The growing corruption allegations engulfing Trump’s orbit — at a bad time for the GOP

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There is increasing evidence that voters are concerned about corruption ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. A CNN poll on Wednesday showed 19% of registered voters say it’s their top issue — behind only a combination of the economy and the cost of living.

And two weeks before Election Day, the Trump administration is suddenly inundating them with rather vivid stories of alleged corruption.

Indeed, while the corruption issue has long stalked President Donald Trump thanks to his laissez-faire approach to self-enrichment — and his explosion of wealth during his time as president — the examples of potential Trump administration corruption in recent weeks have become almost cartoonish.

Just over the past month-plus, the following reports have surfaced:

A now-former ambassador who asked for $100,000 to cover her credit card debt from a man she was helping lobby the administration — and repeatedly urged the man not to leave a paper trail, according to texts obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Her lawyers have denied the allegations.

The Department of Homeland Security buying multiple airplanes from a donor to the outgoing secretary at apparently inflated prices . The former secretary and current secretary have pointed to one another for the purchases.

A Russian oligarch paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for parts of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration. Trump Jr.’s wife downplayed the idea that there was anything amiss with the arrangement, but the oligarch later said Trump Jr. had refunded the money.

A mysterious alleged multimillion-dollar transfer from a wealthy Turkish investor that one Trump ally (who recently married the investor) claims another Trump ally misallocated , according to reports in Axios and the Times. More on that complicated mess below.

That same first Trump ally, married to the Turkish investor, accepting a job that would pay her $50 million even as she served as a top adviser in Trump’s Justice Department — shortly before the billionaire Venezuelan banker who hired her got a pardon he had been seeking. She denied any role in the pardon.

That last one is the latest addition.

The New York Times’ Tyler Pager reported that Alina Habba secured the $50 million employment deal with a company that had only recently been set up and doesn’t have a public profile. She also reportedly finalized the deal even as she was still serving as US attorney in New Jersey, and she began the job when she was serving as a special government employee advising then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Two weeks after she started her job, the Venezuelan banker who hired her — Julio Herrera Velutini — received his pardon, the Times reported.

Habba has denied playing any role, saying in a statement to the Times, “Any insinuation that my employment — all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the DOJ — had anything to do with securing a pardon is false.” She would not talk about her work for the company, Concord Partners.

But that’s not even the only controversy involving Habba in the last seven days. Axios and the Times also reported a week ago about her allegation that fellow Trump ally Richard Grenell misallocated millions of dollars that her now-husband — wealthy Turkish investor Turhan Mildon — had intended as a donation for the Kennedy Center.

That money was reportedly wired to a Texas defense and security equipment company for which Grenell says he formerly consulted. Mildon has extensive business interests in Venezuela, and the Times reported he has produced a text message in which Grenell allegedly said he wanted to make Mildon the “American face down in V,” referring to Venezuela.

Grenell has called the allegations absurd, telling the Times: “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him.”

Trump Jr.’s wedding has led to a backlash even among congressional Republicans , some of whom want the issue probed. One senator labeled it “corruption.”

Trump Jr.’s wife has said the oligarch, Umar Kremlev, is a “dear friend.” But when ProPublica first reported on the controversy, a spokesman for Trump Jr.’s brother, Eric Trump, said that he had “absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name.”

The airplanes purchased from a donor to now-former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have led both her camp and current Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to downplay their roles and point the finger at each other.

Mullin’s camp said “these planes were purchased prior to Secretary Mullin’s arrival at DHS.”

Noem’s statement emphasized “the purchase was finalized under Secretary Mullin’s leadership.”

And the saga involving now-former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle led Trump to fire her. It involved not just covertly seeking $100,000 from a man seeking favors from the administration — which the man, Eric Deters, has been happy to talk about publicly — but also some eyebrow-raising messages .

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” Guilfoyle allegedly wrote at one point in the Signal messages.

“Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things,” read another.

“What a nightmare you’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship stop writing,” read yet another.

Guilfoyle, who was previously engaged to Trump Jr., has disputed the allegations , calling them “false” and saying, “I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”

These aren’t the only remarkable and eye-catching developments for those looking out for corruption over the last two years, of course. Trump has made more than $1 billion off cryptocurrency . He’s repeatedly promoted companies shortly after buying their stock, according to a CNN investigation . His social media company is allowing Wall Street firms to pay for quicker access to market-moving posts . And he accepted a jet as a gift from Qatar to use as Air Force One; it is supposed to be transferred to his presidential library.

