Trump and Musk Hunt for Corruption, Very Selectively

Spending that the White House does not like is being labeled fraudulent. At the same time, President Trump is rolling back anticorruption efforts and ethical standards for himself and allies like Elon Musk.

Now that he is back in office, President Trump sees corruption everywhere — in the foreign aid agency, at the Justice Department, in federal contracting. But when it comes to his own orbit, he doesn’t seem interested in looking.

In this second incarnation as president, Mr. Trump is presenting himself as a born-again corruption fighter rooting out waste, fraud and abuse from all corners of the federal government — even as he is dismantling the government’s mechanisms for fighting corruption, as it has been traditionally defined.

The president is boasting that he and Elon Musk, his partner in the efficiency drive, have found “billions and billions of dollars” of corrupt spending, although they have yet to provide evidence.

At the same time, his administration is dropping corruption cases against political figures with ties to him, firing inspectors general who actually search for abuse and pledging not to enforce a signature anti-corruption law against major corporations.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are making accusations of corruption in the government ranks even as they ask voters to trust that they are not taking advantage of their own positions despite an extensive array of conflicts of interest unlike what any president or presidential adviser has had in modern times.

Dispensing with traditional ethics standards, both men are maintaining control of their private companies, which could benefit from actions by the government they oversee.