The rot at the top

The most corrupt American regime ever

Robert Reich in Inequality Media

Ten months of this shit. Enough to make one scream, run stark naked in the streets, mount a revolution.

But we have to play the long game. In that long game, America learns from this catastrophe—and turns those lessons into laws, rules, and norms that prevent this from ever happening again.

Much has been revealed lately, both about Donald Trump and the rot at the top of our system.

Trump’s attempted cover-up of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has riveted the nation’s attention to the moral depravity of many rich and powerful men who raped children, with impunity.

Trump’s celebration of the Saudi crown prince who ordered the brutal killing of a Washington Post reporter has shown the moral vacuity of the CEOs who flocked to the White House dinner to honor the prince because they want his investments.

Trump’s blatant threats against corporate media whose journalists ask him hard questions and whose comedians ridicule him—and media executives’ chickenshit, obsequious responses to those threats—are exposing the dangers of giant media corporations controlling our access to the truth.

Trump’s wheeling and dealing with tech company oligarchs are revealing the cozy, incestuous ways wealth and power are concentrating in fewer and fewer hands.

Trump’s acceptance of gifts, bribes, payoffs, kickbacks, and perks from those seeking handouts shows how a demagogue cashes in on his power.

His awards of pardons, government contracts, regulatory exemptions, tax subsidies, and lower tariffs to those who bribe him reveal how an authoritarian builds power through favors.

His uses of criminal investigations, tax audits, regulatory enforcement, withholding of government funds, and vicious public smears exhibit how a neofascist punishes opponents.

None of this is entirely new to American politics, but it has never happened on this scale—or with this much shameless abandon.

Most average working Americans abide by laws and norms. Most are kind and decent.

But there is growing rot at the top of our system. And its stench can no longer be ignored.

It’s the essence of Trump and his regime. It’s also, sadly, the moral squalor of too many rich and powerful Americans.

Playing the long game requires that the rest of us learn from this revolting era—learn why the wealthy and powerful must be constrained, and learn how to constrain them.

Learn what integrity requires at the highest reaches of our government, in the c-suites of our corporations, in our universities, law firms, nonprofits, and media.

Learn that the most significant divide in America is not between the left and the right but between the bottom and the top—between the vast majority of Americans without wealth or power, and a tiny minority holding most all of it.

And resolve to prevent such moral rot from ever again taking over our nation.

© 2025 Robert Reich

Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."