New York – why corruption does matter
It’s only been 9 months since the Trump Administration came into power and in that time it has normalized corruption. There was an opinion piece in The New York Times which encapsulated the dreadfulness of the situation in New York and in the US. This has been an ongoing theme, which I commented on last week (https://www.bajimc.com/ac-hub-blog/2025/9/18/trump-his-inner-circle-and-conflict-of-interest ) as well as during the past nine months and unfortunately it looks like it will continue. What this opinion piece reminds us that there is a complete disinterest, even a willingness to accept corruption. In the Mayor Adams situation, the case that was brought highlighted that he received various inducements from governments as well as skirting campaign finance laws regarding payments for his campaign, just to name a few points. Yet, the present administration has a different perspective, “But even if it was a quid pro quo, some observers asked, so what? “Would you rather have the New York City mayor help the administration expel dangerous migrants, or would you rather have him go to jail for taking Turkish Airlines upgrades?” asked Mike Davis, founder of the MAGA advocacy group The Article III Project and one of the Trump administration’s most vocal allies in the legal profession.” Additionally, many of Adams’ appointees have also been arrested for corrupt actions, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping.
Why does this matter? This opinion piece highlighted the normalization of corruption, where the people involved noted that their illegality wasn’t so colossal, the individuals involved didn’t say they did anything, but that what they did wasn’t so bad. As someone who has seen grand corruption in many countries, what is going on in the United States is very worrying, as corruption in this case, which is a drip, drip, drip is not being noticed. There is a group of people of the United States who believe that all government officials are corrupt, but the reality has been that the United States has had strong enforcement mechanisms which have been used mostly without politics being involved. Ex-governors, senators, and mayors have all been found guilty regardless of their political affiliations, but the US must not rest on its laurels. The anti-corruption landscape has changed dramatically since 20 January 2025, and what is happening now is not normal for a country that used to have strong rule of law and strong enforcement mechanisms. As practitioners we must hold government accountable, and in this case, we must not stop articulating how wrong these behaviors are, through the media, the international community, and hopefully by the US citizenry. New York should be a wakeup call and nobody should believe that this is a solitary instance.
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trump-eric-adams-corruption.html