US Sen. Ron Johnson accuses the Trump administration of corruption

Mary Spicuzza and Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal SentinelSun, November 8, 2026 at 4:22 PM UTC

2.8K

Wisconsin Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, a longtime outspoken ally of President Donald Trump, accused the Trump administration of corruption in a stunning Fox News interview over the weekend.

Johnson referred to recent claims by former top federal health official Calley Means that top Trump administration officials and political advisors were bowing to special interests.

Means accused leading Trump aides of giving into powerful lobbyists and prioritizing fundraising over health and blocking policies championed by the Make America Healthy Again movement during a recent Joe Rogan podcast appearance.

"Calley lays out in gory detail the corruption," Johnson said in the Nov. 7 interview. "The bipartisan corruption within all branches of government. The problem is, is government. Government is power. Power corrupts."

Johnson later added the corruption was "within government - I'm sad to say, within the Trump administration."

The White House, in a statement Nov. 8, defended the administration's record.

“President Trump has launched an all-out war on fraud across the entire federal government, holding criminals accountable and saving taxpayers billions of dollars," spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.

Trump, speaking reporters over the weekend, said, "If somebody is dishonest, I consider them not only against the country, I consider that dishonest against me."

Advertisement

Johnson, who was first elected in 2010, described himself as "part of the tea party movement."

"I had to join a side, obviously I'm aligned more with Republicans than I certainly am with Democrats," Johnson said. "But if Republicans are going to win in 2028, we need to re-embrace the enduring principles of our founders - limited government. We need to stop mortgaging our children's future."

His comments to Fox were notably different than those he made to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after the midterm elections, which swept Republicans out of power in Wisconsin around the country. In that interview, Johnson - who will be the only Republican elected to a statewide office after January - instead blamed the media and education systems for Tuesday's election outcome.

"Our supporters were expecting us to drain the swamp, but it seems the swamp won," Johnson told Fox.

Johnson later said he was accusing "deep state actors in every administration of corruption," not just the Trump administration.

"Unfortunately, the deep state swamp is alive and well in spite of President Trump’s sincere efforts to drain it," he wrote in a post.

Reporter Valerie Yurk contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: US Sen. Ron Johnson accuses the Trump administration of corruption

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Breaking”