Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. Just a few weeks in, it is not only unethical, it is waging war on ethics.
Jack Blanchard at Politico Playbook:
- The president signed a new executive order halting enforcement of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which blocks American companies from offering bribes to foreign governments, per FT’s Steff Chávez. (“It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” he said.)
- The Justice Department moved to end the federal bribery case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Fox News’ Brooke Singman and colleagues scooped. Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove’s directive to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office “raises urgent questions about the administration of justice during Mr. Trump’s second term and the independence of federal prosecutors,” NYT’s William Rashbaum and colleagues report.
- Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who went to prison for eight years for trying to sell off a Senate seat, as Axios’ Alex Isenstadt scooped.
- Trump dismissed David Huitema as head of the Office of Government Ethics, even though he’d only recently begun his five-year term, CNN’s Fredreka Schouten reports. VA Secretary Doug Collins was tapped as interim head of the office — another instance of replacing an independent watchdog with a loyalist.
- Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, head of the whistleblower-protecting Office of Special Counsel — but a federal judge ordered Dellinger (who quickly filed suit) temporarily reinstated, per the AP.
