Trump exempts himself from ethics pledge as watchdogs sound alarms
Summary
Donald Trump has exempted himself from key ethics guidelines required under the Presidential Transition Act, which he signed into law in 2020.
By rejecting federal funding for his transition team, Trump avoids donor limits and disclosure requirements, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and transparency.
Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and government watchdogs, warn that Trump’s refusal to submit an ethics plan undermines accountability and could open the door to corruption.
This move marks a break from precedent and has sparked alarm over potential personal enrichment during his presidency.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ethics-transition-agreement-b2656246.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world904
Comments178
lol. Watchdogs. Hilarious. Let me know when we have a government again.
Don't hold your breath.
it usually takes 4-6 years or so for democrats to fix most of whatever republciants screw up.
donvict part 1 will take a generation, at least.
donvict part 2 will take a lot longer and require practically-impossible coordination and commitment to get non-republicants to the levels of representation needed for amendment ratifications and impeachments.
you see that's the thing, its not exactly blue stats. its blue city's, islands surrounded by hundreds of miles of red oceans
Mostly empty oceans
Lets be honest, average iq of the red ocean is negative, theres no "people" there. And for the record i live in red ocean
I'm in the purple ocean! But our laws are very very red
Rural/urban divide is not unique to the US in any way whatsoever. Also, expect polarization to self perpetuate as blue voters move to blue states and red states to move to red states.
Turkey is very similar in this regard. Progressive cities, backwards countryside.
It’s also roughly the size and population of Texas alone. Does it have a wildly unfair Electoral College?
Whoa, lets call it like it is. There will be blue states, and there will be welfare states.
Me in Europe for the first time a long time ago asking the same question in every country and getting the truth from a woman in Rome: "oh, we don't hate the Jews. You're fine here.... But leave the cities.... Yeah, it's like anywhere"
That red ocean is like 3 people on a fucking farm or in a trailer.
An ocean of empty land.
I saw a post about that the other day, it showed a map of all the states with populations smaller than LA county. Almost every single red state was highlighted. Really shows you how silly the electoral college system is.
Liberals never actually fix what conservatives screw up. We never closed Gitmo and we still have troops based in Iraq. We never actually ended the War on Drugs (which has left Republicans a loophole to ban contraceptives by listing them as controlled substances). We never truly repealed Jim Crow and much of the country still relies on forced labor even in liberal bastions like California or New York.
Trump's just pulling back the curtain on how much has rotted.
Clinton fucking balanced the budget.
The real problem is Republican spend 4-8 years screwing everything up. Over the next 4 years, with the slimmest of margins, Democrats roll back 80% of it. Then you come in and say "both sides".
If we want things to stop racheting to the right, we have to elect Dems more than half the time.
For what? A few months? And largely by balancing off the SS Trust, a trick you can only do once (as Bush Jr discovered when he was too far in debt to privatize it).
Half the Democratic Party was along for the ride on the Bush agenda. Kennedy embraced NCLB, Clinton and Kerry fully endorsed the AUMF, Joe Biden authored much of the Patriot Act Hell, Graham-Leech-Biley was signed under Clinton, queuing up the financial crash of 2008.
This isn't just Republicans. The problem is broadly bipartisan.
They do, it's just they mostly concern themselves with the economic screw ups, less-so the rights ones.
Think 'gay people can marry and have kids to give us more economic slaves' vs. 'gay people can't marry, can't have kids, and we're going to use them as a scapegoat for our issues.'
Liberals (which I'm taking to mean Democrats) didn't "fix" gay marriage. Right up until the Iowa Supreme Court decision, in the early 2000's, the argument in Democratic circles was that gay-rights organizations should pipe down, settle for civil unions, and stop making gay marriage an issue. They were afraid of handing the Republicans a weapon. It was the gay-rights organizations that pushed it through the courts, and prominent Democratic politicians like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden "evolved" their positions to support it. I mean no criticism by the use of quotes. Kudos to them for changing their minds, but it wasn't liberals that made it happen.
I'd say it was liberals that made it happen once there was overwhelming public support, which again, is performative, but drastically different from actively suppressing it. Someone has to pass the things into laws, and in the US it's either Republicans or Democrats, and across the board any services those poor people do have was introduced through Democrats.
