Trump corruption

I was talking to a relative this past weekend about how bad corruption is in Latin America. But then I remembered the corruption right here & right now. Right off the top of my head (though I did more research today), I mentioned the recent Trump scandals I could recall (despite not paying much attention to the news recently):
1) Trump Interior secretary Ryan Zinke: 
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/5/16853432/ryan-zinke-interior-department-secretary

"...he (Zinke) used noncommercial planes to travel back to his hometown in Whitefish, Montana, and to fly between Caribbean islands. He’s also taken expensive helicopter flights around DC and to political events.

...Controversy swirled again when, in an effort to rebuild Puerto Rico’s battered grid after Hurricane Maria, the island’s governor inked a deal with a little-known contractor from Zinke’s hometown funded by a donor to President Trump instead of invoking mutual aid agreements with other utilities right away."

2) Trump HUD secretary Ben Carson. After a HUD staff member was demoted and replaced for refusing to approve a $30,000 dining set, records have been requested by the House Oversight committee: 
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-03-01/ben-carson-cancels-31k-dining-set-order-for-hud-office

"House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., has requested records relating to office furnishings since the beginning of 2017 from HUD, CNN reported."

3) Trump EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. Pruitt refused to fly coach because he's afraid of his constituents, & he employs a sophisticated security detail which is now "raising concerns":
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/politics/epa-senate-democrats/index.html

"Washington (CNN) A pair of Senate Democrats are raising concerns over a potential business conflict within the Environmental Protection Agency with a member of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's security team and an outside security firm.

In a letter to Pruitt, Sens. Thomas Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island ask for additional information on Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta, who is employed at the EPA and is a principal at Sequoia Security Group.

According to the letter dated Tuesday, one of Perrotta's business associates had a security contract with the EPA last year.

"These facts raise questions about Mr. Perrotta's compliance with EPA regulations and concerns that he may have used his position at the agency to influence the award of EPA contracts to a person or company in which he has a financial interest," the letter says."

4) Trump treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/politics/mnuchin-military-flights.html
"WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has flown on military aircraft seven times since March at a cost of more than $800,000, including a $15,000 round-trip flight to New York to meet with President Trump at Trump Tower, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General."

5) Trump's son in law Jared Kushner. 
Kushner is trying to secure an investment for his 666 fifth avenue property by apparently utilizing his position within the white house: 
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/did-jared-kushner-punish-qatar-because-it-wouldnt-lend-his-family-money
"Earlier this week, we learned that Jared Kushner’s family business received half a billion dollars in loans from a pair of financial institutions following meetings between senior executives and the First Son-in-Law in the White House. The optics weren’t great! An even worse look? The possibility that the boy prince launched a geopolitical tantrum and punished an entire country for refusing to lend money to Kushner Cos."

Not to mention this morning, while I was watching MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, she introduced her next segment as "porn in the morn". Ruhle made that amusing introduction because the topic of discussion was Stormy Daniels. Stormy was allegedly paid off to keep quiet, but is now nevertheless suing Trump:  

http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2018/03/stormy_daniels_suing_trump_affair.html

"LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A porn star who has said she had sex with Donald Trump filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement and "set the record straight," her lawyer said Wednesday.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. She alleges that the agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election, which prevented her from discussing the alleged sexual encounters, is "null and void and of no consequence" because Trump didn't personally sign it."

After referencing the above scandals (I didn't even mention the Mueller #TrumpRussia investigation, because lately the news about it has been too overwhelming to follow) my relative said "la corrupcion es la misma aqui y en China". The phrase translates to "corruption is the same, here or in China" which means corruption is a world-wide phenomenon. Which is the sad truth indeed.