An Age of Corruption: Eric Adams, Donald Trump, and the Betrayal of America

There's a reason we're living in an age of rampant corruption.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State is an independent media venture and relies on your support. If you haven’t already, subscribe today. This is a free article meant for educational and informational purposes, but subscribers also gain access to exclusive content, including Q&A’s, podcasts, and videos.

---

The indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams is truly something to behold. It is, of course, historic, as no sitting mayor of the city has been charged with crimes, but it is the abject pettiness and shabbiness that really catches the attention.

Adams is alleged to have received $100,000 dollars in illegal donations from the nation of Turkey, as well as a host of gifts, including airline upgrades, luxurious accommodations while visiting the country, and god knows what else. In return, Adams clumsily acted as an undeclared foreign agent, continually spewing pro-Turkish rhetoric and, disturbingly enough, pressuring the NYC Fire Department to approve the opening of a 30+ story Turkish Consulate building in 2021 despite the structure’s inability to meet fire code.

This is some clear cut, top-level corruption, but also, we must remember what is actually occurring here. In order to meet the terms of his alleged bribe, and have the building ready for a visit by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Adams is alleged to have put god knows how many lives in danger. All so that Erdogan could have the photo-op he desired and brag about Turkey’s “increased power” on the global scale. $100,000 dollars, travel, a nice hotel suite, all in exchange for some Turkish propaganda and the risk of thousands of living, breathing human beings that Adams was elected to represent and protect dying in a totally preventable raging inferno.

The mind boggles at this. The soul revolts. It is so small and disgusting, and yet familiar. Add Adams’ alleged crimes to Senator Bob Menendez selling out the United States and his constituents to Egypt for some cash and a stash of gold bars.

But these are just examples of a larger pattern of corruption that has come to sieze America and its political culture. Of course, grift has always been a feature of politics as that pursuit is, along with pure economics, the expression and operation of power. The U.S., since its founding, has been home to an extravagant history of corruption, both highlighted and unseen. It is, however, notable in periods like ours, where historic inequality and Neoliberal ideology has aided, contributed to, and rewarded sociopathic corruption.

Before a deeper dive into this topic, which is pressing and telling, it must be reminded that our stolen Supreme Court effectively legalized bribery by public officials in the case of Snyder v. United States, carving out convenient loopholes for favored politicians to grease their palms when doing business. This, when considered in conjunction with their decision in Trump v. United States, in which they granted the President of the United States conditional immunity when carrying out “official acts” (one of the most loaded phrases you will ever see), as well as their attack on the so-called Chevron Doctrine, effectively crippling government regulatory bodies, what we have witnessed is the polishing of an incredible project of legalized corruption and constructed hierarchical power.

The world that was intended to birth from this project, which has now lasted for over forty years, looks a lot like the one we are currently living in. A defunded educational system in constant crisis. Corporate monopolies dominating the economy and coopting government. A class of powerful elites who are allowed to engage in corruption while betraying the fates of Americans and America itself, all free from legal and political scrutiny as long as they remain part of the chosen few. Meanwhile, politicians continue to line their own pockets, engage in insider trading, and generally screw over their constituents, all angling to stay within that collective and, occasionally, finding themselves in the spotlight for what limited investigations and prosecutions remain.

Perhaps no individuals represent this trend more than Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump has relied on Russian intervention to save his own business, then, as President of the United States, proceeded to bilk the people out of tax dollars for his own profit, used his properties to funnel at least $7.8 million dollars from foreign entities in one of the most open and brazen corruption schemes imaginable, and has continually sold out the U.S. and its interests as he has flirted for favor from autocrats and dictators around the world. In this way, Trump has become one of the most overtly corrupted politicians we have ever seen.

Quieter, but no less destructive, has been Kushner, who used his proximity to Trump to create his own little modest hustle. While tasked with “solving the Middle East Crisis” by Trump (hell of a job there, Kushy), he apparently staked out relationships with nations like Saudia Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, creating such a strong bond that they have invested billions in his private equity firm without much in the way of desire for profits in return.

Weird how that happens.

It is the hallmark of not only a stratified society, which we are, but also an authoritarian one, which we are becoming. We make a mistake by understanding authoritarianism as simply a desire to oppress others for some kind of sick thrill. There are certainly autocrats who enjoy the process and engage in bloodlust, but authoritarianism is the process by which underlying corruption becomes overt and continually more aggressive.

Think of it this way: we have for decades witnessed rampant austerity for the population while more and more resources have been redistributed to the wealthiest few. Upwards of $50 trillion dollars. This was done by the reorganization of incentives, the reworking of our economy, radical deregulation, and co-option of government. Eventually, a scam like that is going to have consequences. People look around and wonder what the hell is going on. Luckily, Trumpism and MAGA have been incredible inventions for the oligarchical class, creating a faux-populist movement that “explains” what’s happened, only to offload responsibility from the billionaire class to “shadowy cabals” composed of vulnerable populations and their political enemies.

Meanwhile, officials willing to play along with this charade are rewarded with power and the spoils of the process. In dictatorships around the world, the people who have maintained the outright exploitation of resources and labor have been bought off by incredible wealth. Over time, this evolves from quiet, hidden profit to blatant theft and corruption. Authoritarianism, or the conquest of liberal democracy through violence, intimidation, and the capture of reality, is the process by which these crimes are validated and continued.

That it is now so overtly related to foreign influence is no surprise. The United States and its corporate bodies have continually paid off tinpot, allied dictators and strongmen to keep their populations oppressed and compliant. It was only a matter of time until other countries and dictators, flush with cash and resources, would begin the process of buying off American officials as the authoritarian project chugged along. National allegiance and, in Adams’ case, municipal allegiance, do not apply. The corruption is going to continue and grow, it’s just a matter of who cashes in.

If the allegations against Adams are true, and it seems likely that they are, I hope dearly that he is held accountable. Spotlighting corruption where it lies is important and vital. But it’s also important to note that, as we have seen with the messed-up judicial system and hobbled regulatory agencies, it’s most often the small fish that get caught and held accountable. There’s a reason Trump continues to evade consequences. Eventually, at some point, you become too big to fail, and the system behaves accordingly.

Moments of widespread corruption need to be met with robust reform. That is what history tells us. Otherwise, the disease grows and spreads, incentivizing representatives at all levels, from the local to the national, to get in while the getting is good. Eventually, it isn’t even corruption anymore. It’s just business as usual. To this point, if we are to rein this in, if we are to restore a modicum of dignity and reestablish functional representative government, it will require a widespread anti-corruption movement that targets it wherever it lies, regardless of party affiliation, and begins the process of re-redistributing resources in an effort to dismantle this regime of grift and the omnipresent authoritarian slide.