits to World Liberty Financial, a company which financially enriches Trump and his sons.
Paul Walczak was pardoned while awaiting sentencing for tax crimes to which he had pled guilty. His pardon came after his mother raised millions of dollars for Trump and other Republicans. The pardon also eliminated the $4.4 million in restitution he was sentenced to pay
Trump’s most bizarre and outrageous pardon was given just this week. He pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to forty-five years His conviction included his effort “to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.” At a time when we are destroying small boats allegedly carrying small amounts of drugs, the Hernández pardon is world class hypocrisy.
President Trump is an aberration who has attacked our democracy, ignored our Constitution and rejected our laws. History will record him as the worst president the United States has ever had.
But now, in the moment, the corrupt practices and abuses of power of Trump and his administration must be repeatedly challenged. We will have a great deal of wreckage to clean up after the Swamp King leaves office − and it will get done.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