But there is evidence this issue is starting to gain traction of late. That doesn’t mean it will be a huge liability for Trump and the GOP, but it’s certainly something to watch.

A Gallup poll recently showed a record-high 89% of Americans said corruption was widespread in the US government.

In addition to the CNN poll showing 19% of registered voters said it was their top issue, a recent Fox News poll showed 88% of registered voters said they were “extremely” (60%) or “very” (28%) concerned about corruption in government. Those numbers rival 2006, at the height of the sprawling Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal .

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed registered voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of corruption 62%-29%.

And a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed nearly two-thirds of Americans said Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself.

One point in the GOP’s favor here: There is also evidence that the issue might not favor Democrats as much as they’d hope.

The CNN poll showed registered voters favored the Democratic Party on the issue by 7 points, 33%-26%. And a New York Times/Siena College poll shows likely voters favor the Democrats, 50%-39%. But the Reuters-Ipsos poll showed a virtual tie, with 31% favoring both parties, and nearly 4 in 10 registered voters picking neither side.

And while a recent NBC News poll showed a slight majority of Americans (52%) said the Trump administration was “more corrupt” than previous administrations, just 25% said corruption was generally more of a problem in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. And 56% said it was “equally” a problem in both parties.

In other words, the numbers don’t clearly illustrate how this issue will play in the election in two weeks. But the Trump administration seemingly can’t stop giving Democrats more material to work with.

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越来越多的证据表明，选民对2026年中期选举前的腐败问题感到担忧。美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）周三公布的一项民调显示，19%的登记选民表示，腐败是他们最关心的问题——仅次于经济和生活成本的总和。

在大选日两周前，特朗普政府突然向他们灌输了大量生动的腐败指控故事。

的确，由于唐纳德·特朗普总统对自我致富采取放任自流的态度，以及他在担任总统期间财富的爆炸式增长，腐败问题长期以来一直困扰着他。但最近几周，特朗普政府潜在的腐败案例几乎变得滑稽可笑。

在过去一个多月的时间里，出现了以下报道：

据《华尔街日报》获得的短信显示，一位现已卸任的大使曾向一名她曾协助游说政府的男子索要10万美元以偿还信用卡债务，并多次敦促该男子不要留下任何书面证据。她的律师否认了这些指控。

国土安全部从一位捐赠者手中以明显虚高的价格购买了多架飞机，这位捐赠者是即将卸任的部长的。前任部长和现任部长都指责对方参与了这笔交易。

一位俄罗斯寡头为小唐纳德·特朗普的婚礼庆典支付了数十万美元。小特朗普的妻子淡化了此事，称这笔费用安排并无不妥之处，但这位寡头后来表示，小特朗普已经退还了这笔钱。

据Axios和《纽约时报》报道，一位富有的土耳其投资者神秘地转移了数百万美元，而一位特朗普盟友（最近与这位投资者结婚）声称，另一位特朗普盟友挪用了这笔钱。关于这起错综复杂的事件，下文将有更多报道。

这位特朗普的首位盟友，嫁给了那位土耳其投资者，在担任特朗普司法部高级顾问期间，接受了一份年薪5000万美元的工作——就在聘用她的那位委内瑞拉亿万富翁银行家获得他一直寻求的赦免之前不久。她否认参与了赦免过程。

最后一个是最新添加的。

《纽约时报》记者泰勒·佩格报道称，阿丽娜·哈巴与一家成立不久、名不见经传的公司签订了一份价值5000万美元的雇佣合同。据报道，她在担任新泽西州联邦检察官期间就敲定了这份合同，而她最初加入这家公司时，是作为政府特别雇员，为时任司法部长帕姆·邦迪提供咨询。

据《泰晤士报》报道，在她开始工作两周后，雇用她的委内瑞拉银行家胡里奥·埃雷拉·韦卢蒂尼获得了赦免。

哈巴否认参与其中，她在给《泰晤士报》的一份声明中表示：“任何暗示我的工作——所有工作都经过审查并已向司法部披露——与获得赦免有关的说法都是不实的。”她拒绝谈论她在康科德合伙公司的工作。

但这并非哈巴在过去七天里卷入的唯一争议。一周前，Axios 和《纽约时报》也报道了她指控特朗普的盟友理查德·格雷内尔挪用了数百万美元，而这笔钱原本是她现在的丈夫——富有的土耳其投资者图尔汉·米尔顿——打算捐赠给肯尼迪中心的。