Again, under duress, I don't argue otherwise. Up here in Canada it was the Liberals being forced to put Healthcare as a 'universal'* right by the NDP (our Left wing party), then the NDP again to force Liberals to put Dental care through. But they actually did it, and the Conservatives don't.
Gay marriage was legalized under a majority conservative court system way back in 2003. When it went to a poplar vote in the bright blue State of California in 2008, Prop 8's plan to kill it passed by a healthy margin
This was the same year Obama was tiptoeing around full legalization of gay marriage for fear of pissing off too many swing voters in the Midwest.
Gay marriage wasn't fully legalized into 2015, again by the conservative courts. Efforts to legislate civil rights for LGBT people have largely failed even when the Pres and Leg were fully in Dem control.
Again, under a Liberal government. And I keep saying over and over -- I know they phone it in and constantly give bigot 'swing voters' things they want. I've never said anything against that. It had a 60% approval by the public in 2015 when it was fully legalized. So again, for like the fifth goddamn time -- Liberal governments can be forced to do these things by popular will. Conservatives won't (I'm sure there's like two examples someone will bring up, again, exception proves the rule.)
To sum: Liberals have to be forced to allow LGBT rights by popular opinion. Conservatives do this.
The Republicans controlled every branch of government in 2003, as well as a majority of state legislatures and governorships.
What broke for gay marriage in 2003 was a libertarian strain of conservatism defecting from the mainstream. Liberals accepted the change with the same passivity as they accepted the status quo.
Again by a majority conservative court. The Obama legislature dragged its heels.
They can be forced to do things by powerful socio-economic interests. In this case, a big chunk of the legal community broke for gay marriage and Obama didn't try to get in the way.
But they didn't do anything. They just let the change happen.
“Hey! You’re not supposed to do that!”
“Is there a specific law being broken?”
“Well…no, not exactly. But it breaks with tradition!”
It does seem a bit silly to focus on this, but you know how the news is. Let’s not forget about Obama in that tan suit sending republicans off the deep end.
From a republican, about a tan suit:
Even if there was a law being broken, time has shown that Trump is pretty much above the law at this point.
"Dont enforce democratic norms with tradition" should be in the historical rulebook. Right next to not printing money to pay bills, not invading Russia in winter, and not touching Americas boats
Maybe someone should pair the watchdogs with guard dogs to do the biting when the former bark
If we allow the government to have control of either group, the guard dogs will just kill the watch dogs.
Maybe the people should start biting.
That is a very good point. The people should be controlling the government, after all.
Well, the people wanted this
I don't think they did. A minority voted for this, but I don't think they actually grasped or knew the extent of what they were voting for.
They're gonna be barking a whole lot more the next four years.
I wonder if falling out of windows will be a common thing.
Those poor dogs. Someone should call the SPCA and repo.... Defunded you say?
Maybe a network of volunteers can foster care for some, a few have sweet temperaments ?
I can volunteer some pet food
And what are they going to do about it? If breaking the oath bears no teeth, the oath is pointless.
I face more punishment breaking my Paladin oath in Baldurs Gate 3...
Just like all checks and balances in government, it assumes the branches are somewhat independent and ethical, at least claim to serve their constituents, and protect their own power. It’s up to the legislative branch or the judicial branch
Turns out the concept of "checks and balances" was always a stupid lie.
If it's a law then he broke the law which means no other politician should be involved in the process as it's a matter for the police, he should be prevented from taking power by those who enforce the law, aka the police.
I still never finished act 2.. patches and mod updates sent me back to RTS and 4x. My last run was a dope oath breaking paladin
I'm trying to keep my ancients oath but every dialogue option seems like a trap to make you lose it. I fucking lost it talking to a bird for fucks sake. I've lost so many hours of progress resetting because I don't want to pay 1000 gold, it's literally 1/10th that cost to change your class.
I wish paladins had a morality slider instead, like KOTOR
Do you play with any mods? UI?
I’d be happy that Trump voters finally got what they deserve, but unfortunately, the rest of us have to suffer the consequences alongside them. As well as the rest of the world.
I don't know why, but most of the world voting their political parties into power is trending to the conservative right not towards the progressive left.
