During his campaign, Donald Trump liked to say he wanted to “drain the swamp” in Washington. He never really defined what he meant by that or gave succinct plans on how he was going to accomplish this activity. During one of his rallies, however, he talked of reforming ethics and pledged to “make our government honest once again.”

If we take his pledge at face value, sixteen months into his presidency Trump is doing an absolutely horrible job. Just about all his key appointees have been found to be using their positions to secure personal privilege in the form of exorbitant travel, housing arrangements and office decorations. Trump himself is charging the taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money for his weekend golfing trips and vacations at his privately-owned resorts.

Instead of draining the swamp, Trump is poisoning the pond with snakes and rodents.

To date, one of the most extravagant rodents is Scott Pruitt, the director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt’s list of ethical violations includes his use of oil firm’s lobbyist’s apartment for much less than market value, frequent unnecessary trips to his home state of Oklahoma, extreme expenditures on security, and questionable pay raises for favored staff. His latest is a $43,000 splurge on a privacy phone booth for his office, despite the fact that such a facility already exists at the EPA. On top of that, the GAO has determined he broke the law by not informing Congress of this unnecessary expenditure.

Trump and his cabinet appointees are the most dishonest, unethical individuals to ever hold power in our federal government. We the people need to really drain the swamp in November and elect senators and representatives who will out a stop to this administration’s unprecedented level of corruption.

Don Holmes

Buchanan