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Opinion With Trump hitting new lows, the GOP is experiencing a moral reckoning   Opinions - Campaign | 7 minutes ago

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With Trump hitting new lows, the GOP is experiencing a moral reckoning  

This week marks the beginning of Lent, a time when millions of Americans practice the seemingly lost arts of inner reflection, repentance and humility. At its core, Lent is a reminder that not every impulse deserves to be gratified, and not every internal thought should be shouted into the public square of social media.

One place we won’t see any reflection, repentance or humility is the White House, where even the impersonation of Christian ethics has fell out of favor long ago. Introspection has no place in an administration so totally defined by self-aggrandizing rhetoric, hate-mongering and gleeful bigotry. The Trump administration wears its personality cult egotism on its sleeve as a point of pride for the whole world to see.

It is rich irony that, after decades warning about how Democrats would corrupt our country with state-sponsored atheism and moral relativism, Republicans can now lay claim to perhaps the most godless and amoral administration in American history.  

Just ask President Trump, who still defends sharing (and then blaming someone else for sharing) a blatantly racist video portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Or ask Attorney General Pam Bondi, who boldly declared that Americans shouldn’t think about Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking because the stock market was up. This is what passes for moral leadership in today’s decaying Republican Party. 

Indeed, Trump’s moral repugnancy has spread so far into the party’s governing culture that some Republicans, faced with the stench, are finding it impossible to hold their nose. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) all but conceded Trump’s legacy of racism when he called the disgraceful AI Obama video the “most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” That invites an uncomfortable question: What other displays of Trump’s racism might Scott have seen that he felt comfortable concealing from the public?

The moral rot stretches far beyond Trump’s personal bigotry. His widespread abuse of the pardon system to protect his friends and donors has led to the victims of crimes being denied court-ordered restitution due to them. In the last year alone, Trump-issued pardons erased more than $1 billion in court-ordered fines levied against all manner of crooks. 

Financial fraudster Trevor Milton, for example, had been ordered to pay a staggering $660 million to the shareholders he ripped off. Thanks to his pardon, Milton not only walked away free and clear but also successfully petitioned the court to refund him $300 in court fees. Milton’s victims are left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

Trump revels in his use of the pardon power to shield his friends from justice, but other Republicans aren’t so sanguine. On Monday, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) became the first Republican to support a Democratic proposal that would give Congress the power to reject certain presidential pardons. According to a statement, Bacon made up his mind after watching Trump pardon five former NFL players accused of offenses ranging from perjury to drug trafficking.

“We’ve seen legitimate questions raised about how [pardon authority] has been used, at the same time the ability of Congress to provide oversight has weakened,” Bacon said. “Frankly, it is clear to me the pardon authority has been abused.”

According to new research from pollster Focaldata, a majority of Americans (52 percent) now believe Trump is guilty of poor leadership, corruption and incompetence. His lack of a moral compass is a big reason why a growing number of voters now view Republicans as hypocritical, nasty and callous to the concerns of regular people. They are tired of the self-aggrandizing and self-serving MAGA movement, and poll after poll suggests they are planning to vote their consciences in November.

Regardless of what Trump’s rotten MAGA movement would have us believe, most Americans still believe their president should possess decency and sound moral judgment. Trump’s first year in his second term has shown millions of voters just how bad things can get when a president serves only his own interests. It isn’t for nothing that Trump’s approval just hit an all-time low of only 34 percent — well below the 38 percent once considered to be his impenetrable floor.

The Lenten season offers us the opportunity to look beyond ourselves and our short-term interests. That call to humility and service feels more needed than ever. If Trump and his weak Republican enablers on Capitol Hill won’t humble themselves to serve the public, voters will be more than willing to do the humbling for them.

Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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