'A dark precedent': Journalist highlights 'most disturbing' aspect of Trump

Donald Trump is "blatantly enriching" himself in office more than any other president, but that's not what's most disturbing, a journalist said.In an article published on May 17, New York Magazine's Ross Barkan writes that Trump is not novel in numerous ways, yet he does break some historical preced...

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U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he attends the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Donald Trump is "blatantly enriching" himself in office more than any other president, but that's not what's most disturbing, a journalist said.

In an article published on May 17, New York Magazine's Ross Barkan writes that Trump is not novel in numerous ways, yet he does break some historical precedents.

"If much of Donald Trump’s second term seems unprecedented, there are still ways in which he is merely parroting the destructive actions of his predecessors. He is not the first president to attempt to jail and deport legal residents merely for holding political opinions he doesn’t like. He is not the first president to flirt with suspending habeas corpus. Trump is dangerous, but other presidents have wrought havoc, too. George W. Bush launched two deeply unnecessary wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people," he wrote. "What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption."

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Barkan goes on to argue that Trump's own followers understand the corruption, at least on some level. He says that, "Part of the trouble is that even Trump’s supporters assume that he is at least slightly corrupt. If he’s a scammer, he’s their scammer, and his brazenness almost seems like a form of honesty because he doesn’t, unlike other compromised politicians, attempt to hide it."

He continues, adding, "Once it became a moneymaking opportunity for him — and once he realized, during the campaign last year, a lot of billionaires would back him if he deregulated the industry wholesale — he pivoted."

That's when Barkan highlights what he believes to be the most disturbing piece of the Trump puzzle.

"And that’s what’s most disturbing, arguably, about Trump: his utter lack of core convictions. Every bit of him is on offer to the highest bidder," he added. "Is he setting a dark precedent for future presidents? Will tomorrow’s Republicans and even Democrats decide they too can turn the presidency into an obscene get-rich-quick scheme? Maybe. We won’t know until tomorrow comes. In the meantime, we must endure a breadth of corruption no previous generation of Americans has ever known."

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