U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the G7 summit, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) In 1958, the normally staid Eisenhower administration was rocked by scandal. White House chief of staff Sherman Adams was forced to resign for accepting a vicuna coat and a rug from a Boston textile manufacturer under federal investigation.
Adams, Eisenhower’s top political enforcer, was never charged with a crime. His ethical lapses look laughably tame compared to the Roman orgy of corruption President Trump presides over today. In fact, the magnitude and brazenness of Trump’s reign of grift and graft is without parallel in U.S. history.
Three previous administrations stand out as the most scandal-prone. Coincidentally (or not), all also were led by Republican presidents: Richard Nixon, Warren G. Harding and Ulysses S. Grant.
Nixon makes the list mainly because of the Watergate break-in and subsequent White House cover up, which led to his impeachment and resignation to avoid a likely conviction in a Senate trial. But with his “enemies list,” campaign slush fund and secret bombing of Cambodia, “Tricky Dick” also presaged Trump’s penchant for dissembling, trading access for cash and siccing federal agencies on political foes.
The Harding administration is generally regarded as the 20th century’s most venal. Crooked cabinet officers sold government medical supplies to private contractors and secretly leased drilling rights for U.S. Navy oil reserves to oil tycoons. There is no evidence Harding himself was involved in these schemes.
The same is true of President Grant, whose administration heretofore has occupied the pinnacle of public graft. On his watch, a so-called “Gold Ring” tried to corner the gold market, sparking a financial panic. Most infamous was the Credit Mobilier scandal, in which railroad stock was given or sold at steep discounts to top Republican politicians, including Grant’s two vice presidents and members of Congress.
The ringmaster of graft in Trump’s second administration is the president himself. There are so many examples that it’s hard to know where to begin.
In blatant violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause — which bars U.S. government officials from accepting gifts from foreign potentates — Trump eagerly accepted a $400 million 747 jet from the Royal Family of Qatar. Shortly afterwards, he publicly vowed to defend the oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdom.
Previous presidents have divested financial assets or put them in blind trusts to avoid profiting from public service. Unfazed by appearances of impropriety, Trump is an avid player in the stock market.
John Avlon reports that his stock portfolio made 3,600 trades — 60 a day — in the first quarter of this year alone. Trump also holds positions in companies with major business before the government, like Nvidia. Its stock soared after the White House lifted a ban on selling advanced AI chips to China.
Trump claims he can’t be accused of insider trading because his sons manage the family’s investments. But when it comes to monetizing ties to a powerful relative, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. make Hunter Biden look like a piker.
They have joined with the family of Steven Witcoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, to start a cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial. The United Arab Emirates, another rich kingdom, made a $2 billion investment using a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. Two weeks later, the Emirates struck a deal with the Trump administration — the first of its kind — giving them access to advanced U.S. AI chips.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a powerful member of the Abu Dhabi Emirate’s royal family known as the “spy sheikh,” secretly shelled out $500 million to buy a 49 percent stake in World Liberty Financial.
An overt pay-to-play culture pervades the Trump White House. According to an American Bar Association report, “The Trump administration has exchanged government benefits, appointments, pardons, and policy decisions for financial contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations and foreign governments.”
Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who was serving a four-month prison sentence for violating anti-money laundering laws. Binance provided the fledgling World Liberty Financial with technical support and helped secure the Emirates’ massive investment in the Trump-Witcoff venture.
As Trump’s job approval has plummeted, his personal wealth has surged. Forbes estimates that his net worth, $3.9 billion in 2024, has grown to around $6.6 billion since his reelection.
In a healthy democracy, Trump’s ethical sleaze would be considered eminently impeachable. But a cowardly Republican Congress has largely ignored his cynical and greedy buckraking.
The Senate finally showed some backbone by blocking Trump’s plot to hit up U.S. taxpayers for a $1.8 billion slush fund to reward his political allies, like the Jan. 6 rioters convicted of crimes. It could strike another blow for probity by rejecting Trump’s shady nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche.
Ultimately, though, it’s up to U.S. voters to shut down Trump’s unprecedented carnival of corruption, starting in November.
Will Marshall is president and founder of Progressive Policy Institute.
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