This letter ran in the Portland Press Herald, Sept. 7, 2026
The second Trump administration is thought by most historians to be far and away the most corrupt in American history, abetted by a compromised Supreme Court placing the presidency above the law and by the craven failure of a Republican Congress to exercise constitutionally mandated checks and balances. Former federal prosecutor and law professor Barbara McQuade describes it as “mob-style government,” which it certainly looks like.
We may not yet be able to see the full repercussions of the Trump era in the economic data, but we see the psychological consequences all around us: a growing sense that economic walls are closing in, a skepticism in the electorate toward government competence and intentions, the mistrust of Americans by foreigners, and the mistrust by Americans of each other.
The instances of Trump’s corruption are so numerous and wide-ranging that it is hard to keep track of them all, which itself becomes a strategy of political control, described by Trump ally Steve Bannon as “flooding the zone”, instilling a sense of helplessness and hopelessness in the electorate. The great risk of this assault on civic virtue and engagement is that the public becomes inured to general corruption and is no longer shocked by specific instances of it.
Even now there are arguments between the left and right on what is corrupt behavior and what is acceptable, normal conduct. These disagreements in part reflect the intentional debasement of our political language. For instance, Trump and his Republican allies advocate voter suppression measures in the name of promoting election “integrity”. Damage is done here to both the concept of integrity and to public confidence in elections. Cynicism results (i.e. “they all do it”) and suddenly we come face-to-face with the prospect of the demise of our republic from lack of public support and participation. That threat becomes the ultimate cost of corruption, but there are incremental costs along the way, measured abstractly as decreasing economic stability and dynamism, and concretely as increasing human misery and despair.
Take an example from right here in Maine. Susan Collins, with money from over 100 billionaires, is running incessant campaign ads extolling the pork barrel money she directs to Maine as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Indeed, Collins has been very successful scrounging money for Maine, bringing home $431 million this year, more per capita than many of her Senate colleagues. However, these are just crumbs off the oligarchs’ table, on which Trump and a Republican Congress last year spread $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The tax breaks going mostly to the wealthy and corporations are equal to 10,000 times the amount of pork Susan Collins brought home to Maine.
Meanwhile, the national debt has just topped $40 trillion. We now pay more for the interest on our debt than for national defense, roughly $2,800 each year for every man, woman, and child in the USA. What Senator Collins neglects to remind us in her ads, is that due to decades of massive Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and incessant unfunded wars of choice, all her federal largess is borrowed, left to our children and grandchildren to repay.
As soon as the “One Big Beautiful (Tax) Bill” passed last year by Collins and her Republican cohorts takes full effect after the November elections (cute!), Maine will be hit by an economic storm. Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, ACA and SNAP will eliminate the ability of thousands of Mainers, especially children, the elderly and disabled, to access affordable health care or sufficient food. Already struggling, rural hospitals will need to cut services or will fold entirely, the money earmarked to help them weather this storm being a pittance.
Meanwhile, Susan Collins is adamantly opposed to any form of universal national health care to help lower what is one of the highest and most unpredictable costs for most American families and the leading cause of personal bankruptcies. Her claim is that we can’t afford it, despite Americans already paying $6,000 more per person for health care than the rest of the developed world (where health care is universal), while living four years less. In short, we’re already covering the cost of public health care, we’re just not getting our money’s worth. In my book, that is corruption.
Michael McMillen
Harborside and Portland, MaineMichael McMillen is a retired businessman and education philanthropist deeply worried about the irreparable damage being done to our country by the current administration in Washington. He divides his time between Harborside and Portland.