Is Corruption Under Trump Finally Becoming an Election Issue?

And that message seems to be catching on.

According to a Gallup poll released Wednesday, a staggering 89 percent of Americans believe that “corruption is widespread throughout the government.” That sentiment, which is up 10 percent since last year, dwarfs the views of people in peer countries. By comparison, the median value among the nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is 59 percent.

In the US, the perception of government corruption is not a partisan issue. More than 80 percent of Republicans believe that it is widespread in the government while nine out of 10 Democrats and independents feel that way.

To be fair, it stands to reason that Trump supporters are less bothered by “their” president shoveling money into his own pockets and more by the allegations of fraud in blue states that GOP lawmakers and the right-wing media are trying to make a major issue.

Still, Republicans, who have done absolutely nothing to investigate the administration for anything after spending massive amounts of time and money on probing the Biden family, should be troubled by these numbers because it looks as though Americans, who are facing hard times in large part due to Trump’s tariffs and his war with Iran, are yearning for some accountability.

It doesn’t help that the president’s family and others in the administration aren’t hiding the fact that they are making out like bandits.

Days before taking office, Trump launched a cryptocurrency that netted him at least $1.4 billion while leaving gullible small investors holding the bag.

According to a new report from Public Citizen, those investors lost $4.7 billion in those ventures.

“Trump’s crypto grifts are among the clearest examples of how he has turned the presidency into a vehicle for personal enrichment,” said the group’s co-president Lisa Gilbert. “Trump and his family pocket enormous sums of money, ordinary investors are stranded aboard a sinking ship. To make matters worse, millions of everyday Americans are forced to watch Trump’s net worth grow while their families struggle to make ends meet.”

But that’s not all.

Trump is also trading high volumes of stocks of companies he promotes or those who benefit from decisions he is about to announce.

Compared to that, his practice of bilking the Secret Service for staying at his properties seems almost quaint now.

And it’s not just Trump.

It must be disconcerting for Republicans that GOP-friendly CNBC host Joe Kernen on Wednesday grilled Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his perceived conflict of interest.

He quizzed Lutnick, who is also a billionaire, about potential entanglements regarding the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which he used to run and which is now in the hands of his son.

Kernen asked about a pipe financing deal that involved the firm.

“The perception is that you’re sitting now at Commerce and you’re able to control what Cantor is getting in terms of fees with your sons running that company,” he said. “It looks like a conflict of interest. How do you respond to that?”

While that seems like a very fair question, the fact that Kernen asked it on the air is noteworthy.

Lutnick’s answer, on the other hand, was remarkable only in its deflection.

After claiming he had no idea about the involvement of his former firm, he started talking about China and rare earth minerals and noted that his kids bought him out.

That’s hardly a convincing answer. After all, Trump’s spawn somehow manages to secure lucrative deals all the time.

Finally, Lutnick used the “I’m really rich” defense, as though the uber-wealthy were content with the billions of dollars they have instead of trying to hoard more and more money.

That is why Kernen followed up.

Pointing out that both he and Trump are wealthy, he noted that this “doesn’t mean that there can’t be a perception that both families are benefiting from the positions you have now.”

Kernen then cited a New York Times article describing how Trump and Lutnick cut a deal with Kazakhstan “to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods.”

The beneficiaries of that agreement: their sons.

This caused Kernen to inquire whether Lutnick expects to spend his final two years in the administration dealing with inquiries about these kinds of arrangements.

“To suggest that I care at all, or the president cares at all is just wrong,” said Lutnick although, especially in Trump’s case, the evidence suggests that this is a ridiculous statement.

He added that the questions Democrats are asking are “silly” and that these things “don’t matter.”

He may feel that way, but in November, we’ll find out whether the American people agree.