The so-called “Gilded Age” in America was noted for the flourishing of corruption. At his inauguration, President Trump declared America was entering a “Golden Age” under his leadership.

Judging from his first month back in office, Trump’s Golden Age seems to be opening the door to the Gilded Age’s affinity for corruption.

Trump often accuses people and institutions he does not like of being corrupt. For example, he said the New York judge who presided over his so-called hush money trial was corrupt. Similarly, New York state, the U.S. government, a former FBI director, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Agency for International Development, among many others, are all corrupt in Trump’s view.

Despite his fondness for using the word "corrupt" as a negative epithet, Trump has taken steps since returning to the Oval Office that create opportunities for conflicts of interest and corrupt practices. A recent example of this is the Trump Justice Department’s decision earlier this month to drop the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams had been indicted by a grand jury for a variety of acts of corruption. The Justice Department’s rationale for dropping the case was political, not legal. Adams had agreed to help enforce Trump’s immigration policies. Seven prosecutors in New York and Washington, D.C. resigned rather than execute an order they viewed as a corrupt bargain.

Trump seems to have a soft spot for corrupt politicians. In addition to dropping Adams’s prosecution, he pardoned Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois who had been convicted of........

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