Because things are getting more worrying on a global scale (economical slow down, ecological crisis and wars) and the usual human reflexes are conservatism and blaming the people who are different. I think progressive ideas rather spread in times of peace and prosperity, or after catastrophic events like WW2.
Like voting in to power the people causing the economic and environmental issues. It's absolutely mind-boggling how easy humans can be convinced to vote against their own interests.
I think "easy" is unfair. I mean, you really have to admit that the right-wing propaganda machine worked its ass off for the last 30 years and succeeded in its evil intent.
Have you seen how blatant the propaganda is?
Sure, but they had to work up to that exponentially. If they came out swinging like that even 10 years ago, there would have been a LOT more "it was a joke" back peddling.
On the surface for some people, it's just voting for people who they think are not going to add restrictions on their daily lives, which comes way before ecology or the wellbeing of strangers, when you struggle. It's the end of the month vs end of the world dilemma that right populism seems to utilize better than left populism.
I think the billionaire class has decided it's better to be in control of government right now so they can use the power of state violence to keep their material wealth. There is an ongoing refugee crisis that is going to affect every single country as climate change makes certain places uninhabitable.
The final battle of the class war is upon us.
Pfffft you think therell be a battle? Well just slowly backslide into feudalism and the world will think it was inevitable. Im almost inclined to agree seeing how people behave now and historically
Those who try to actively pilot their lives are the minority. The preference is to not think about and simply do whatever it is that they want to do in the moment.
We aren't actually a race of beings able to see or plan ahead mostly. To a degree the sociopaths are right to play the populace like a fiddle it's just a shame most of them are idiots without a plan either.
Historically this does seem to be the trend. However it could be worth pointing out that the original New Deal was enacted during a period of historic economic turmoil and upheaval. Could be worth refreshing ourselves on how that came about to help prepare for what's coming next.
“Most of the world” isn’t voting at all. And that is how the right wing gains power.
Turnout in the UK this year was 59.7%. Ireland's 60%, Japan 54%, France 63%, South Africa 59%, Mexico 61%. Indonesia 82%. India 65%. Sri Lanka 79%. America's around 65%.
In 2022 Italy had 63%, Brazil 79%, Australia 92%.
In 2021, Germany's was 76%.
What does "most of the world isn't voting at all" mean?
By your own numbers (Thanks for doing that work! Next time please remember to share the source you pulled from.) in most countries at least a third of people couldn’t be bothered to do the most meaningful action they can to impact the world. That’s sad.
The infobox from Wikipedia is the source for all but the Irish elections and American elections, neither of which are finished counting (although Ireland's was only this weekend...). It really isn't that much work to type "election turnout (country)" into Google and click the first result. I'm not writing a dissertation, so I'm afraid that will have to do you.
"Couldn't be bothered" is an extreme oversimplification of the matter, but regardless, most people are voting, and when higher than usual numbers do vote - as in America - it hasn't meant defeat for the right wing.
The trend is technically voting out the establishment - trying something new out of desperation. Unfortunately, the extreme right is more than willing to pretend that they have a solution. Usually, it's to blame the other and promise to get rid of the other. You know, Nazi shit.
Technology has enabled the centralization of power and wealth in an unprecedented way. Also Russian influence campaigns, for the same reason.
You know that old saying, "every accusation is a confession"? When conservatives all over the world started getting hysterical about the WEF, I think what we all needed to be looking at was the IDU.
It's funny how Brazil (a country that's seen the consequences of authoritarianism) is handling their own attempted coup vs the U.S., we are basically welcoming Trump back after everything he's done.
After the coup attempt he should have been barred from office and arrested. This is such a ridiculous timeline.
Societies get the leaders they deserve.
I hate that sentiment and especially wording, but there is sadly truth behind it...
I guess... he barely won the popular vote, and didn't pick up any significant amount of new voters. I wouldn't say the basically half of voters who voted against this deserve it.
This is the part that hurts the most.
I canvassed, I rallied, I pushed people to vote. I did what I could to ensure the fascist didn't win again, but he still did. Enough of my country either didn't care, found some excuse to not vote for her, or wanted him to to be president.
I was denied a chance at a primary, but I was excited for Kamala. There is no person who can sit and represent 300 million people and make them all happy, but she was more on my side than not, and I'm willing to push for 'better right now' and then push for 'better later' too as distinct events.
