Trump has indulged in cronyism and nepotism

The argument

Donald Trump ran on a pledge to 'drain the swamp' and remove corruption from American politics, and that pledge is the standard his critics apply. The conventions he declined to follow were the ones designed to show that a president's decisions are not shaped by private gain. He has refused to publish his tax returns, and he did not follow the convention of other presidents who put their assets in a blind trust. Both practices exist for the same reason: they allow the public to check, or at least to be assured, that the officeholder's finances do not stand to benefit from the decisions he takes. Without them there is no way for an outsider to test the question at all. The ambiguity that follows is not hypothetical. With administration officials regularly staying at Trump properties, the line between his businesses and his administration remains blurred, with official activity generating revenue for the president's own companies and no mechanism in place to distinguish coincidence from patronage. The same pattern appears in appointments. Previous presidents have gone to great lengths to keep their families outside of politics and avoid even the appearance of impropriety, precisely because proximity to a president is an advantage no one outside the family can compete for. Trump's White House has instead given key advisory roles to family members, including his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Beyond the president's own circle, there have also been instances of key members of his administration failing to declare conflicts of interests and facing accusations of using their positions for profit. Taken together, critics argue, this is the swamp he promised to drain rather than the one he drained, and a president who has indulged in cronyism and nepotism on this scale is a bad president.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Despite much criticism from the press, Donald Trump has successfully managed to meet a number of his campaign pledges. This includes renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, enacting economic tariffs on China, cracking down on immigration, cutting taxes for corporations, putting pro-life judges on the Supreme Court, pulling out of the Paris Climate Change Accord, and tearing up the Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump's approval rating amongst Republican voters stands at ninety-four per cent. This is evidence that the majority of Trump voters they feel that he has delivered on what he campaigned on.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Trump has met many of his campaign promises.