With firings and lax enforcement, Trump moving to dismantle government's public integrity guardrails

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Source: Associated Press

With firings and lax enforcement, Trump moving to dismantle government’s public integrity guardrails

By ERIC TUCKER, MICHELLE L. PRICE and ZEKE MILLER
Updated 9:24 PM EST, February 10, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the first three weeks of his administration, President Donald Trump has moved with brazen haste to dismantle the federal government’s public integrity guardrails that he frequently tested during his first term but now seems intent on removing entirely.

In a span of hours on Monday, word came that he had forced out leaders of offices responsible for government ethics and whistleblower complaints. And in a boon to corporations, he ordered a pause to enforcement of a decades-old law that prohibits American companies from bribing foreign governments to win business. All of that came on top of the earlier late-night purge of more than a dozen inspectors general who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies.

It’s all being done with a stop-me-if-you-dare defiance by a president who the first time around felt hemmed in by watchdogs, lawyers and judges tasked with affirming good government and fair play. Now, he seems determined to break those constraints once and for all in a historically unprecedented flex of executive power.

“It’s the most corrupt start that we’ve ever seen in the history of the American presidency,” said Norm Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic who was a legal adviser to Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-inspectors-general-firing-justice-department-902d19ae20bcd10c2d11e92dd902d85e