Democrats spent $182 million this year highlighting corruption in House and Senate races
Government corruption has climbed the list of voter concerns in recent weeks. While the economy has long been the top issue for most Americans, a Fox News poll conducted earlier this month and published last week found a remarkable shift: voters ranked government corruption as their top concern, above inflation and gasoline prices. The poll found that 88% of voters were concerned about corruption in government, and 60% identified as extremely concerned; 72% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans gave that answer.
President Trump delivered a warning to his political allies on Thursday afternoon, less than two weeks before the midterms. Walking out of the White House, Trump said, “I want my people to be honest, and if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted.” He added, “If people are not honest, they’re stealing from me as president.” The rebuke came in response to a question about longtime adviser Corey Lewandowski, whom The Wall Street Journal earlier reported was facing a Justice Department inquiry into allegations that he profited from his top position at the Department of Homeland Security. The Wall Street Journal described the inquiry as the latest in a series of damaging stories that have contributed to growing voter concerns about alleged government corruption.
Trump and White House aides have privately expressed frustration about negative headlines plastered across newspaper front pages and on cable news in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Republican campaign operatives have worried that alleged self-dealing could make an already challenging midterm election more difficult for GOP candidates. Inside the White House, top aides have expressed concern both about the political fallout of allegations of self-dealing and the slate of Democrat-led investigations they expect if Republicans lose their congressional majority in the midterms, according to administration officials and Trump advisers. The president’s top aides and some Republicans in Congress have gently urged Trump to stop talking about the ballroom, worrying that his intense focus on the project makes him look out of touch with voters.
White House aides were especially stunned by the alleged actions of Trump’s ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and quickly concluded that she had to be ousted from her role, some of the people said. Guilfoyle resigned after being accused of soliciting $100,000 from a donor; she has denied wrongdoing.
The president’s team also spent days trying to get to the bottom of a headline-grabbing feud between Alina Mildon, the president’s former personal lawyer, and longtime Trump adviser Richard Grenell. The New York Times recently reported that Mildon had negotiated a deal guaranteeing her more than $50 million over four years with the family of a billionaire Venezuelan banker who was angling for a pardon. The banker received a presidential pardon weeks later. Mildon has denied playing any role in securing the pardon, but the story outraged top Republican donors, according to a GOP strategist.
President Trump also privately complained to aides that his son Donald Trump Jr. exhibited bad judgment for allowing Russian businessman Umar Kremlev to pay for his post-wedding party in the Bahamas. Trump has said his son paid back Kremlev.
This week, two of the president’s top political advisers, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, said they would donate their consulting fees to Trump’s presidential library after facing criticism for their recent trip to Republika Srpska, a self-governing entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to consult for a Russia-aligned government. The donation was made in part to alleviate the president’s anger about the trip, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Democrats have put Trump at the center of their allegations of corruption, seeking to contrast the high costs everyday Americans are experiencing with allegations of grifting by the president, his family and his allies. They have promised to launch investigations into his efforts to get large companies to cut checks for projects such as his White House ballroom, his decision to accept a gifted luxury jet from Qatar, and his pardon of Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance.
Democrats also pointed to the extraordinary growth of Trump’s wealth since he took office, including $1.4 billion in earnings last year from crypto ventures. Many Democratic midterm ads have targeted the president, including a re-election ad for Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), which said: “President Trump made $2.2 billion last year. He debuted a new Air Force One jet gifted to him by the government of Qatar. He made more than $600 million alone from the crypto meme coin. That’s not governing, it’s grifting. The corruption needs to stop.”
AdImpact data show that Democrats spent $182 million this year highlighting corruption in House and Senate races, more than the previous four election cycles combined. Mentions of corruption on political podcasts ticked up 12% on right-leaning podcasts and 21% on left-leaning podcasts since September, according to a Journal analysis.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres said government corruption “has started to creep up toward the top of the most-important-problem list in recent weeks,” adding that voter concerns about the issue had not ranked this highly in recent memory. Democrats were most concerned, but independents and some Republican voters were also raising red flags, according to Ayres. A former Trump administration official said voters in focus groups had expressed frustration that Trump’s wealth was increasing while they were dipping into their savings. The official also said voters were increasingly bringing up corruption when asked open-ended questions about their top issue in the midterm cycle.
Government corruption was a particular concern for young voters, among whom Trump made gains in 2024. A national poll released Thursday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University found that young voters listed corruption in government near the top of their midterm priorities, with 88% saying it was important to their vote.
Trump is not on the ballot in November, but political strategists said Republican candidates’ prospects were closely tied to the way voters viewed the president. Longtime Trump pollster John McLaughlin said corruption allegations against Republicans were gaining traction with voters who were already anti-Trump. “I don’t think it’s resonating out there with the voters who may be undecided, who are going to decide their race for Congress and Senate, because they’re voting on their pocketbooks,” McLaughlin said.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis defended the administration’s record, saying, “President Trump has launched an all-out war on fraud across the entire federal government, holding criminals accountable and saving taxpayers billions of dollars.” She added, “The Democrats in Congress have refused to do anything to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in our government.” Trump accused Democrats of corruption and vowed on social media to defeat “corrupt anti-American Lunatics once and for all!”
The Justice Department this week announced charges against Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a longtime Democratic lawmaker, for allegedly running a criminal enterprise that illegally bought and sold large amounts of marijuana and laundered the proceeds. Lucas called the criminal case an effort to intimidate and silence her.
Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Mike Pence, the vice president in Trump’s first term, said, “There’s a large number of voters who wanted Trump to be the outsider who would come to Washington, fire everybody and drain the swamp.” He added, “Now it looks like they’re feeding on the swamp.”