An uncanny strength of the second Trump administration has been its ability to be involved in so many scandals that no single one seems to become a dominant story.
asserted
one → involve → scandals
Take the most recent allegations about Alina Habba, Trump's former personal defense attorney, who recently landed a plush gig working for Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banker.
asserted
who → take → Velutini
Habba will get $50 million over five years to do unspecified work for a company that barely exists, according to The New York Times, while Herrera got a presidential pardon for a 2025 campaign finance charge.
uncertain
Herrera → get → charge
That's just a typical day for the current White House, where the mingling of personal and public business has become routine.
asserted
mingling → become → business
Some days, the story is President Donald Trump trying to help himself to taxpayer funds by suing the government he runs, or shipping billions of taxpayer dollars to a foreign mining company partially owned by his sons.
asserted
he → try → sons
Other times, it is Trump selling political influence in the form of digital coins, or his appointees getting caught in naked pay-to-play schemes.
asserted
appointees → sell → schemes
If you have a hard time keeping track of it all, I get it.
asserted
I → have → it
The corruption is so deep and wide that focusing on any singular item becomes difficult.
asserted
focusing → focus → item
But that constellation of corruption might finally be breaking through to voters ahead of next month's midterm elections.
uncertain
constellation → break → elections
The Reason Roundup Newsletter by Liz Wolfe Liz and Reason help you make sense of the day's news every morning.
asserted
you → help → news
A recent Fox News poll found that "government corruption" was the top issue for voters, ranking ahead of inflation and gas prices.
asserted
corruption → find → inflation
Conservative commentators are taking notice.
asserted
commentators → take → notice
"What they're saying is, 'Look, we're tired of you getting rich and us getting poor,'" former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said this week.
asserted
Mulvaney → say → Staff
Tim Carney, senior columnist at the conservative Washington Examiner, also tabs the corruption issue—along with other "avoidable mistakes" such as the Iran War and tariffs—as one of the major reasons why Democrats are likely to win the midterms:
asserted
Democrats → tab → midterms
Trump and his family have enriched themselves in this second term in ways more similar to third-world regimes or Cook County than to any previous administration.
asserted
Trump → enrich → administration
He and his family operate a financial company that has received heavy investments from Qatar's government.
asserted
that → operate → government
He's sold access to himself by selling otherwise worthless cryptocurrency.
asserted
He → sell → cryptocurrency
The IRS he controls settled a lawsuit with him, promising to pay him $1.8 billion (this settlement was voided by a judge).
asserted
settlement → control → judge
And most voters might not be able to tell you the details of any single Trump scandal in detail.
uncertain
voters → tell → detail
Even so, this may turn out to be the defining narrative of the second Trump administration, and there seems to be a growing consensus that Republicans have allowed (if not aided and abetted) his corrupt behavior, so it's time to give Democrats a shot at reining it in.
uncertain
it → turn → it
The Trump corruption issue is like the Biden cognitive decline issue in one key sense: Everyone around the president or even supporting him professionally from afar should be asked about it, and their lies/claims of ignorance should be hung around their necks like dumbbells.
uncertain
claims → support → dumbbells
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) October 20, 2026
Vice President J.D. Vance told journalist Mark Halperin this week that he's "never seen any evidence that anybody's selling access to the president."
asserted
anybody → tell → president
When Halperin pushed back, Vance doubled down:
asserted
Vance → push → ?
"What I would say is I don't think there's evidence that the Trump family has become enriched by politics," the vice president said.
asserted
president → say → politics
So either Vance isn't paying attention, or he's deliberately misleading.
asserted
Vance → pay → attention
"Credit to Vance, it's as good an argument as is available to him," writes Daniel Foster at National Review.
asserted
Foster → write → Review
The internet nearly crashed on Wednesday as digital security and website administrators scrambled to patch two vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language that serves as the basis for many websites.
asserted
that → crash → websites
"Since its development in the 1990s, PHP has evolved into an essential scripting language for web development and is used across vast swaths of the internet in websites and software," explains Wired.
asserted
Wired → evolve → websites
"Everything from publishing systems like WordPress and Drupal to e-commerce platforms like Adobe's Magento are built on PHP.
asserted
Everything → build → PHP
Amid fears that hackers and AI agents could exploit the security weakness, many websites were taken offline.
uncertain
websites → exploit → weakness
The National Security Agency and its counterparts in the United Kingdom and the European Union sounded the alarm.
asserted
Agency → sound → alarm
Even the prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, was telling website administrators to take the issue seriously.
asserted
minister → tell → issue
The potential hacking abilities of advanced AI agents make these sorts of security risks more serious.
asserted
sorts → make → risks
In this case, however, the problem was also identified with the help of AI.
asserted
problem → identify → AI
"Ryan Austin, a researcher at Calif, uncovered the flaws with help from GPT-5.6 Sol, one of OpenAI's most advanced models, during an audit of PHP's source code in August," The Wall Street Journal reports.
asserted
Journal → uncover → August
Another security researcher had flagged the issue years ago, but it had never been fixed because it was considered "considered too difficult to exploit" by human hackers.
asserted
it → flag → hackers
"Given the severity of these flaws and PHP's widespread use, we consider this one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory," OpenAI said in a statement on Wednesday.
asserted
OpenAI → give → Wednesday
"It highlights how AI can uncover security flaws with internet-scale impact, but the same capabilities can also help attackers rapidly develop offensive tools and exploits."
asserted
attackers → highlight → tools
Media outlets also continue to face decidedly nondigital threats over articles and polls that make the president unhappy.
asserted
president → continue → articles
The White House threatened Politico on Wednesday with unspecified "consequences" for publishing "fanciful fiction" in a series of articles earlier this month about White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
asserted
House → threaten → Wiles
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