据报道，这笔钱被汇给了格雷内尔声称曾担任其顾问的一家德克萨斯州国防和安全设备公司。米尔顿在委内瑞拉拥有广泛的商业利益，《泰晤士报》报道称，他出示了一条短信，据称格雷内尔在短信中表示，他想让米尔顿成为“V字形倒地的美国人”，这里指的是委内瑞拉。

格雷内尔称这些指控荒谬至极，他告诉《泰晤士报》：“我从未要求过任何人把一分钱寄到其他地方，假装是给肯尼迪中心的，我也从未收到过他的任何付款。”

小特朗普的婚礼甚至在国会共和党人中也引发了强烈反对，一些人希望对此事进行调查。一位参议员甚至称之为“腐败”。

小特朗普的妻子曾表示，寡头乌马尔·克雷姆列夫是她的“挚友”。但当ProPublica首次报道这一争议时，小特朗普的哥哥埃里克·特朗普的发言人表示，他“完全不知道这个人是谁，也从未听说过他的名字”。

从一位捐赠者那里购买飞机给前国土安全部长克里斯蒂·诺姆，导致她的阵营和现任国土安全部长马克韦恩·穆林都淡化了自己的角色，并互相指责。

穆林的阵营表示，“这些飞机是在穆林部长到任国土安全部之前购买的。”

诺姆的声明强调“此次收购是在穆林部长的领导下完成的”。

而涉及前美国驻希腊大使金伯利·吉尔福伊尔的事件最终导致特朗普解雇了她。这起事件不仅涉及她暗中向一名试图从政府获得好处的男子索要10万美元——该男子埃里克·德特斯乐于公开谈论此事——还涉及一些令人匪夷所思的信息。

据称，吉尔福伊尔曾在 Signal 信息中写道：“如果你把钱汇到美国运通卡，就不会在任何地方显示出来。”

“埃里克，我真希望你别再到处散播这些东西了。”另一条评论写道。

“真是个噩梦，你简直要让我丢掉大使职位了，别再写了！”另一条评论写道。

吉尔福伊尔曾与小特朗普订婚，她否认了这些指控，称其“虚假”，并表示：“我打算坚决捍卫我的名誉、声誉和正直。”

当然，过去两年里，对于那些关注腐败的人来说，这些并非唯一引人注目的事件。特朗普通过加密货币赚取了超过10亿美元。据CNN调查显示，他多次在购买股票后不久就为这些公司做宣传。他的社交媒体公司允许华尔街公司付费更快地获取能够影响市场走势的帖子。此外，他还接受了卡塔尔赠送的一架私人飞机作为“空军一号”使用；这架飞机本应移交给他的总统图书馆。

但有证据表明，这个问题近来开始受到关注。这并不意味着它会成为特朗普和共和党的巨大包袱，但肯定值得关注。

盖洛普最近的一项民意调查显示，创纪录的89%的美国人认为美国政府普遍存在腐败现象。

除了CNN民调显示19%的登记选民认为这是他们最关心的问题之外，福克斯新闻最近的一项民调也显示，88%的登记选民表示他们“极其”（60%）或“非常”（28%）地担忧政府腐败问题。这些数字与2006年杰克·阿布拉莫夫游说丑闻最严重时期的情况不相上下。

路透社/益普索最近的一项民意调查显示，登记选民对特朗普处理腐败问题的方式表示不满，支持率为 62%，赞成率为 29%。

《华盛顿邮报》/美国广播公司新闻的一项民意调查显示，近三分之二的美国人认为特朗普正在利用总统职位来中饱私囊。

对共和党有利的一点是：也有证据表明，这个问题可能不像民主党人希望的那样对他们有利。

CNN的民调显示，登记选民在这一问题上以7个百分点的优势支持民主党，支持率为33%比26%。《纽约时报》/锡耶纳学院的民调显示，可能投票的选民以50%比39%的优势支持民主党。但路透社/益普索的民调显示双方势均力敌，31%的受访者支持两党，近40%的登记选民不选边站。

虽然最近NBC新闻的一项民调显示，略微过半的美国人（52%）认为特朗普政府比以往任何一届政府都“更加腐败”，但只有25%的人认为共和党的腐败问题总体上比民主党更严重。另有56%的人认为两党的腐败问题“同样严重”。

换句话说，这些数据并不能清晰地表明这个问题将在两周后的选举中产生怎样的影响。但特朗普政府似乎仍在不断地给民主党人提供更多攻击的把柄。