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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Steven Greenhouse

Trump didn’t drain the swamp. He turned it into a cesspool

tech CEOs and administration figures at the inauguration
‘Trump has used all the gold and glitz he can to cover up an increasingly putrid swamp.’ Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Every time Donald Trump has run for president, he has vowed to drain the swamp in Washington. But ever since he returned to the White House, not only has he not even tried to drain the swamp, he has pushed to gild it. Trump has used all the gold and glitz he can to cover up an increasingly putrid swamp – a morass filled with million-dollar donors scrambling for access, criminals seeking to buy pardons, corporate executives appointed to high-level government jobs and billionaire sycophants sucking up to Trump.

Making the swamp smell even worse, the president and his sons have somehow managed, through crypto and other means, to increase their wealth by an estimated $4bn since Trump won a second term. At this point, we should probably call Trump’s Washington not a swamp, but a colossal cesspool.

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