Vox.com: Trump's corruption should be prominent issue in 2018 elections

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/1/17056562/trump-corruption-midterms

. . . while personal corruption alone is never enough to entirely sap a demagogue’s political appeal to his core followers, . . .the basic fact that Trump is on the take in outrageous ways deserves a higher profile in American partisan politics and will serve as a strong motivating line and unifying theme. Beyond that, the levels of self-dealing Trump is enmeshed in are something no Republican Congress member would have defended as recently as two years ago and something that all Democrats can agree is bad despite their own internal ideological differences. Best of all, it’s something (unlike free college or Medicare-for-all or an assault weapons ban) they can actually take action on by seizing a majority in the House of Representatives.
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Some of the grifting that results from this is almost comical, as in the periodic stories about the Secret Service spending thousands of dollars at a time renting golf carts from clubs that the president owns. But lining his pockets with vast sums of public money is the least of the problems with Trump’s conduct in this regard. The real issue is that by joining one of Trump’s private clubs, wealthy individuals are putting cash directly in the president’s pocket while also gaining access to him. Trump seems to regularly — and quite openly — poll Mar-a-Lago members for their thoughts on the issues of the day. But it’s also an opportunity for more subtle lobbying in unprecedented ways.

. . .
Democrats running in 2018 obviously must and will talk about their ideas on health care, jobs, education, environmental regulation, and more. Still, there is fundamentally no escaping the reality that Trump himself is the central political issue of our time. . . He’s governing fully within the contours of a baseline pro-business agenda that differs from standard Republican fare largely insofar it involves personal enrichment in an unusual way. And, critically, the entire congressional Republican Party is in on it. Republicans can easily distance themselves from Trump’s temperamental issues — Paul Ryan often sniffily declines to comment on stray Trump tweets — or dismiss the Russia issue as some kind of “deep state” conspiracy. But the basic reality is that the reason we don’t know who is paying Trump is because Republicans in Congress don’t want us to know.

And importantly, when Democrats are seeking to motivate their own base to turn out, checking Trump’s corruption is a promise they can actually deliver on in the short term. Trump’s clubs’ financial records can be subpoenas. His tax returns can be released. Current and former government officials can be brought in to testify. None of that will eradicate the inherent conflicts of interest involved in the current arrangement — for that, Trump himself will have to be defeated — but the veil of secrecy around Trump and money truly can be lifted. But to get there, Democrats will need to elevate the issue out of its current sleeper status and find a way to put it on the front pages.