Do you trust your neighbor? Do they have political and ethical values that make you cringe? Are they intolerant of change and other people unlike themselves?
If so, you have reason to be uncomfortable.
While the Democrats struggle to find a theme that resonates with independents and Democrats, the blatant corruption of the Trump crime family, which has been evident since Trump’s first term (2017 to 2021), has not prevented one-third of Americans from voting for a convicted tax evader, molester, self-dealing public servant, and generally despicable person.
All this has made Trump a billionaire, and his investments in crypto, real estate, and selling pardons have made him more money in elected office than he ever made in his private real estate and construction businesses.
Most Americans don’t know that, and they probably don’t care.
Even the blatant self-dealing and public corruption does not bother the one-third of Americans who voted for Trump and somehow think he is acting in their best interests and will somehow lead them to prosperity and emotional fulfillment.
An article in Bloomberg found that a majority of Americans now believe Trump’s criminal self-enrichment is a problem. “According to a late July 2026 CNN poll, some 57% of Americans, including 62% of independents, say it’s a bad thing that Trump has earned more than $2 billion during his second term, much of it from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses. Some 66% of respondents in the same poll said Trump doesn’t put “the good of the country above his personal gain.” And a recent Pew Research Center poll found that while economic issues are what voters want to hear most from congressional candidates, “government and ethics reform” is a distant second, with 9% of voters saying the issue is top of mind.
The first two numbers are heartening, but when only 9% of voters say that “government and ethics reform is needed,” that’s a “go ahead signal to MAGA Republicans that stealing as much as you can, as fast as you can, is the way to exit Washington, D.C., at the midterm elections in November.
Another survey cited by Bloomberg columnist Steven Drucker found that “35% said Trump uses the president for personal benefit more” than immediate predecessors, while 34% said less and 24% said, “about the same.” Additionally, 54% of Trump’s coalition believe he’s generally driven by “love of America,” while just 16% believe he’s motivated by personal gain. Twenty-five percent believe his decisions are underpinned by both.
It’s the 54% of Americans who believe Trump is stealing from the public because of “his love of America” who are impossible to comprehend.
If you love your country, why do you steal from it when you are entrusted to be a public servant? This applies to a city councilman as well as the president.
Congress’s inaction has attracted worldwide attention. If America is a country that tolerates criminals in a corrupt dictatorship, why should countries buy U.S. Treasury bonds or believe the U.S. will honor its NATO Treaty commitments?
What does that mean when Americans themselves cannot believe their president and his MAGA Republican majority party have more faith in open corruption than any form of punishment? Does that mean MAGA Republicans and the people who voted for Trump endorse corruption?
The mainstream media cannot say it out loud, but it looks like the country has entered a new ethical and moral paradigm of corruption, combined with rewriting history and ignoring facts, such as election denials.
Americans Must Love Criminals
Stealing, graft, and self-dealing have been part of the Trump regime since 2017 to 2021, and in the second term, which spans from 2025 to 2029, Congress and the media soon stopped addressing the thefts. An interview with a Bloomberg reporter in 2026 asked about Trump’s violations of the Emoluments Clause, the Constitutional prohibition against self-dealing by an elected official, and the reporter laughed and said that no one in Washington is even bringing that up in Trump’s second term. The Trump crime family has trashed the Emoluments Clause. It doesn’t apply to them.
Meanwhile, ordinary people would love it if a law against not paying taxes or food safety was simply ignored, so it would cut down on surveillance and public health supervision expenses that would add to the bottom line. That may be what Taylor Farms thought when they stopped enforcing their supervision, and an E. coli epidemic emerged that eventually sickened people in 15 states in July and August 2026.
The fact that one-third of Americans voted for the convicted tax evader felon and adulterer Trump also raises the issue of whether his followers are not bothered by his behavior.
Are more Trump followers going to cheat on their taxes?
Do Trump followers get divorced more than non-Trump voters?
Do Trump followers not mind if their spouse has affairs outside of marriage?
No one knows the answers. But an American public that tolerates a criminal and ethically empty leader has to see something in Trump that other Americans don’t recognize.
So, as Americans suffer through high inflation, a record budget deficit, unaffordability, and a younger generation that has a lower living standard than their parents, Trump followers can be comforted that they can cheat on both their taxes and spouses and get away with it.
