Trump’s reign of grift and graft is without parallel

In 1958, the normally staid Eisenhower administration was rocked by scandal. White House chief of staff Sherman Adams was forced to resign for accepting a vicuna coat and a rug from a Boston textile manufacturer under federal investigation. 

Adams, Eisenhower’s top political enforcer, was never charged with a crime. His ethical lapses look laughably tame compared to the Roman orgy of corruption President Trump presides over today. In fact, the magnitude and brazenness of Trump’s reign of grift and graft is without parallel in U.S. history.  

Three previous administrations stand out as the most scandal-prone. Coincidentally (or not), all also were led by Republican presidents: Richard Nixon, Warren G. Harding and Ulysses S. Grant.  

Nixon makes the list mainly because of the Watergate break-in and subsequent White House cover up, which led to his impeachment and resignation to avoid a likely conviction in a Senate trial. But with his “enemies list,” campaign slush fund and secret bombing of Cambodia, “Tricky Dick” also presaged Trump’s penchant for dissembling, trading access for cash and siccing federal agencies on political foes.

The Harding administration is generally regarded as the 20th century’s most venal. Crooked cabinet officers sold government medical supplies to private contractors and secretly leased drilling rights for U.S. Navy oil reserves to oil tycoons. There is no evidence Harding himself was involved in these schemes.

The same is true of President Grant, whose administration heretofore has occupied the pinnacle of public graft. On his watch, a so-called “Gold Ring” tried........

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