The exit polls in the midterm elections revealed that corruption in government was almost as much an issue as the cost of living for voters.
A stunning 90 percent of voters said it was a crucial or major factor in their vote. Neither party was trusted to combat it – 36 percent said Democrats, while 31 percent said Republicans. But the GOP was the main target of voter anger. They are the party in power – and were saddled with a president who surrounded himself with shady characters and seemed to almost revel in padding his income by $2 billion last year.
Republicans have a fundamental choice to make in how they handle the corruption issue
“Corruption is a bipartisan issue, nothing ever hits 90 percent in any survey unless it resonates deeply with people,” says Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst. “The fact that corruption has been linked with the struggles people are having with affordability is devastating for Republicans.”
Way back in early May, I predicted in a Spectator cover story that “it looks likely that the Democrats will win both chambers (House and Senate),” as has now come to pass. The major reason I identified was “that a considerable number of his own ordinary voters have come to believe that it’s Trump himself rigging the system now, and only in his own favor.”
It’s fair to say the Trump administration completely rejected polls showing the growing danger. They not only didn’t see it as an emerging issue, but the President himself dismissed it. In January, Trump gave the New York Times an Oval Office interview in which he was asked why he was allowing his children to pursue business deals while he was in office. He said he had banned such activity in his first term, “and I got absolutely no credit for it,” although it was “really unfair to them.” He was succeeded by Joe Biden who he asserted was all about “total corruption.” So his second term would be different because, he claimed, “I found that nobody cared” about the issue.
The midterm results prove he couldn’t have been more wrong. A rogues’ gallery of his appointees – many of whom resemble cartoon characters – has seeped into the public’s consciousness. We’re talking about Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s children among others. Just last week, it was revealed that former Trump lawyer and US Attorney Alina Habba had concluded a $50 million contract with the family of a Venezuelan banker that Trump had pardoned.
Trump leaves office in two years, but it appears inevitable that his rancid record on corruption will be a burden for Vice President J.D. Vance, should he choose to try to follow Trump in office.
Vance appears to sense this. During a CBS town hall interview last month, Vance was grilled by anchor Tony Dokoupil about polling that shows voters worried about Trump’s corruption record.
The Vice President admitted, “Yes, DC is a corrupt town,” but insisted, “I’ve never seen anything like that from the President. I have not seen a single shred of evidence that he participates or sanctions in that corruption.”
I suspect that if Vance launches his own campaign for president, he will have to confront the fact that some Republican primary voters will be furious that Trump’s ethical sloppiness contributed to their loss of both houses of Congress. Many will be skeptical of Vance, who inevitably is tied to an unpopular president, and may not be viewed as the strongest nominee the party could put forward in 2028.
Republicans have a fundamental choice to make in how they handle the corruption issue. No one expects they will directly challenge Trump’s ethics (he retains approval ratings of between 75 percent and 80 percent among Republicans), but if credible evidence of malfeasance by his appointees emerges, they would be foolish to continue the kind of blind defense or silence that has characterized their stance so far.
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