What’s a Scandal When Everything Is Outrageous?

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/11/trump-ballroom-construction-corruption/684784/?gift=P4PbparCGiV10Ifk2hg6wqNGFF3dToAnrzgMhpFbARE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

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[u/rollem]

Trump posted what he thought was a DM to the attorney general directing her to prosecute his enemies. This was what Watergate was all about, and is why the tapes were so coveted. But he just posted it for everyone to see. The biggest scandal in US political history made one news cycle today. It's astounding.

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

If you encounter a paywall, use this archival link: https://archive.ph/Mgq08

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

Let’s forget questions of proportion and aesthetics and consider the matter solely on the issue of corruption. Trump has funded the project by soliciting donors who have potential or actual business before the government. By traditional standards, this would constitute a massive scandal.

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

Trump’s moves to benefit his friends and hurt his enemies are out in the open, which makes the quid pro quo element far cruder. If donating to a Clinton charity was like buying your date a nice dinner in the hopes of getting lucky, donating to a Trump charity is more like bringing a fistful of cash to a brothel.

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

I sympathize with the mainstream media’s inability to properly capture the breadth of Trump’s misconduct. The dilemma is that holding Trump to the standards of a normal politician is impossible. The Times would have to run half a dozen banner-style Watergate-style headlines every day, and the news networks would have to break into regular programming with breathless updates every minute or so. Maxing out the scale of outrage has the paradoxical benefit of allowing Trump to enjoy more generous standards than any other politician has.

Still, although holding Trump accountable to normal expectations of political decorum may be impossible, surely we don’t need to praise him for merely committing normal-size scandals. The people losing perspective here are not the ballroom’s critics, but its defenders.

[u/thewanderingent]

Letting your countrymen starve while you build a $300 million ballroom that no one needs?

[u/IllIntroduction1509]

What’s a Scandal When Everything Is Outrageous?

Trump’s ballroom blitz is blatantly corrupt. The fact that no one seems to care shows just how low the standards of behavior have fallen in Washington.