As part of the now vocal minority, I don't relish what is to come. I didn't ask for it and I don't want it; but lumped in with 'Americans', we sure seem to.
Yeah, it sucks. I really wish we would have dealt with the issue when he planned a coup iinstead of basically letting him walk all over everyone back into power.
The 80 million people who didn’t vote deserve it.
Man, no wonder we go to war with people all the time. Can't even not wish harm on people simply for not voting. Is it frustrating, sure, but i don't wish harm on people over it.
Him not signing an ethics pledge is probably the most honest move he did in his lifetime.
Fucking could? It's kinda been proven that he is corrupt and this is the best the watchdogs can do? Where's their teeth?
Not even kinda proven! It's 100 fucking percent proven he's corrupt. The man was found guilty of 34 felonies. He's been doing this shit literally for decades... Fucking pussies...
Alarm! Concern! Criticism! Hand-wringing!
Furrowed brows!
we are well past the point of hand-wringing. this calls for a strongly worded letter
What are you doing about it?
Lowly me? Preparing to ![email protected]
I’ll have to look into that.
indeed they will
Those alarms already had the copper wire stolen from behind them.
Opens the door to corruption?
The door was burnt for firewood years ago.
People are generally quite stupid, so they need to feel the effects that everyone knew was coming two decades ago. When you destroy education and let money control media and politics, you get America.
We have learned (and are still learning) that precedent doesn't mean shit
It is spelled "president"
(/a)
It was.
Now it's Fuhrer.
Okay, I give up. What on earth is /a supposed to mean!? Some sources decode it as "alterous", but that doesn't help me either. Is this just a typo of /s?
Probably just a typo
Just a typo, (and fat fingers) but I'm going to say it stands for "ambiguous" because...
There once was a man from Jamaica, Who liked to sling pieces of paper. The tropical sun was a topical one, And the walri could see it much deeper.
Can someone explain this to me
Recite it in concordance with Jamaican patois phonology, and it rhymes.
Is there more to it than rhyme? It makes no sense to me. 💩🧠💩😅
The more I see this unfold the more I understand why Trump won. (This is in no way me supporting Trump, the guy deserves the worst this world has to offer!)
Anyways, the establishment and dems are a bunch of toothless liars! If I was some poor chap doing my best to just stay alive in the US I likely also would've have lost hope in my vote mattering. Legally speaking, it quite literally doesn't. The dems regularly shitting on the primaries is a great example of this (and ofc the electoral collage).
Nobody in politics cares about the people. After the 2008 crash, both the reps and dems bailed out all the banks responsible for the mass fraud, while the people that suffered barely got shit.
The vast majority of people didn't vote and some voted Trump out of desperation, wanting any change at all. It's fucking sad.
Trump is America's self-inflicted gunshot wound
And even if it heals, the medical bills will wreck us.
"And that's MXC's impact replay of the day!"
Seriously, I want that on a bumper sticker.
Warren is a good example of someone who does care and I can only recommend her books on the matter. She came from the same place as everyone else and managed to get where she has been for a good while now.
If she'd been president 2016 or any time after that things would've looked a lot different, probably globally, I can almost guarantee as much.
Edit: and by different I mean a lot fucking better, to be clear.
You mean Bernie, not Warren. Plus Bernie was winning primaries and insanely more popular than Warren.
If he's so popular why wasn't he elected after every primary
Because you don't live in a democracy. And you don't get elected after every primary, primaries are held before election to see who is popular. Sanders approval rating is through the roof and has been consistently over the years, easily the most popular senator across the board.
Your answer is the DNC, ain't that complicated. Sanders won the votes of the people, but the liberals and dems pushed Hillary anyway in 2016, and lost.
Yeah, but she's not progressive enough for the leftists (plus they hate her for some perceived slight against Bernie), and too left for the moderates.
The one thing we can absolutely be sure of is that this dispicable con-man will do all that he can to enrich himself, without regard for any limiting principle or structural restraint.
Its not a question of "if" he "may" be corrupt, but only how brazen the supposed patriots in the Republican party will let him be as he does it.
I mean the universe spent years letting us all know this guy was corrupt as fuck.
