This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 16 episode of “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
For the last few weeks, Donald Trump has tried really hard to get a certain message across, vowing to hunt down corruption in the federal government. But just because you say something over and over again doesn’t make it true.
When it comes to the president, every accusation is usually a confession.
When Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk are pressed to provide any actual evidence to prove that their grand plan to root out mass fraud and corruption in the government is working, they come up short.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that they’re not really after corruption at all, they’re simply going after the things they don’t like. What is also clear is that when it comes to the president, every accusation is usually a confession. Let me put it this way: If Trump was actually hunting for corruption, it might get a bit uncomfortable because the call is coming from inside the house.
Just consider the Trump administration’s move to freeze a U.S. law banning the bribery of foreign officials, a law that has previously hit suppliers for Tesla. Or Musk’s attacks on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that would have likely cracked down on his attempts to turn X into a digital payment platform.
There’s the administration’s plan to lay off thousands of Internal Revenue Service employees, a move that would likely benefit the richest taxpayers. (I wonder who falls into that category?) There’s also Trump’s recent firing of inspectors general, whose jobs are literally to find corruption.
You could also look at Musk’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, where they sat in front of a U.S. flag and an Indian flag just like a bilateral meeting — a meeting that even Trump doesn’t seem to know the reason behind.
“I don’t know, they met, I assume he wants to do business in India,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I would imagine he met possibly because he’s running a company.”
So was he there as a government official for the country, or as a CEO for himself, or maybe as a fake government official so he could make some better business deals? That seems like the kind of fuzziness you would want to avoid if you’re laser-focused on rooting out corruption.
Luckily, Trump says he will personally oversee whether or not Musk has any conflicts of interest which, clearly, seems to be going great so far.
But nothing encapsulates this administration’s embrace of corruption better than the case of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, someone who faces actual corruption charges for conspiracy, bribery and fraud — all those things Trump and Musk claim to care so much about.
But last week, acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo ordering federal prosecutors to drop those charges against Adams. Bove claimed the case hampered the mayor’s ability to tackle “illegal immigration and violent crime.” The message there seems pretty clear: Never mind the law, forget the evidence, you do our bidding and we’ll make it like it never happened.
If you’re thinking, “That sounds pretty shady,” that’s because it is. So shady that it has now prompted at least seven federal prosecutors to resign. The first was Danielle Sassoon, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Sassoon, who once clerked for former conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote a pretty stunning letter on her way out. In that letter, she described a meeting where the mayor’s attorneys allegedly “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Sassoon refused to drop the case and, after she resigned, at least six other prosecutors followed suit. And around the same time those prosecutors resigned en masse and took a stand against actual corruption, it sure seemed like Adams was trying to make good on his end of the deal. On Thursday, Adams met with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and agreed to open Rikers Island to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents, a significant shift in the city’s sanctuary policies. Then, the very next day, Adams and Homan joined “Fox and Friends” for a joint interview. Toward the end of the interview, Homan said that if Adams failed to follow through on his promise, “I’ll be back in New York City and we won’t be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’” The message is pretty clear: Never mind the law, forget the evidence, you do our bidding and we’ll make it like it never happened. Now, to a lot of people that sounded like a threat to make sure someone carried out their end of the mob-like deal. It’s also exactly the kind of thing you would want to stop if you were a leader on the hunt for corruption and fraud. But instead of stopping it, the administration appears to be perpetrating it: labeling things they don’t like as corrupt while cultivating and celebrating corruption that serves them. It seems as if their philosophy is that if they do it, or their friends do it, it’s not corruption. But you don’t have to take my word for it. On Saturday, Trump posted to social media, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” I know that might sound like a weird fortune cookie message, but what he appears to be telling us is that he gets a free pass to break the law under the guise of saving the country. Just like he gets a free pass to do whatever he wants under the guise of rooting out corruption. The word hypocritical doesn’t even begin to cut it. But if they ever decide they want to root out actual corruption, I can think of a few places for them to start.
Jen Psaki is the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" airing Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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