Usually, the president gets the blame or the credit for whatever is happening in the country — at least before President Donald Trump became president. Now, the president gets all the blame for everything, particularly the things his opposition does against him or in reaction to him, and little credit for the good things.
Of course, this is true among the Democrats and the leftist media, but it’s also true among the pondering class of conservatives and Republicans.
Witness a piece John Fund wrote for The Spectator entitled “The lesson of Orbán: Trump must tackle corruption,” which seems to go out of its way to miss the obvious and arrive at the sort of conclusion that would have made Bill Kristol proud when he was cosplaying as a conservative.
Fund is a national affairs columnist for National Review, which means… I have no idea, to be honest. I quit reading National Review somewhere around Jan. 6, 2021, for some reason.
In his piece for The Spectator, Fund seems to assume that while acknowledging that Hungary and the U.S. are two different countries, the mindset of Hungarian voters easily translates to what’s on the minds of most Americans. Further, and more disturbingly, he draws parallels between Hungary’s former prime minister Viktor Orbán and Trump on the matter of corruption.
It’s probably a good sign that your message about Trump is off target when you start out quoting Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and citing a poll from the European Council on Foreign Relations, in which by the way, Fund says, “Hungarian voters listed the economy as their most important issue at 20 percent,” and then Fund adds, “But corruption was second at 17 percent. Among opposition voters, however, corruption was first at 31 percent. And, on the other side of the Atlantic, that’s what should concern Team Trump most.”
Do we need to say that Hungarian voters are not American voters? The one thing the poll found that does cross over is that people care about their economic situations, and they’re more motivated to vote when they’re not happy about it.
But Fund’s assumptions based on this survey are somewhat mind-boggling. In America, Trump’s “opposition voters” are Democrats. Why should anyone presume that how Democrats feel about Trump is a problem for Trump? His base is not the Democrats. And when he last won an election in 2024, yes, he did win a fair number of Democrats, and he needed them. But these were the disenfranchised Democrats, those unhappy with the Democrat party, the Biden administration, and the culture wars that stomped on many of their constitutional rights.
Something Fund did not mention that pretty much destroys his basic assumption is that Trump has already done more to expose the massive corruption in the federal government and in America, and his reward has been to be hit with an all out attack from the “opposition party,” the legacy media, and all of those who benefit from said corruption, which includes no small number of NGOs and nonprofit organizations.
Within weeks of Trump taking office, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) exposed massive amounts of waste and corruption, only to be met with resistance from the very same people who Fund says now care about fighting corruption. The federal judiciary worked to effectively shut down the DOGE effort to root out corruption.
JUDICIAL INSURRECTION: Obama-appointed Judge Theodore D. Chuang has “ORDERED” @ElonMusk and @DOGE to restore nearly all USAID operations pic.twitter.com/v043reozWc
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 18, 2025
Elon Musk, who spearheaded DOGE, was attacked, and so was every person who drove one of his cars because they did not want him exposing the staggering levels of corruption he was finding.
A ‘Dance Against DOGE’ protest is currently happening in front of the Tesla dealership in Georgetown, DC..
??? pic.twitter.com/oiE8MkvIAX
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) March 22, 2025
This is what happens when you try to combat government waste and corruption. The “opposition party” comes after you.
Tesla vandal in Brooklyn caught on camera slamming a brick with the word “Nazi” and a swastika on it into the windshield of a Cybertruck. The individual then dumped a bag of garbage on it before fleeing the scene.
.@fbi pic.twitter.com/OMjrJMH9MZ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 8, 2025
More recently, independent conservative journalists like Nick Shirley have led the way by exposing billions and billions of dollars of fraud and corruption, paid for by federal and state taxpayers, in places like Minnesota, New York, and California.
If you watch this video of Shirley from Minneapolis in December, you can see that certain members of the “opposition party” aren’t all that thrilled that he is exposing corruption.
Protect Nick Shirley at all costs!
Nick can be seen here getting accosted by some men on the street in Minnesota while filming.
Everyone knows who he is and what he looks like now.
Props to you @nickshirleyy for doing what the media and government refuses to do. pic.twitter.com/DZQIsq8Yn3
— AmericanPapaBear™ (@AmericaPapaBear) December 31, 2025
I wonder why. The point is, even if we’re to assume that the opposition party in Hungary is an indicator of where American voters’ minds are, we have real-world evidence that the last thing America’s “opposition party” wants is an anti-corruption movement.
But Fund seems to believe is that it’s the allegations against Trump are what’s most worrisome. Who’s making those allegations, by the way? Oh, it’s that “opposition party,” once again.
“Spurred on by demands from their base, more than 70 Democrats in Congress have called for either impeachment or the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office,” Fund writes.
If I were Trump, my response to that would be one word: “And?”
It’s not news that the Democrats don’t want Trump in office and will do everything they can to get rid of him, including impeachment. They’ve already done it, and we know that if they win in the midterms, they plan to do it again. If Trump were to wipe out all corruption in the federal government, the Democrats would impeach him for that.
Instead, Fund wants to focus on allegations of corruption against the Trump administration, which haven’t even gained much traction within the legacy media. Things like allegations that Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s former firm might be a beneficiary on the government’s investment in a rare-earth mineral company. Or, that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation for “misuse of her travel funds.”
I’m not dismissing these investigations if they are true. Corruption has no place in the federal government, so no matter who does it, let the investigations happen, and make sure everyone found guilty faces the consequences. But also, make sure some of the most glaring potential abuses get investigated.
This brings me to Ilhan Omar. Back in January, I wrote about questions surrounding her newfound wealth since joining Congress. But she’s hardly alone. You could throw a bowling ball down the hallways of the Capitol building and hit someone taking home millions from you, the taxpayer, in ways they don’t want you to know.
Trump appears to be the first president in recent history who actually wants to take on corruption.
CORRUPTION NUKE DROPPED:
“I’m going to read to you some of the names” -President Trump announced a press conference…for TODAY…to NAME NAMES on the BILLIONS in taxpayer cash wasted with kickbacks and dirty deals.
Thanks DOGE for blowing the lid off the swamp… pic.twitter.com/eHcFw81lzs
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) April 2, 2026
In the process, what Trump is exposing is that for the Democrats in the next election, it’s not about corruption at all. It’s about power. The “opposition party” wants it back in the worst way, and they’ll do anything to get it. Does that mean they’ll do so through corrupt means? Any card-carrying member of the “opposition party” would probably laugh at you for even asking such a naive question, and then say, “Is there any other way?”
For Trump’s part, he’s got a growing list of challenges looking ahead to the midterms. The economy is number one, followed by all the noise and spin the left can make on immigration, war, and any number of other issues. Trump’s biggest challenge by far will not be his ability to solve problems. He’s done that better than anyone. His challenge is to find a way to cut through the leftist clutter to make sure that everyday Americans know what he’s accomplishing and to more fully appreciate it. Then, to make sure the people know just how fragile all of this progress is, they need to get out and vote to keep it going.
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