Americans voted for corruption.
We WANT corruption.
We'll be no better than Russia by the end of our lives. And it will have been no one else's fault but our own.
Not mine, thanks
same. I'm sick of being lumped in with the vocal minority. which they are. "Americans" as a majority do not want this.
This would have made sense to say last time Trump won with a minority of votes. But he won the majority this time. The majority of Americans chose to put an anti-democratic felon rapist in the Oval Office. Sorry, but that's the reality. The stupids in this country aren't a minority.
no, the majority of votes went to him. the majority of adult Americans did not vote for him.
"which he signed into law in 2020." You've got to be fucking kidding
Maybe just maybe you guys should have laws that require this instead of ohbits always been done this way. What a riduclulse country.
It is a law. Apparently it's just not enforced.
It is a law. Trump signed it in his first term.
Penalties include
Apparently they don’t care. Congress could probably do something but Senator Warren is shouting into a void
Edit: if you don’t sign an ethics statement promising not to accept
bribesdonations from unethical sources presenting a strong appearance of conflict of interest, your penalty is you get to acceptbribesthemAre we having a stronk
Call the Trumpulance?
Could open the door? The door was ripped from its hinges already.
This is the problem with trying to follow decorum against a fascist.
"Open the door to corruption"? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Before they were using the back door. Now we're talking about the front door!
Yeah!
Weeeellllllll....
Im not so sure we deserve a decent leader atp
I’m not surprised, but I am exasperated.
Don't let any of them have access to briefings or classified materials. Period. Not cleared, you have no access. You fuckers will do whatever you want after in office, but right now the current administration should not fuck around. Fuck these assholes. Let them catch up later. Its not like it will cause any more damage to our country if they don't have access before then.
Isn't the President granted super-whatever clearance, through? I can just imagine Donny calling for some ridiculously secret files and just whipping out his phone to snap some pics of them "for a friend". At this point, I'm not convinced anyone would actually stop him!
The most blatant act of "rules for thee, but not for me." My brother in Christ, you wrote the act.
"i didn't read that. it don't count." -djt, probably.
I appreciate the rare honesty, I guess. Not like it would change anything if he did it.
How is this allowed under an act of congress? Oh right, lack of accountability and oversight.
there was only going to be 'accountability' if democrats didn't follow it.
And they shouldnt anymore. Clearly the voters do not want good people
In how many ways do we need to signal to Trump that he can do whatever he wants, without repercussion?
We're so fucking useless.
Now he did it. IT'S DONE. WE GOT EM. Donald will finally feel the FULL FORCE of our justice system telling him that they are VERY CONCERNED.
Mark your calendars everyone, we have a new holiday.
😂
Raise alarms? Could open the door to corruption? Undermine accountability?
Where the Hell have these people been? And anybody who is shocked by these headlines needs to come out from under their rock. None of this is new or news. It’s SOP.
As for accountability and watchdogs? Can you be any more lip service? What is anybody going to do? Ever? They had four years to make Trump and team accountable. Hasn’t exactly worked out.
Wake me when September (2028) ends.
So he chose not to lie this once. Doesn't excuse a lifetime of it
And Joe pardoned Hunter for whatever they "find" next on that laptop, so, y'know, both sides.
/s
I think we here all know why Biden had to pardon his son: because Trump and the republican cabal would sooner crucify him to fire up the rubes, than address any needful issues this country has. As far as conservatives are concerned, Biden’s son IS Biden, and they would deal out “pay back” for Trump’s felony convictions. It’s conservative tribalism.
But as far as conservatives will figure, it’s just “both sides” at best and “corrupt joe” at worst.
I choose to enjoy it as a last fuck you to the red hats
Exactly. This is why I could not give a single fuck about Biden pardoning his son.
Well, that also gets Joe off the "10% for the big guy" invesigation that may have been chasing him after office.
