The Progressive

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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, aguilarrosenthal@therevolvingdoorproject.org

Revolving Door Project Condemns Trump’s Appointment of Corrupt Partisans As Inspectors General

RDP encourages journalists, activists and groups to monitor who currently leads, and who might soon take over, the government’s top watchdog offices.

In response to the Trump administration’s selection of self-serving nepotists and ideologues to serve as Inspectors General, the Revolving Door Project (RDP) announced a project to track their appointments. RDP senior researcher, Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, released the following statement:

“Inspectors General are crucial parts of the apparatus that keep the government accountable to everyday people. IG offices investigate real cases of fraud, waste and abuse, and work to remedy them. Unlike DOGEーthe agents of rampant destruction that are running amok across Donald Trump’s governmentーIGs use disciplined investigative approaches to ensure that government works for real people.”

“Instead of investing in those offices, their leaders, and their crucial work, Donald Trump has fired most of them, and in their stead offered brazen partisans with records of using their positions to allegedly engage in nepotism and outright theft. For many years, those holding this position were held to a particularly high standard of ethics and public service. Now, having a besmirched legacy is not seen as an automatic disqualifier, but is seemingly viewed as an asset for a potential Trump administration Inspector General.”

“The Revolving Door Project will continue to track the bad actors running these offices, because the decimation of the institutions structured to hold the government to account impacts us all. IGs have long been bulwarks against the use of public offices and public funds for self-enrichment schemes, for personal gain, for personal retribution and more, and their replacement is a crucial part of the Trump corruption project. Should Trump succeed in staffing them with loyalists and crooked characters, another barrier in the way of autocracy will fall. We encourage all those committed to covering the Trump administration’s abuses to avail themselves of this resource.”

The tracker can be viewed here and will be regularly updated to reflect changes made by the Trump administration.

The Revolving Door Project (RDP) scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.