Is corruption a normalized general phenomenon in US government, or does it differ meaningfully between administrations like Trump's and Biden's?

Kevin Ryan · Apr 10, 2024

A Trump win is the single biggest risk in the world today, threatening Ukraine, Supreme Court appointments, competent government execution, and bringing an accompanying level of corruption.

He expects poor execution across every aspect of government and corruption to follow.

Scope: acknowledges he is obviously very biased on this

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Mark Suster · May 1, 2024

A Trump administration is worrying because Trump fundamentally does not care about democracy

Mark does not believe Trump cares about democracy

Scope: acknowledges many of his friends disagree

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Sarah Tavel · May 6, 2024

The direction US politics is heading is a threat to American democracy

She cares about democracy and a Trump reelection would be a scary outcome for it

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Harry Stebbings · Apr 10, 2024

What worries him most is the normalization of corruption across government, to the point where people are no longer surprised by it.

58:50 Corruption normalization is a growing general concern

Kevin Ryan · Apr 10, 2024

Corruption has not been normalized in the US executive branch — there is not a single example of actual corruption in Biden's cabinet after four years, and both the Obama and Biden administrations were extremely clean.

With hindsight he can point to no corruption problem in either White House, whatever he thinks of their policies.

58:57 Biden and obama administrations were clean so corruption is not normalized

Kevin Ryan · Apr 10, 2024

The Trump administration was genuinely corrupt.

Roughly fifteen people who worked there have been convicted of crimes, including the national security adviser, and many are serving time.

59:46 Trump administration was genuinely corrupt with multiple convictions