Will corruption matter to voters this fall?

Final tabulation of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election reveals that Donald Trump received 77,303.568 popular votes or 49.8% of the total votes cast. While falling just short of a popular majority vote victory, the number was great enough and distributed among the states in such a manner as to award him 312 Electoral College votes, enough for him to be declared the winner. Had the election resulted in the election of Kamala Harris, the status of Donald Trump would be very different today. Obviously, he would not be President of the United States.

We can also speculate that he might stand as convicted of unauthorized possession and distribution of hundreds of highly classified government documents and convicted for conspiring with others to incite a violent attack on the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the final Congressional verification of the 2020 Presidential Electoral College tally. His convictions would probably have resulted in his home detention for a specified number of years which would include denial of access to electronic media sources. As we recall, his prosecutions for the offenses noted above were suspended without prejudice by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith in anticipation of the Trump Department of Justice refusal to continue the prosecutions rather than for lack of evidence to proceed.

But Donald Trump has not been convicted of the offenses noted. He is President of the United States, and his crimes continue unabated to date. Corruption is defined as dishonest or illegal use of power and authority for personal or private gain. Common types of corruption include bribery, nepotism and cronyism, extortion and embezzlement. Reporting probable bribery, nepotism and cronyism and extortion in the Trump Administration is a daily portion of the news cycle. Giving or taking money, gifts or favors to influence a government decision or action is bribery. Does a $400 million airplane gift from Qatar constitute bribery?

Favoring family members to give them jobs or power they might not be qualified for is nepotism. Does appointing Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and real estate investor, as one of two negotiators to reach a peace agreement with Iran constitute nepotism? Using threats or force to demand compliance is extortion. Does the withholding of previously approved research money to Harvard and other universities to compel abandonment of all DEI policies constitute extortion?

The Trump corruption episode currently receiving the most attention involves Trump’s effort to sue the IRS controlled by him for disclosing his tax returns years earlier. The supposed case went nowhere because it lacked adverse parties which is an essential element of a true legal case or controversy. Undeterred, Acting AG Todd Blanche appointed by Trump offered a deal to settle the non-legal case. The deal involved allocation of $1.776 billion to reward Trump supporters including January 6 rioters for past Justice Department prosecutions. The deal also involved lifetime immunity from IRS audits for Trump and his family economic ventures.

The deal carries so much stench that two Republicans on the Seante Judiciary Committee have withheld support for Trump’s nomination of Blanche to become our nation’s top law enforcement official. If this were a fictional novel, it would make for great reading , but this is the real thing in the time of Trump.

In a required earnings disclosure, Trump reported his 2025 earnings were $2.2 billion dollars. His 2025 earnings were 3 times his 2024 earnings when he was not the president. His primary earnings came from his investment in cryptocurrency exchange which happens to be an industry recently favored by his administration. As a result of the questions raised above and the use of his position for monetary gain, multiple sources including members of Congress, journalists, academics and members of the judiciary have identified the Trump administration as the most corrupt in the history of our nation.

Does evidence of a corrupt Trump Administration really matter to the American public? A Dec. 2023 Ipso poll of American voters revealed 2% of those polled saw government corruption as a serious issue while a May 2026 Ipso poll of voters (Trump Administration) revealed 37% of those polled identified government corruption as being among the top three political issues.

More alarming is a recent Brennan Center poll revealing 90% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats polled viewed government corruption as an issue without specifying the priority among other issues. Another worrisome poll for Republicans released by CNN on July 29 identified 66% of those polled as believing Trump places his personal gains over the good of the nation. Not surprisingly, Democrats and Republicans have different views of what the corruption problem is. Republicans are more likely to see government corruption as a universal issue affecting all aspects of governance while Democrats are focused on the actions of Trump and his administration.

We will have to wait until Nov. to discover if an apparent American public concern about government corruption will impact election outcomes. Recent polling reveals Democrats hold a +6(Pew Poll) to +11(Emerson Poll) advantage on the generic ballot. Democrats also hold a +10 advantage in voter motivation and a +20 extremely motivated advantage. There are simply too many variables to know how concern about corruption in the Trump Administration is shaping these current voter leanings; however, reason alone leads us to conclude Trump’s reputation for corruption and profiteering in office is not an election asset for US Republican House and Senate candidates who continue to swear allegiance to the pretend monarch.