Unpresidented

In the Hall of Corrupt Presidents, Warren Harding and Ulysses Grant sit just below Richard Nixon.  Both Harding and Grant were personally honest - unlike Nixon - but they were surrounded by aides whose constant attempts at self-enrichment cemented their status near the bottom of presidential rankings.  (Grant is making a belated comeback for his work on civil rights.  Harding doesn't really have anything to hang his hat on.)

Let's take a Harding scandal - Teapot Dome.  Here, the Secretary of the Interior took bribes in order to transfer Naval oil reserves to private oil companies.  It was a pretty clear cut case of someone bribing a Cabinet official in return for preferential treatment.

One of the hallmarks of the still young (I know, I know) Trump administration has been its corruption.  Of course, a lot of the blatant giveaways of public goods are part and parcel of Republican governance.  Companies and the rich don't need to bribe Republican politicians, because Republicans will give them a bunch of what they want anyway.  The Trump tax cut is as good an example as any of this dynamic.

Can we compare any of the Trump scandals to Teapot Dome, the biggest governmental scandal until Watergate? What's more, are there scandals that will disrupt his base's fervent support for him?

There are abundant examples of Trump enriching himself or having others enrich him through the use of his properties.  However, that seems "on brand" for Trump, like the Stormy Daniels Saga, so it's bad, but unlikely to make a dent in the MAGA crowd.

There are ample examples of Cabinet level officials abusing their power and taxpayer's money.  Ben Carson's table, Tom Price's travel, Ryan Zinke's travel, Scott Pruitt's travel, Steve Mnuchin's travels....I'm sensing a trend here.  I would start running ads in suburban districts slamming the Trump administration for traveling in private jets and first class, while the airlines shrink the size of coach seats to roughly the size of an infant car seat.  Play up the privileged mien of these bastards who think they can skip the indignities of air travel that the rest of us must endure.

If there is one potential for direct, easily understandable graft, though, I think it might be found in Trump's manipulating the stock market.  If I'm Eric Schneiderman, I want to crawl all over if any Trump confidants were shorting Amazon stock before Trump went after them.  Or Time Warner and AT&T stock before shutting down that deal.  The potential for stock manipulation by a president is immense.  This is why most presidents have put their assets in blind trusts. 

I believe that the House will be flipped in the suburbs, but the Senate will be held in the exurbs.  Winning the Senate races in Indiana, West Virginia, South Dakota and Tennessee won't happen in the back of the Mueller investigation.  The Trumpenproletariat have made up their mind about Russia.  While some of them might be flipped when the whole story comes out, the fact is that the Russia story is messy; it's incredibly complicated. 

If we can prove that Trump is benefitting by tanking stocks while his cronies and children short them, that's pretty easily understood by a lot of people.  Plus, people like Amazon; they may even have a few shares. 

There is no doubt in my mind that there is some straight up bribery going on in this administration, and that it will wind up being the most corrupt in American history.  A fish rots from the head.

Finding that easily understandable scandal like Teapot Dome will be important in the short term though. 

I'm adding a new "tag."  "Swamp Things."