The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Amy Fried is a retired political science professor at the University of Maine. Her views are her own and do not represent those of any group with which she is affiliated.
Donald Trump has long played the part of a populist, but, in casting aside processes designed to thwart corruption, he’ll position himself to serve the wealthy, including himself.
A hundred or so years ago the United States moved away from a spoils system and toward professionalization of government.
The federal Government Accountability Office, founded in 1921, audits and analyzes federal government operations and saves taxpayers billions of dollars every year. Bureaucrats, bound by laws that change over time, follow procedures and get their jobs not because of who they know, but because they have the training, expertise and capacity to do the work. Regulations are changed via set steps and there’s an administrative law system for challenging them.
Of course having these systems does not mean everything always works great. Thus people and systems need scrutiny and correction.
However, what Trump has done in his transition will likely degrade government operations and make it easier to enrich and help him and his favored allies.
Weeks before the November election, Trump was supposed to sign the standard agreement giving him access to over $7 million for transition costs, while requiring that no one could donate more than $5,000 to the transition and mandating the disclosure of donors’ names. Trump didn’t sign it.
After the election, Trump transition team members and presidential nominees were not allowed to receive non-public information because Trump would not sign what Politico called “the standard trio of ethics and transparency agreements with the federal government.” This kept them from fully learning about threats from the avian flu to national security.
Right before Thanksgiving Trump’s transition group submitted an ethics plan that didn’t cover Trump. With a new cryptocurrency business, merchandise like a $100,000 watch, and the Trump Media & Technology Group on the stock exchange, there are ample actual conflicts-of-interest between Trump’s coming presidential actions and his pocketbook. Anyone wanting to influence Trump could focus their funds to help him and his family.
And Trump has also not agreed to standard FBI background checks of his nominees. This sort of information would normally be seen by senators, who have a constitutional obligation to decide whether presidential nominees should be confirmed.
As two former Senate counsels, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, recently wrote in the New York Times, “Without nominees being scrutinized by the F.B.I., the danger is that neither lawmakers nor the public would know whether they are trustworthy or have issues that could compromise their ability to do the job or their loyalty to the United States.” They are correct that this wouldn’t have been accepted by senators in the past and “The Senate shouldn’t stand for it now.”
It’s also troubling that Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, is co-leading a non-governmental entity Trump created that aims to cut one-third of the federal budget. Given that most federal spending is for defense, Social Security, health, veterans and the interest on the debt, cuts of that size are likely impossible. And, under administrative law, throwing out regulations requires evidence-based rationales and public comments, which takes years.
Still, Musk’s massive government contracts and the investigations his businesses face mean he’d most likely make recommendations over matters that affect his pocketbook. And, as the Wall Street Journal reported, his business rivals are concerned Musk “will target them with his new power.” Musk has already targeted individual federal employees, and he previously intimidated a federal advisor leading to death threats against her.
We’re also at risk of nonmonetary corruption, with the federal government marshalled behind Trump’s plan to go after political opponents. Trump wants Kash Patel to be FBI director, replacing Christopher Wray, a Republican who Trump nominated after firing Republican James Comey. To insulate it from politics, this position lasts 10 years, so the opening will only exist if Wray resigns or gets fired.
Patel is resolutely political and focused on retribution against people in government and the media who he deems “conspirators” against Trump. And Trump’s second pick to be attorney general, Pam Bondi, proclaimed “the prosecutors will be prosecuted.”
We can push back against corruption. Citizens should tell Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins that we want them to require FBI background checks and reject nominees who lack integrity. We also should financially support the free and independent press, from investigative outlets like ProPublica to local papers like this one.
