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As an aside, Democrats should consider pushing legislation that more concretely bans such administrative claim payments to presidents (and other officials) even if the claims predated their service. Yes, Republicans will block a vote on it. Let them punt, then take it to the country. It’s always possible that Trump will decide against such payments. But even if he does, would that have happened if this whole scandal had never been disclosed? As writer John Ganz points out, this sort of corruption is foundational to MAGA politics. Whether it’s Trump selling favors to kleptocratic allies abroad, or ICE agents getting handed newly created government jobs by the thousands to arrest nonviolent day laborers on real worksites, or Trump pardoning 1,500 of his insurrectionist followers in exchange for them serving as MAGA’s paramilitary street-violence wing, everything is subject to buying and selling. Meanwhile, explains Don Moynihan, Trump is simultaneously gutting internal executive branch oversight. For MAGA, all this is a positive.
