History shows that tariffs are a recipe for bad government ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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Well, that didn’t take long. One of Donald Trump’s top aides is accused of selling access to the appointments process. According to the New York Times

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and other news reports this morning, he demanded a $100,000 fee from a potential treasury secretary to “promote” his candidacy. I’m “Boris [expletive] Epshteyn,” he explained. Trump, of all people, ordered an investigation. Epshteyn, for his part, denies the charges.

It was a lurid early reminder that the new administration could bring with it a cornucopia of corruption. Today’s quiet campaign deals turn into tomorrow’s scandals. And a recent study shows that donations improved the odds of avoiding tariffs

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in the last Trump administration. After voters rebelled against a government that does not work for them, this dynamic will pose a constant public challenge. And it will create new opportunities for the long drive for reform.

It goes beyond the new role for tech oligarchs. Elon Musk, of course, paid for the campaign’s “independent” digital field operation. A handful

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of billionaires provided roughly one-third of Trump’s campaign funds, according to the Financial Times. They want deregulation of industries such as cryptocurrency. (Kamala Harris, for her part, managed to blow through a billion dollars raised in three months and still ended up in debt.)

It also goes beyond industry-friendly policies promised by the incoming administration. Trump promised oil and gas executives that he would loosen environmental rules as he asked for $1 billion for his campaign — transactions he assured them would be “a deal

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.”

The very structure of the economic policy Trump is now building will be especially vulnerable to corruption. It all comes down to tariffs, something most of us learned about in history class if at all. These are the import taxes imposed on goods and services coming in from outside the country. Trump promised a 20 percent across-the-board duty coupled with deep cuts in income taxes (especially for the wealthy). Already, he has announced 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China.

A government funded by tariffs produces crony capitalism. There is an endless demand for loopholes and quid pro quos. That is how things were done in the late 1800s, the gaudy age of widespread corruption dubbed by Mark Twain “the Gilded Age.”

Robber barons battled over rates. Some wanted duties high while others fought to be exempted. President William McKinley put sugar on the “exempt” list with no import duty, for example, which principally benefitted the Sugar Trust. Cargo ships raced to ports with minutes to spare to avoid one fee or another. In one early 20th-century fight, amid a scramble of lobbying, President William Howard Taft managed to eke out lower rates on animal hides, gloves, hosiery, and lumber.

“About two thousand millionaires run the policies of the Republican party and make its tariffs,” grumbled the publisher of the Chicago Tribune. “Whatever duties protect the two thousand plutocrats is protection to American industries. Whatever don’t is free trade.”

Tariffs were such a central political issue that author Steven Weisman called the decades around the turn of the 20th century The Great Tax Wars. The tariffs were understood to be regressive and prone to favoritism. That populist view animated the Populist and Progressive movements and spurred the creation of the income tax, which had to be passed three separate times and eventually required a constitutional amendment to enact.

Just three weeks after his reelection, Trumponomics has taken us back to the politics of a century ago. Already, one lobbyist told CNBC

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, dozens of panicked companies have called seeking services. “Absolutely everyone is calling,” she said. “It is nonstop.”

In Trump’s first administration, the lobby of his downtown Washington hotel was a notorious watering hole for lobbyists and influence peddlers. Trump sold that hotel, but not to worry. This time, it may be the entire capital that’s for sale.

The Gilded Age led to the first wave of Progressive-era anticorruption reforms, the forebears of the Watergate-era reforms that still shape our campaigns today. Whether there will ultimately be a new wave of reform in reaction to Trumpian excesses is the big question today.





Private Prison Companies Ready to Cash in Under Trump

The stock prices of private prison giants like GEO Group and CoreCivic soared after Donald Trump’s reelection as investors bet on his aggressive immigration policies. This boom underscores the connection between the growth of the private prison industry and the federal government’s increasing reliance on for-profit firms to detain more and more immigrants — a trend likely to intensify under a second Trump term. “As we stand on the precipice of an explosion of mass detention, it is critical to acknowledge that if these corporations didn’t exist, it would be difficult for the federal government to execute its plans,” Lauren-Brooke Eisen writes. Read more

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Roadblocks to Curbing Government Spying

House Republicans are blocking a proposal that would curb the dramatic expansion of surveillance powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Already controversial for allowing the government to access Americans’ communications without a warrant, the law was further expanded in April with a provision that forces U.S. service providers to assist in surveillance efforts. “Senators agreed to vote for this provision based on a promise by the Senate Intelligence Committee chair that it would be fixed in subsequent legislation,” Elizabeth Goitein told the New York Times. “Now House leaders are retroactively trying to unravel that bargain.” Read more

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SCOTUS Is a Global Oddity

With no limits on tenure, U.S. Supreme Court justices serve more than twice as long as their counterparts in other major democracies on average. A new analysis by political science professor Lisa Hilbink examines high court term lengths around the world, concluding that lifetime appointments don’t offer added benefits for judicial independence compared with fixed or age-limited terms, but they do have clear costs. Hilbink argues that looking at other countries’ examples indicates that term limits can be implemented “with little risk to judicial independence — and the potential to build a more balanced and legitimate Court.” OUTLET NAME

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Coming Up

VIRTUAL EVENT: Analyzing Trump’s Plan to Invoke the Alien Enemies Act

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Tuesday, December 10, 3–4 p.m. ET



Donald Trump has vowed to launch the biggest deportation scheme in U.S. history, in part by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on his first day in office. Last used to intern 31,000 foreign nationals of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, this archaic law is back in the spotlight. But does Trump have the power to carry out his plans? And can we rely on Congress or the courts to stop him?



Join us for an urgent conversation with experts about the Alien Enemies Act and its shameful history, the incoming administration’s plans to use the law, and the obstacles that might stand in the way. RSVP today

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VIRTUAL EVENT: Insurrection, Inc.

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Thursday, December 12, 3–4 p.m. ET



The 2024 election underscored the growing power of big money in American politics. This year’s races broke spending records, with megadonors backing candidates not only to push their special interests but to buy government access and influence. At the same time, the rise in untraceable dark money from undisclosed sources has made it increasingly difficult to identify who is really behind this spending.



Join us for a virtual conversation with Stetson University law professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, author of Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians, and Natalie Tennant, former West Virginia secretary of state and newly elected Kanawha County commissioner. Together they will explore how to strengthen American democracy against the encroaching threat of corporate control. RSVP today

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News

Joseph Nunn on the potential for abuse of the Insurrection Act // USA TODAY

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Katherine Yon Ebright on Trump’s mass deportation plans // THE HILL

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Joanna Zdanys on public campaign financing in New York // buffalo News

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