About this episode
The Washington Roundtable discusses the unprecedented corruption of the federal government, including Trump Administration members’ self-enrichment through cryptocurrency schemes and the inaugural committee, and the gutting of parts of the government that are responsible for rooting out self-dealing from public life. It is a level of corruption so “outright” and “brazen,” the staff writer Evan Osnos says, that it constitutes “a new phase in American politics.” This week’s reading: “ Mike Waltz Learns the Hard Truth About Serving Donald Trump ,” by Susan B. Glasser “ How Donald Trump Is Expanding His Authority While Shrinking the Government ,” by Jon Allsop “ What Canadians Heard—and Americans Didn’t ,” by Adam Gopnik “ Trump’s Deportees to El Salvador Are Now ‘Ghosts’ in U.S. Courts ,” by Jonathan Blitzer “ Will the Trump Tariffs Devastate the Whiskey Industry? ,” by Charles Bethea “ A Life-Changing Scientific Study Ended by the Trump Administration ,” by Dhruv Khullar “ The Bureaucratic Nightmares of Being Trans Under Trump ,” by Grace Byron “ How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic ,” by Jane Mayer (July, 2020) To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker , visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices