A Corrupt Trump Attracts Other Corrupt People

(The graphic image above is from Axios.com.)

It is beyond doubt that Donald Trump was a corrupt businessman, and has become a corrupt president. He has refused to separate himself from his business ventures and continues to use his office to make himself richer (a violation of the Emoluments Clause of our Constitution), conspired with a foreign power to affect the 2016 election (even publicly asking Russia to hack his opponent), obstructed justice by trying to interfere in a Justice Department investigation, signed a tax cut that mainly benefitted him and his rich friends, and has lied to the American people thousands of times.

Now we learn that he ordered his "fixer" (Michael Cohen) to commit two felonies by violating campaign finance laws. By ordering those criminal acts, Trump is also guilty of them. It's actually an understatement to say Trump is corrupt -- he's the most corrupt president this country has ever had.

There's an old saying that birds of a feather flock together. The same could be said of corruption. A corrupt person attracts other corrupt people -- and Trump has certainly attracted his share of corrupt people. The chart above show the number of Trump associates that have gotten into trouble. So far, 7 people has been found guilty of crimes, and a bevy of Russians have been charged with crimes.

This is just the beginning. By the time the Mueller investigation is over, there will be a lot more charges and convictions -- and they will likely include Trump's family (at least Donald Jr. and Jared) and Trump himself.

But it goes further. Trump is not just the head of a corrupt administration. He's also the head of what we're learning is a corrupt political party -- the Republican Party. In just the last couple of weeks, we learned that a couple of Republican congressmen (both connected to Trump) have been charged with felony crimes.

Rep. Chris Collins was the first Republican congressman to climb on the Trump bandwagon. He has now been charged with insider trading. After receiving negative information about a company he was invested in, he notified his family and they all divested themselves of the company's stock -- saving themselves $750,000 while ordinary investors took a beating. That's a federal crime.

Rep. Duncan Hunter was the second Republican congressman to support Trump. He (and his wife) have now been charged with felony misuse of campaign funds. They used over $250,000 of his campaign donations for their own personal expenses (including Pittsburg Steeler game tickets and a vacation to Italy).

Donald Trump is a massively corrupt individual -- and he is a magnet that attracts other corrupt people (in his administration and his political party).