Recommendations of the Editorial team
During his second term, US President Donald Trump and his family build up a multinational empire of cryptocurrencies, real estate and license transactions and thus increase their estimated assets by billions. Members of the congress and judge of the Supreme Court also have enormous private assets.
New law against political enrichment
Senator Andy Kim (Dn.J.) wants to take a new law against this culture of enrichment, which has established itself in all areas of the federal government. “If you have selfish, narcissistic, corrupt people in the government, you get a selfish, narcissistic and corrupt government,” says Kim. “But if you have people who feel committed to the common good, you can have a completely different kind of government.”
On Thursday, Kim presented the “Restoring Trust in Public Servants Act”. The law is intended to prevent high -ranking government representatives – from the president to members of the congress to judges – from their office. There would be a stock trade, crypto business and other potential conflicts of interest.
The law is expanding older anti-corruption designs that Kim had brought in in the House of Representatives. What is new is that digital assets such as cryptocurrencies are expressly included. In addition, MPs should not generate any additional income in the future or sit on companies on board members, with a few exceptions for non -profit organizations. The lobby ban for ex-MP should also apply for life.
Trump as a role model for greed
Under Trump, self -enrichment is no longer considered a scandal, but as a standard. Rolling Stone already reported in May that Trump had complained that he had been “stupid” in his first term in his first term not to have cashed in more. In the meantime, the family is expanding with crypto shops, license deals and international real estate projects-right down to exclusive investors in Mar-A-Lago.
Kim, who took over the vacant Senate seat of the Bob Menendez convicted for corruption, sees the consequences of mismanagement up close. Menendez was caught in the closet with gold bars and is now in prison for eleven years. But Kim’s concern primarily applies to the open abuse of power in the White House: “Our checks and balances are strong on behavioral standards. If someone like the president simply ignores them, it shows how inadequate the system is.”
A uniform standard for everyone
Past initiatives to enforce trade bans mostly failed or were watered down. Well -known examples are the stocks of Nancy Pelosi and her husband, who are even pursued in their own stock market indices. In Trump’s second term, however, billionaires can almost openly buy political influence.
“We only need 535 people in the congress,” says Kim. “In a country with 340 million inhabitants, it must be possible to find 435 in the House of Representatives and 100 in the Senate, which are willing to separate their fortune and prove that they are honest.”