PNN – The Atlantic magazine wrote in a critical report that the recurrence of political and financial scandals in the Donald Trump administration has severely reduced the sensitivity of American public opinion to corruption.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; in a critical report, The Atlantic magazine accused the Donald Trump administration of normalizing political corruption and wrote that the volume and frequency of scandals in this administration have reached such a level that even a case on the scale of “Watergate” is no longer able to cause political shock in America.
The report was published after US Vice President J.D. Vance, during a visit to the Richard Nixon Library, described the Watergate scandal as insignificant and claimed that if such a case were to occur today, it would not remain in the headlines for more than “12 hours” and could not lead to the downfall of a president.
According to The Atlantic, Vance’s remarks inadvertently reveal a troubling reality: within the Trump administration, political and financial scandals have occurred so frequently that the public has become desensitized to them.
The report cites examples—such as controversial financial dealings with foreign governments, contentious pardons, the awarding of lucrative contracts to Trump’s campaign donors, and the use of the president’s personal assets in government programs—identifying these instances as signs of widespread conflicts of interest and the erosion of ethical standards within the U.S. government.
The Atlantic also believes that unlike the presidency of Richard Nixon, who ultimately left power under pressure from both parties; today’s American political atmosphere has become more tolerant of scandals due to its extreme polarization and the abundance of daily sidelines.
According to the author, the strategy of constantly creating controversy and news has scattered public attention and reduced the impact of each new case.
In conclusion, the report warns that although a Watergate-like case may only be in the news for a few hours today, this is not a sign of the health of the political system, but rather a sign of the normalization of corruption and a decrease in sensitivity to accountability at the highest levels of power in America.
This comes two days after former US President Joe Biden attacked Donald Trump again at a Democratic Party convention in Maryland, accusing him of corruption, narcissism and abuse of power.
He also said that what is more worrying than the narcissism and inefficiency of the Trump administration is “blatant corruption that is unprecedented in American history.” Biden emphasized that this type of corruption has not been seen in any other administration in the history of the United States.
Biden made these remarks while he is still attending party events to strengthen the Democratic Party’s position after the end of his presidential term, but at the same time, discussions about his performance in the 2024 elections and his political future within the party continue.
Also, according to a joint survey by the Economist magazine and the YouGov Institute conducted about a month ago, a large portion of American citizens believe that corruption in the country’s Congress is widespread and pervasive.
According to the survey, 41 percent of respondents believe that more than half of members of Congress are corrupt. Another 33 percent said that “a significant portion of members of Congress” are corrupt, although that includes less than half of the representatives. Only 5 percent of participants believe that there is almost no corruption in Congress.
Accordingly, a total of 74 percent of Americans view corruption in Congress as a widespread phenomenon.
These findings indicate that public distrust of the U.S. legislative branch remains high, transcending political and partisan divisions.