Republicans Would Probably Rather Talk About Even Epstein Than Trump’s Corruption

It’s bad news for Republicans that government corruption tops the list of things Americans are concerned about. It’s even worse for them that, two weeks ahead of a midterm election that will determine whether this administration will be subject to any type of oversight, people are now openly asking top White House officials about Donald Trump’s self-enrichment schemes.

That’s because there are no good answers to questions about how the president’s wealth soared by more than $2 billion in his first year back in office. Or why his son keeps investing in companies that benefit from lucrative government contracts or favorable regulatory actions. Or why Trump sued his own IRS, which then negotiated a settlement with his own Department of Justice that granted him immunity from tax audits. Or why it looks as though there is a pay-to-play scheme for pardons. Or why Qatar gave him a jet. Or why he has made thousands of stock trades.

We could go on and on and on, but the American people are well aware of what’s happening. A new poll shows that two-thirds of them believe that Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself. And the only reason that figure isn’t higher is because Republicans are bringing down the average thanks to their cult-like devotion to a known con man. Still, even one-third of them think their hero is lining his own pockets.

This widely held perception of corruption would never be good, but it is especially bad at a time when Americans are getting crushed by an affordability crisis that Trump pretends doesn’t exist.

And now journalists with White House access are finally asking about it.

Twice in three days, Vice President JD Vance had to answer corruption-related questions… and twice he fumbled the answer.

On Saturday, he was quizzed during a townhall with CBS, usually a pretty Trump-friendly network, whether he has “seen anything inside the White House, when it comes to corruption, that makes you squeamish?”

Vance responded that he has “never seen anything like that from the president.” He also claimed that he investigated potential issues himself and that he came to the conclusion that “what they’re saying the president did or what they’re saying the president’s son did, he actually didn’t do.”

Here is the thing, though.

That $2.2 billion exists. Those government contracts for Junior’s companies exist. That jet is sitting in a hangar. Those stock trades are documented.

And the American people know it.

Vance then added, “Donald Trump hates when people make money off him. He hates the idea that somebody would come in and say, ‘I’m gonna give you a meeting with the president and I’m going to get rich because I gave you access to the president.’”

Note that the vice president specifically alludes to “pay-to-play” allegations and not other types of corruption.

In this case, he may be partially correct. It certainly is in line with everything we know about Trump that he would hate it if people made money off of him… because he wants to be the one cashing in.

On Monday, Vance was forced to address the issue again in an interview with 2Way Tonight. Although he had some time to think about it, his answers weren’t any more credible.

This time, he was asked about the concerns of Americans that the first family had gotten so much richer in Trump’s first year back in the White House.

Vance responded that the Trumps were already wealthy and that the president is “allowed to make a living.” He also offers a justification for the self-enrichment: His boss had been treated poorly since entering politics, by which he presumably means his two impeachments (for trying to strongarm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into finding dirt on Joe Biden and his role in sparking the January 6 insurrection), the indictments related to his failed coup and the hoarding of classified documents (as well as the attempts to obstruct justice), and the conviction for falsifying business records that made Trump a felon.

Call us skeptical, but we don’t think that argument will convince the two-thirds of Americans who (correctly) believe that the president, who made more money in the White House in 2025 than all of his predecessors in the previous 249 years combined, is lining his own pockets at an unfathomable scale.

Instead, there is a good chance that they will demand some measure of accountability, and the only way to get that is by handing Democrats at least one chamber of Congress in two weeks.

Then it will be someone other than journalists who ask these questions… and the president and his underlings should probably try to come up with a better answer than Vance did.