Our only question reading the lede to this story on polling on the Malignant Fascist's open and utterly unprecedented corruption is, "what is the other one-third of Americans smoking?":
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump has engaged in illegal or unethical activity to profit from his presidency, according to a new poll released Tuesday from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
“Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025,” the AP-NORC article states in its introduction. “Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them.”
The nationwide survey was conducted between Sept. 24 and Sept. 28 and found that 41% of the 2,140 polled U.S. adults believe Trump has done something illegal to profit from his position, with another 18% arguing he has done something “unethical, but not illegal.”
That puts general distrust in the MAGA leader’s ethical or legal behavior at a whopping 59% in the poll, which further found that only 18% of respondents said Trump has done “nothing wrong” — while another 21% said they do not know whether he has or hasn’t.
“More adults see Trump as focused on his own business interests and those of his inner circle than on the country as a whole or people like them,” states the poll in its introduction. “A majority, 56%, say Trump has prioritized his personal business interests ‘a lot.’”
The write-up noted that 54% of Americans feel the same about Trump and the business interests of his friends and family, with only 23% stating he has prioritized the country “a lot” — and a pitiful 11% saying they believe Trump has prioritized people like them “a lot.”
“Half of Americans say Trump has not prioritized people like them at all,” it continued.
Trump was already rich when he first took office in 2017 but has certainly amassed far more wealth throughout his second term: MS NOW economic analyst Steve Rattner noted in May that Trump had grown his net worth from $2.3 billion to $6.5 billion since reelection.
Forbes reported in September that his net worth has since reached $7 billion... (our emphasis)
His shady crypto deals, his pay-to-play schemes, and who knows what corrupt over- and- under- the- table beak-wetting deals he's made with foreign and domestic oligarchs foreign have belatedly begun to sink into the public consciousness (we know, wtf!). Fortunately, Democrats are already marrying this corruption theme to the affordability crisis, to very positive effect. From Politico:
" ... Messaging from Democrats that tied corruption to housing, health care and the cost of living increased voter support for Democratic congressional candidates by about 3 percentage points, according to a national survey last month conducted by Blue Rose Research and Democratic-aligned Winning Jobs Narrative Action, which was obtained by POLITICO.
The findings align with a shift in how Democrats are talking about corruption — and help explain why that message has exploded on the campaign trail. From Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia to James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Democrats have zeroed in on a common argument: Washington is rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyday Americans.
“We have a corruption crisis in this country, and it is leading to an affordability crisis,” Iowa Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek said during his Senate debate against Rep. Ashley Hinson last week..."
It's a message that has the benefit of being not only powerful, but true. Keep pounding.