To the people who will wake up tomorrow pretending this is going to be buisness as usual. Fuck you. That's all.
does not matter. americans have a shit education and therrfor are now dumbed down to enjoy a life in idiocracy. and just like last time i am sure hundreds of thousands of the dumbest will die. covid happend when wuhan lover donald was in office and tbis time it is going to be similar. dumb people are a magnet to problems. and the "voter" will love it! some wrestling guy will show them how to treat mpox with cooked rawmilk...it just needs to be a really stupid idea that triggers others. like nobody cares about "the wall" anymore,right? will the fat fuck finish his wall? nope! because retardism is their new religion. i am expecting hulk hogan or kid rock to be in a key position for womensrights, education or something as far out of their mental range as that.
Thank goodness for the watchdogs! I’m so glad they’re here. What would we do without them?!?!?
-_____-
Can things stop. I just... Want things to stop now.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
My brother in Christ you signed the law
Yeah, but it applied to other people, not
GodTrump.Stop with the precedent. Decorum and tradition means nothing and only Dems keep falling for it and setting themselves arbitrary barriers.
Toothless watchdogs is more like it
Why am I not in the least bit surprised.
Trump is like "lol, I can't spell that".
I really hope the segment of poor people that voted for him suffer greatly under his regime. They need to learn a hard kind of lesson they seem to be unwilling to learn any other way.
Did you just become one of the “hurting the right people” crowd?
Ot doesn’t work on them anyway. They just blame someone else.
I don't think you understand the psyche of people voting for him, even if Trump personally came to their house and stomped on their balls they would vote for him.
It won't make any difference to their future votes if they suffer, it'll just be suffering.
I still don't really know a good way to pry people away from his cult of personality or convince them of the truth but suffering for the sake of itself is not good.
No one is immune from propaganda.
They already are... Look at the states and counties that vote red. Leaders in education and life expectancy they are not. Great in poverty with a dearth of opportunity they are. Over the decades these places have been ravaged by big business. Then business moved overseas and opiates moved in.
What do these people do? In a flash of absolute genius they vote in the guy whose administration is filled with tech bros. The problem is the tech bros all think these people are trash and are happy to see them occupied by video games and drugs.
So clearly the immigrants working for low pay are the reason the economy is fucked. The solution must be the administration whose only legislative accomplishment was a massive tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. Because the economy can't possibly be fucked because as a society we've given to the top 1% all of the gains in productivity since the 1980s.
This is not it. What an abhorrent and sadistic take.
Here's a handy tip for the future: if you find yourself writing a sentence that goes "I really hope [...] poor people [...] suffer greatly", maybe reconsider posting it.
The [...] Is doing some heavy lifting.
That's like saying that "I hope the black people that killed my parents suffer greatly" shouldn't be said. You can't just " I hope [...] black people [...] suffer greatly" it.
Shit now there's nothing stopping him from doing immoral undemocratic stuff like pardoning his children.
Lol, trump would do way worse than pardon his kid that was targeted by the doj for something that hardly gets charged in the first place. Trump incites violence, disregards the constitution, is a sexual predator (probably a pedophile) and the list goes on.
Rules for thee but not for me, got it.
Biden is literally following the rules with an official presidential pardon. Trump is violating a law he signed into law.
Oh look, crickets.
What does any of this have to do with Biden?
Did you forget your original comment?
Or did you bring up "pardoning his children" right after Biden pardoned his son for an entirely unrelated reason?
He did that? Oh never mind, if Biden did it, then it's ok if Trump does it, too. Please disregard my initial comment. It is in fact not immoral and undemocratic to pardon your own children.
Yes. It is "okay" if a president uses their legal power to pardon people for federal crimes. In that it is their legal right to do so.
Is this the first day you've been aware of that fact? It's been true for a very, very long time.
You tell 'em Captain Logic! Also, when are we going to poison this damn infestation of giant pandas?
You're right. What could Trump possibly do that would even come remotely close to equaling Joe Biden doing such a totally outrageous and unacceptable legal thing?
What about pardoning war criminals?
Tell me of all the people Don pardoned.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executive_clemency_by_Donald_Trump
Relatively few compared to his predecessors. Some real assholes on that list. It amazes me how Roger Stone isn't under the Jail.
Lil Wayne is on that list btw.
We will get to see is how they twist the presidential pardon this coming year.
Afaik a presidential pardon is strictly federal.
State cases and Civil cases are not covered.
I'm sure the supreme Court will Fix that.
?
What about that is confusing to you?
Every part. I'm not your siri, just google it or something
Are you mental?