Back in 2010, I coined a term to describe a specific kind of political threat: the Insidersaurus. From its very inception in my 2010 U.S. Senate campaign ad, the term was engineered to target the corrosive reality of insider politics: the insulated class of career politicians, consultants, and political elites who operate in a vacuum wholly out of touch with the general public. If the American political establishment is a swamp, then the Insidersaurus is the apex predator thriving in its murky waters.
This brings us to a central, deeply uncomfortable question regarding the modern populist movement: Has President Donald Trump actually drained the swamp, or is the new swamp no better than the old one?
To look at this objectively, we must establish some vital nuance. On a wide variety of substantive measures, from judicial appointments and sweeping regulatory rollbacks to aggressive trade policies, Trump has earned my explicit approval. His willingness to confront institutional inertia head-on gave voice to a public that felt completely discarded by the Beltway machine. He broke the old molds. He challenged the consensus. For millions of Americans, his presidency represented the first real counterpunch against a political class that had grown fat, complacent, and completely indifferent to the struggles of working families.
But an honest assessment of his core populist promise to “drain the swamp” reveals what can only be described as a colossal failure. As I argued in my recent op-ed for the Washington Examiner, public cynicism has become the default setting for American citizenship because our leadership continues to disconnect from day-to-day civic realities. The crisis isn’t defined by how long politicians have been in office, but by what they become once they enter the Beltway ecosystem. They transform into the exact same Insidersaurus class that protects its own while the public suffers.
Worse yet, we must confront the reality that we may now be dealing with an entirely new swamp of Trump’s own creation — one that has merely traded the old guard for a new breed of equally insulated, self-serving insiders. The faces have changed, but the behavioral patterns remain identical.
This is no longer a fringe populist grievance — it is a mathematical national consensus. As we head directly into the midterms, definitive tracking data from a Fox News poll confirms that “government corruption” has officially overtaken inflation, gas prices, and healthcare as the No. 1 issue for American voters. A staggering 89% of the electorate is unified in their deep anxiety over this issue. Historical indicators from Gallup match this intensity, showing record-high widespread distrust. It represents a powerful cross-demographic reality backed by a Brennan Center survey showing that massive majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents all fundamentally agree that the system is broken.
We don’t need to speak in abstract terms about this phenomenon; we can look directly at the legislative record to find the meat and potatoes of how this insider behavior plays out. For years, Washington has pretended to police its own.
Consider the landmark Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. Passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, the STOCK Act promised to stop lawmakers from using nonpublic, official information to play the stock market for personal gain. Yet, over a decade later, we know the truth: It was toothless. The enforcement mechanisms were a sham, relying on nominal $200 penalties that acted as a mild tax rather than a real deterrent against multimillion-dollar conflicts of interest. (Also, what happened to the legislation to tax hedge fund folks at ordinary income rates?)
Fast forward to the modern populist era, where the public was promised real accountability. Look at the recent battle over the Stop Insider Trading Act. On paper, this was supposed to be the ultimate swamp-draining tool, a comprehensive ban prohibiting members of Congress from purchasing individual stocks. But when the bill finally faced a critical floor vote in the Senate on Sept. 30, it was utterly derailed. As detailed in the official floor arguments recorded by Politico, the establishment laced the legislation with non-financial, highly partisan voter ID poison pills. The resulting 53-47 partisan clash failed to reach the necessary 60-vote filibuster threshold. The bill died, the stock tracking continued, and the status quo remained unbothered. Populist rhetoric makes for great headlines, but it has completely failed to alter the structural plumbing of Washington.
This failure becomes even more acute when we look past Capitol Hill and examine the administration’s own executive appointments, particularly within the critical arena of public health. A genuine effort to drain the swamp would mean replacing out-of-touch bureaucrats with the absolute best-qualified professionals available. The best-qualified leaders are those with a proven track record of excellence, whether forged in public service or through rigorous execution in the private sector. They possess a deep, demonstrable base of intellectual capacity and policy prowess, deployed entirely for the public good.
TRUMP’S APPOINTEES ARE VERY PRETTY. AND PRETTY UNQUALIFIED
Instead, we have witnessed a hollow substitute: a distinct preference for media personalities, best-selling authors, television hosts, and individuals who possess highly polished aesthetic profiles. This is not a personal or professional indictment of the nominees themselves, many of whom possess notable medical backgrounds, but rather a critique of a flawed executive prioritization. The administration treats public health infrastructure as a stage for performance art. It values individuals who have written books, appeared on television, or hosted news shows because it views them primarily as great orators capable of selling a pre-packaged message on camera. It elevates media saturation over deep, institutional management expertise.
Based on these performative criteria, we have to ask ourselves a necessary, fundamental question: Do we truly feel Trump is selecting the best people for the job, as he repeatedly promised the American public he would?
Eric Wargotz, M.D., is a practicing physician, geopolitical analyst, and multi-sector policy writer whose commentary has appeared in the Washington Examiner, the Baltimore Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. He currently serves as a judge and the 178th President of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, following a career that includes serving as a U.S. Senate nominee and elected county commission president. A Clinical Professor Emeritus at The George Washington University, his views are his own and do not represent his affiliates.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
