A new documentary is putting the scale of corruption in Trump’s Washington under a microscope ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that the scandals have been so numerous and so rapid that the public has not been able to see the full picture.
On Tuesday, Defiance.org released Corruptionland, a 35-minute film investigating what it describes as a $377 billion web of alleged corruption spanning roughly 100 episodes. The film is streaming free online.
“For two years, Trump’s scandals have hit one at a time, and each one gets buried under the next,” said Miles Taylor, executive producer of the film and former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration. “So we added them up. When you put 100 episodes in one place, the scale is staggering.”
The Map
In the film, Taylor is joined by Donald Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Together, they walk the National Mall and provide a geographic map of the administration’s misdeeds.
A host of former officials and advocates give an intimate view of how long-erected safeguards against corruption were dismantled from the inside, including former DOJ Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, former ABC News journalist Terry Moran, former FBI official Chris O’Leary, Democracy Forward president Skye Perryman, and Representative Jason Crow.
The documentary traces how the five “filters” that historically checked presidential corruption — from White House ethics lawyers to inspectors general to Congress — have been purged, captured, or sidelined.
The Public Mood
A Gallup poll found that 89 percent of Americans believe government corruption is widespread — the highest figure ever recorded on the subject. The view is shared across party lines: 83 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats agree.
Democrats have leaned into anti-corruption messaging this cycle, seeing it as an opportunity to emphasize what they describe as excessive corporate influence, unethical stock trading, and shady behavior from their opponents.
The Warning
“I’ve been on the receiving end of the president’s corruption,” Taylor said. “He accused me of treason and issued an executive order directing his agencies to investigate me for First Amendment protected speech. I was not afraid to call out his corruption then, and I’m not afraid now.”
“This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats anymore,” Taylor added. “It’s about a constitutional order that faces a mortal threat — and an internal rot that will destroy our republic if we don’t address it.”
The Bottom Line
A new documentary called Corruptionland is streaming free online one week before Election Day, mapping what it describes as a $377 billion web of corruption across roughly 100 episodes. It argues that the safeguards that once checked presidential corruption have been dismantled. The film arrives as 89 percent of Americans say government corruption is widespread — the highest level ever recorded.
My Opinion
The most damning thing about Corruptionland is not the $377 billion figure. It is the fact that the film needed to exist at all. In a functioning democracy, the media would have connected the dots. Congress would have investigated. The Justice Department would have acted. Instead, a former Homeland Security official and a watchdog group had to walk the National Mall with a camera and map it out for the American people.
Taylor is right about one thing: the scandals hit one at a time, and each one gets buried under the next. It’s a strategy. Flood the zone. Drown the outrage. Make it impossible for anyone to keep track. And it works because most Americans know something is wrong. They just cannot tell you what, specifically, because there is too much to remember.
