Corruption in Broad Daylight, &c.

On public responsibility, FBI directors, the idea of America, and more

The U.S. Treasury Department (Wikimedia Commons)

I sympathized with Nick Catoggio, who, writing about Trump’s corruption, said this:

A writer’s value lies mostly in their ability to provide insight, and there’s nothing insightful to say about a politician contriving a way to pay himself and his friends out of the public till. It is what it is. It bothers you, or it doesn’t.

Jonah Goldberg wrote, “The Trump slush fund is a clear-cut impeachable offense.”

Well, sure. So are many, many other things. When a president has a Watergate a day, he has no Watergate at all. This is Trump’s great advantage: so numerous and continual are his acts of corruption and other grotesqueries, no one has a chance to focus on any one of them.

If you complain, Republicans are likely to say to you, “You just hate Trump. You have TDS. What, are you obsessed?” (“TDS,” as you know, stands for “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”)

Thus is discussion foreclosed.

Many times, I have quoted Andy Warhol: “Art is what you can get away with.” (Marshall McLuhan said essentially the same thing.) Trump is testing what a president can get away with. The answer is: a lot. A whole lot. If the public does not recoil from abuses of power, what’s to stop the abuser?

Trump is not secretive—that is a virtue. What he does is out in the open. It’s right in front of our faces. And we are responsible for it—the corruption—in this way:

One of our two major parties nominated Trump for president three times in a row. Never in history had the Republicans nominated anyone for president three times in a row. Only Trump has that distinction, that honor.

And “We the People” elected him twice.

We also elected Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, and these representatives and senators will do nothing—nothing at all—to cross Trump or even to question him. As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said a few days ago, “This is the party of Donald Trump.”

No doubt.

“Here, the people rule,” we say about our democracy—and it’s true. In a democracy, people are responsible for their government and for their politics generally. We show who we are—certainly what we value—in the political choices we make.

Let me paste a headline from Bloomberg: “Trump’s More Than 3,700 Trades Astonish Wall Street Insiders.” The report begins,

President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involving major companies that have dealings with his administration.

No wonder the Wall Street insiders are astonished. Why are so few others? Why do so few care? I can think of two reasons, immediately.

People tend to be indifferent to corruption and other abuses coming from their own “side.” Because the most important thing in life is to oppose and beat the other “side.”

Man is a tribal animal, is he not?

Also, people care about “the culture war”: bathroom policies, transgenderism, pronouns. That’s what gets the juices flowing. Bald financial corruption induces yawns.

One of my slogans is “Fight the numb.” Often, this seems a losing battle.

***

Addressing this topic on social media, I wrote, “Transgenderism gets people excited (sometimes for good reason). Rank, open, obvious corruption—boring, evidently.” Some people said in response, Hey, Jay, what do you mean, “for good reason”? What’s a good reason for getting excited over transgenderism?

I will give two reasons. Radical surgery on minors, and other interventions in the cases of minors—problematic. The participation of biological males in girls’ and women’s sports—also problematic.

Anyone interested in my views on our “transgender wars” can consult this column.

***

When I look at the antics of Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI director, I think, “Can you imagine Judge Webster doing that?” (William H. Webster was the FBI director from 1978 to 1987, and CIA director from 1987 to 1991.) The other day, I thought, “Can you imagine Cap Weinberger doing that, or Robert Gates?”

The current defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, went to Kentucky to campaign against a congressman in a primary. Is this even legal? Does it violate the Hatch Act? It is certainly abnormal.

In my experience, people like to snort at norms. But once they have snorted norms out of existence, I think they will miss them.

***

Feel like talking a little golf? I reviewed a new biography of Rory McIlroy, by Alan Shipnuck. Very good book. As I say in my review, Shipnuck has written several others, including a biography of Phil Mickelson: Phil. This new one is called “Rory.”

These golfers are known by their first names alone, as I say in my review. So are lots of others (as I also say). Let me call the roll:

Jack (Nicklaus), Tiger (Woods), Ben (Hogan), Sam (Snead), Arnold (Palmer), Gary (Player), Lee (Trevino), Seve (Ballesteros), Scottie (Scheffler), Nelly (Korda) …

It occurs to me that we don’t often say “Tom” in reference to Tom Watson. We tend to say “Tom Watson” or “Watson.” Why? Well, we have other Toms, chiefly Tom Kite.

Also, do we call Nick Faldo “Nick”? Sometimes, I think. But there is also Nick Price. In reference to Faldo, we might say “Sir Nick,” for he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory.

***

Two of my favorite and recurring subjects are golf and names. It has dawned on me: I was able to combine them. This was not intentional. It just … happened.

***

I’d like to quote from the new Rory bio. But first I’d like to quote Justice Neil Gorsuch, in an interview with David French.

“And we’re a creedal nation, right, David?” said Gorsuch. “I mean, we don’t share a religion, we don’t share a race, we share an idea, okay? And that idea has to be passed down generation to generation …”

Here and now, I should avoid a long discussion of “America as idea.” I have a whole speech on the topic. But I would like to quote from that bio.

Rory McIlroy is a Northern Irishman who is married to an American and who lives in America. (Their daughter is an American, too.) In 2025, he was asked at a press conference what his impressions of the U.S. had been as a boy.

McIlroy said,

Everyone wanted to make it in America. It’s the land of opportunity. And I still believe it’s the best country in the world, and if you come here and work hard and dedicate yourself, you can be or do whatever you want. I am unbelievably grateful and lucky that I got to come to America early on. …

I have a lot of affinity toward this country, and I think everyone who lives here should have that same affinity because it is a wonderful place.

Adds the biographer, Alan Shipnuck, “He has always called it America, which makes sense. The United States is a place; America is an idea.”

That is an interesting formulation. I’m not sure I am ready to sign on to it. But the formulation—“United States” vs. “America”—bears consideration.

***

I was in a Target, here in New York, and a man was leaving, having transacted his business. He said to the clerk who had helped him—pretty and young—“Nice to meet you.” She said, “Nice to meet you, too.” He then said, “You got an Instagram?” She replied—still polite—“I don’t have social media.”

(Of course she does. How could she not?)

When the man was out of earshot, I said to her, “Well done.” She gave me a knowing, affirmative smile.

***

Care for a little music? Here is a review of a new opera at the Met: El último sueño de Frida y Diego—“The Last Dream of Frida and Diego” (Kahlo and Rivera)—by Gabriela Lena Frank.

***

You’ve heard of a “rosy-fingered dawn.” Well, might this be a “rosy-fingered dusk”? The shot is from Manhattan, looking over the Hudson River to New Jersey:

Thank you for joining me, everyone. Thank you for your subscriptions. Thank you for the kind notes you have sent me. As some Texans of my acquaintance say, “’ppreciate ya.”