The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

Trump is running partisan TV political ads: “Paid for by the U.S. Government” (noted on ads). He says they are public service announcements. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the ads were wrong and “shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayer dollars.” But Thune did nothing to stop the ads, which violate federal law. Just a shrug.

Nixon infamously said: “I am not a crook.” However, Trump is brazen in his disregard for the law. The headlines blare: “Trump and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists calls for slowdown” (Washington Post) and “Trump pulled in at least $2 billion after returning to the White House” (NYT). Moreover, AI tycoons such as Mark Zuckerberg are in the swamp with Trump: “How Meta uses AI data centers to avoid billions in federal taxes” (NYT).

There’s more: “The Trump administration has held up the publication of an annual Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimate of unpaid taxes, a delay that could mask the fiscal cost of the steep decline (layoffs and firings) in the agency’s ability to audit the rich” (NYT). The uncollected taxes could be $1 trillion per year, according to Charles Rettig, Trump’s first-term IRS head. Rettig cited the pass-through deduction dodge, championed by Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson, as a major reason for unpaid taxes.

However, the Trump administration would like voters to believe that the real corruption is in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “Trump administration officials toss 750,000 from Obamacare (ACA), citing fraud” (NYT). But there’s no real evidence. They further contend that millions gave up ACA private insurance because of this so-called fraud crackdown. But healthcare expert Matthew Fiedler at Brookings said: “We know that lots of people have seen higher premiums, and there’s really good evidence that when premiums go up, people drop coverage.”

That was the result from the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, supported by all Wisconsin GOP members of Congress, including Representative Tom Tiffany, now GOP gubernatorial candidate. The legislation let ACA tax credits expire. Millions, including 45,000 Wisconsinites, lost coverage as their insurance premiums soared. Tiffany has refused to reconsider restoring the tax credits. Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley sharply disagrees with Tiffany. Crowley also wants to take federal money to expand Medicaid, left on the table by the GOP-led legislature, and called for a state public healthcare option.

Worse is coming from the Trump administration: shortened ACA enrollment period, less enrollment assistance, more red tape, the end of ACA automatic enrollment, burdensome Medicaid eligibility requirements, roadblocks to states trying to pay for Medicaid costs and needless work requirements (73 percent of Wisconsin Medicaid adults work). The GOP’s ACA hostility persists because taxes on the wealthy paid for the ACA coverage.

Listen to Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin: “For over a decade, President Trump and congressional Republicans have tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act … . So, they have turned to backdoor ways to chip away at the program and cause chaos for the Americans who rely on it for their healthcare.” That’s a crime.

Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.