Americans are chronically pessimistic about corruption. Since 2007, a large majority has agreed that corruption is “widespread throughout the government in this country,” according to the Gallup polling organization. But this discontent shades easily into apathy. In election-year surveys, corruption does not generally crack the top issues American voters care about. No American politician, arguably, has understood and exploited this ambient cynicism more successfully than President Trump. There’s a difference, though, between a dozen or so million in government payments to Trump-owned resort properties — the most attention-grabbing form that Trump’s conflicts took in his first presidency — and the multibillion-dollar spoils that have been made public in recent months. And this summer, among at least some prominent Republicans, there is a palpable nervousness that voters have noticed. Corruption has emerged as an issue of prominence in some midterm races. One lesson that Democrats took from Trump’s first term was that American disillusionment with a “corrupt” system helped Trump far more than it hurt him. Has that changed?
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