Trump's biggest cheerleader forced to acknowledge president’s 'corruption' problem

Christopher Rufo, a hugely influential conservative activist who’s advised President Donald Trump’s team directly, was forced to acknowledge the president’s “corruption” problem in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, and ultimately conceded that it didn’t look good.

“I guess one thing I think about, when I think about Donald Trump and virtue, is corruption,” said Ezra Klein, an influential liberal columnist for the Times.

“I see Trump taking a luxury aircraft from Qatar, I see his family getting involved in all kinds of crypto schemes – where the investors in their crypto schemes, in many cases, seem to be people who have business before the family, business before the country.”

Klein also cited a report from last August in The New Yorker that tallied up how much money Trump and his family had personally made since taking back the White House early last year.

“The number was about $4 billion in this term,” Klein said. “It doesn’t look virtuous.”

Rufo, who helped shape the Trump administration's war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, as well as the administration's immigration crackdown, said flatly: "You're not going to get me to defend it."

“I’m sure that there will be inquiries, investigations, etc., into these business enterprises – the perception is bad. You’re not going to get me to defend it,” Rufo said.

“I’m perfectly happy calling out the administration where I think it has strayed or erred. And this is one of those places. I remember the crypto launch. It was during the transition, I think, where they launched the Trump coin. And I thought: I don’t like this. I don’t want to see this. They shouldn’t be doing that. And, yeah, you’re not going to get me to defend it.”