Well, this wasn’t very nice.
New York Magazine’s latest issue features President Trump on the cover, and it’s not the best likeness.
No, seriously, if you thought the recent Time Magazine cover of Jeff Sessions, looking like the Grim Reaper’s worst nightmare was bad, this one is just rude.
The issue, which debuts today, is a close-up shot of a laughing Trump with a pig’s snout.
“Not Collusion… Not Incompetence… Not Cruelty… It’s the Corruption, Stupid,” the headline reads. “Why His Self-Dealing is His Biggest Political Liability.”
The actual story explores everything from his leaving his business in the hands of his sons, rather than divesting, as well as how he chooses political appointees. It also suggests that it is corruption and greed that are the worst of a Trump presidency, even more so than Russia.
“Since Trump took office, his pledge to ignore his own interests has been almost forgotten, lost in a disorienting hurricane of endless news,” New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait writes. “It is not just a morbid joke but a legitimate problem for the opposition that all the bad news about Trump keeps getting obscured by other bad news about Trump.”
“Not only has Trump made no effort to raise ethical standards but he and his administration have flamboyantly violated the existing guidelines,” Chait writes. “Lobbyists are seeded in every agency, ‘regulating’ their former employers and designing rules that favor bosses over employees and business owners over consumers.”
Several watchdog groups have sued the Trump administration or at least raised concerns over various matters that they see as violations of ethical norms of the presidency.
Possibly the biggest ethical black eye for President Trump right now may be the nepotism. Specifically, keeping his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on board as a senior adviser. Recent reports are that Kushner has helped himself to a lot of highly sensitive documentation, even that outside of his own official purview, and more than anyone else on staff.
At least, that was until White House Chief of Staff John Kelly knocked his security clearance down from “Top Secret” to “Secret.”
In the meantime, there have been emerging stories of the financial struggles of Kushner’s family business and how Kushner’s position with the administration may be the carrot dangled before foreign leaders, in order to get financial backing to save the floundering company.
It doesn’t stop with Kushner, either. Trump’s favorite child, Ivanka, is inserting herself into a lot of stand-in leadership roles, when she’s only supposed to be an adviser.
Of course, let’s not overlook that Kushner and Ivanka are serving as advisers to the president, when their only political experience before now has been the lavish fundraisers they’ve thrown for liberal Democrat candidates.
As distasteful as this latest magazine cover is, the content of the article may have a point.
New cover of @NYMag
Cover story by @jonathanchait: https://t.co/xFhlgA6M0x pic.twitter.com/3PcXI0Izue
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 2, 2018
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