Honest in Our Dealings: Civic Responsibility and Government Corruption

[Analytics]

The Church teaches the principle of honesty as a foundational value. The 13th Article of Faith says "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men." This extends to being honest with ourselves and others about what’s really going on, and with our civic responsibilities. If corruption is to be rooted out, it must be done fairly and with integrity, not selectively and self-servingly.

@smac97 said he wants to talk about “the particulars of what sure looks like a lot of uncovered waste, fraud, corruption, etc.” Perfect. Let’s talk about it.

The following details are taken from this article: "Trump and Musk Hunt for Corruption, Very Selectively" (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-musk-corruption.html). The article investigates whether President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts truly root out corruption or merely serve their own political and financial interests.

The Claims:

• President Trump claims there is "probably going to be close to a trillion dollars" in fraud (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-musk-corruption.html).
• Musk alleges that the government issued "a massive number of blank checks" and sent Social Security payments to people supposedly 150 years old.
• The administration has yet to provide concrete evidence for these sweeping claims.

Selective Prosecutions & Dropped Cases:

• The Justice Department dropped charges against former Representative Jeffrey Fortenberry, convicted of lying to the FBI about illegal campaign contributions (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/politics/fortenberry-case-dropped.html).
• Federal prosecutors withdrew from a campaign finance investigation involving Representative Andy Ogles, raising concerns about political favoritism (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/us/politics/andy-ogles-investigation.html).
• Mayor Eric Adams had bribery charges dropped after warming up to Trump post-election (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/politics/eric-adams-bribery-case.html).

Dismantling Anti-Corruption Safeguards:

• Eliminating Watchdogs: Trump fired 17 inspectors general, key officials responsible for uncovering government waste (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/trump-inspectors-general-fired.html).
• Ethics Offices Shut Down: Trump fired the heads of the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel, both of which previously challenged his administration (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/trump-ethics-watchdogs-fired.html).
• No More Corporate Accountability: Trump ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies from bribing foreign officials (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/business/trump-corruption-law.html).

Conflicts of Interest:

• Trump’s Business Ventures: He still profits from his real estate empire and a newly launched cryptocurrency venture, which has raked in $100 million in trading fees for his family and allies (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/business/trump-crypto.html).
• Musk’s Government Ties: Despite running the government’s anti-corruption effort, Musk continues to control multiple companies receiving billions in federal contracts, with no disclosed conflict-of-interest waiver (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/technology/musk-government-contracts.html).

Political Payoffs: The administration’s selective anti-corruption efforts seem to benefit Trump’s allies while shielding his own financial dealings.

What the Data Says:

• Fraud exists in government spending, but is Trump targeting the worst offenders?
• The Government Accountability Office estimates between $233 billion and $521 billion in federal fraud occurred between 2018 and 2022, much of it during Trump’s first term (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/us/politics/government-fraud-estimates.html).
• Improper payments surged under Trump’s pandemic relief programs, raising concerns about rampant abuse of federal funds.

The Bottom Line:
Latter-day Saints believe in holding leaders accountable to principles of honesty and integrity. Trump and Musk claim they are fighting corruption, but their actions suggest they are using it as a tool to punish enemies and reward allies. They purge watchdogs, shield allies from scrutiny, and rake in personal profits—all under the guise of a crackdown. If this is truly about eliminating corruption, where is the evidence of real fraud being eliminated?

@smac97 can you point to specific cases where the administration has rooted out genuine corruption—fraud that was worse than the corruption they are engaging in themselves? If so, let’s hear it. Otherwise, it looks like Trump and Musk are simply redefining corruption to serve their own interests while dismantling accountability.

[Duncan]

Musk is walking back claims on millions sent to Gaza on condoms

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2025/feb/12/musk-says-he-will-make-mistakes-and-that-he-double-checks-with-trump-video

hard to believe a guy with 12 kids knows anything about condoms but here you are

[SeekingUnderstanding]

56 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Musk is walking back claims on millions sent to Gaza on condoms

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2025/feb/12/musk-says-he-will-make-mistakes-and-that-he-double-checks-with-trump-video

hard to believe a guy with 12 kids knows anything about condoms but here you are

Yes. And regardless of where they were sent, condoms aren’t fraud or corruption. Whether preventing aids in Africa is waste or not depends on your pov. So I’m too would love to hear of actual fraud and corruption uncovered by doge. 

Edited February 13, 2025 by SeekingUnderstanding

[Analytics]

Talking about government corruption, from 2013 to 2018, Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million as an attorney and board member with the Ukrainian firm Burisma. That comes out to nearly $200k per year, which presumably is a lot of money for what he was doing, and its fairly obvious that if his father wasn’t the vice president, he wouldn’t have landed this lucrative job (although one wonders why they didn’t fire him immediately in 2016 when Trump won the presidency). While there, Hunter committed crimes so secretive and vile that the combined resources of the FBI and CIA were incapable of discovering what they were, so Trump had no choice but turning to the vastly superior intelligence resources of Ukraine to fetter them out. A private company paying the son of a vice president a bit over $10 million for work over the course of 6 years in exchange for access to the vice president is disturbing. Is it okay for wealthy people to pay for government access?

As another example of possible corruption, Elon Musk spent $277 million to help Trump get elected. In exchange, he was granted access to the government and to the president.

So far, Musk has spent a few weeks in the government firing or forcing out hundreds of civil servants who fight corruption including scores of FBI agents, Justice Department professionals, the Inspector Generals of 17 departments, and staffers from the Federal Election Commission, the National Archives and Records Administration, the State Department, and the National Security Council.

Then on 2/12/2025, Musk gave Donald J. Trump a $10 Million check to settle a frivolous lawsuit that Trump filed because he got his feelings hurt from being banned from Twitter.

It should be kept in mind that the man who personally gave the man Donald J. Trump a check for $10M to settle a bogus lawsuit has at least $15.4 billion in government contracts.

A few hours later, the state department announces that it will purchase $400 million of armored cybertrucks from Musk.

In the future, state department convoys in dangerous parts of the world will be Cyber Trucks rather than Suburbans. As far as I can tell, there is no pretense that this change went through any sort of competitive bidding process or professional evaluation of what kind of vehicle is most appropriate for this. 

So on the one hand, we have Burisma paying $11 million over the course of 6 years to Hunter Biden, allegedly for access to Hunter’s dad and not for any work that Hunter actually did. 

On the other hand, we have a billionaire with $15.4 billion of government contracts handing a check to Donald J. Trump for $10 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit, and then immediately being awarded a government contract worth $400 million.

@smac97 suggests one of these acts of corruption is "several orders of magnitude" worse than the other. Which one was that, again?

Edited February 13, 2025 by Analytics