The Trump administration is in an unethical league of its own

they are serving in the least ethical administration in our history? The “our” is important, because there have been more crooked regimes — but only in banana republics. The corruption and malfeasance of the Trump administration is unprecedented in U.S. history. The only points of comparison are the Gilded Age scandals of the Grant administration, Teapot Dome under the Harding administration, and Watergate and the bribe-taking of Vice President Spiro Agnew during the Nixon administration.

..  tweet from President Trump: “Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. . . . Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!” Translation: Trump is exercised that the Justice Department is following its normal procedures.

Sessions fired back: “As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor.” Translation: The president is asking him to act without“integrity and honor.”

.. This is part of a long pattern of the president pressuring the “beleaguered” Sessions — a.k.a. “Mr. Magoo” — to misuse his authority to shut down the special counsel investigation of Trump and to launch investigations of Trump’s political foes. Because Sessions won’t do that, Trump has tried to force him from office. The president does not recognize that he is doing anything improper. He thinks the attorney general should be his private lawyer.

.. The poor man has no idea of what the “rule of law” even means

.. he said: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.” This from a supposed supporter of the Second Amendment.

This is a president, after all, whose

  1. communications director quit on Wednesday after admitting to lying (but insists her resignation was unrelated); whose
  2. senior staff included an alleged wife-beater; whose
  3. former national security adviser and deputy campaign manager have pleaded guilty to felonies; whose
  4. onetime campaign chairman faces 27 criminal charges, including conspiracy against the United States; whose
  5. attorney paid off a porn star; and whose
  6. son mixed family and government business on a trip to India.

The Trump Administration’s Undrained Swamp

Many executive officials seem okay with spending public money on personal expenses, but how would they react if Hillary Clinton were doing it?

.. But if ever there were a crew less suited to drain the swamp in Washington, the Trump team would have to be it.

.. Remember Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price? You may not, since his tenure was less than nine months long. But in that time, according to Politico, he ran up $400,000 in private-plane trips and $500,000 for military flights to Asia, Africa, and Europe.

.. There were also questions raised about his private investment in a company that stood to benefit from his public action.

.. Steven Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton jetted off to Kentucky last August on a government plane to (depending upon whom you believe): do Treasury business or view the solar eclipse.

.. The couple also apparently requested a military plane for their honeymoon trip to Europe.

.. Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin also took his wife to Europe for a ten-day trip.

.. Environment Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, reports the Washington Post, is also being investigated for “at least four noncommercial and military flights

..  I find it hard to think of an EPA emergency that would require Scott Pruitt to fly on a military jet

.. the complicated web of loans and investments and connections Jared Kushner brought with him to the swamp

.. one of the reasons his security clearance was downgraded this week involved accepting loans from a private equity billionaire named Joshua Harris.