The press and the Democrats are going to have a hard time getting Donald Trump’s supporters all hot and bothered about his ethics violations. He and his people are being accused left and right of abusing their positions to enhance the Trump brand and its commercial success. To which his supporters emphatically reply, “well, duh”.

As they see it, at least Trump is transparent about the whole thing in contrast to other politicians, who profess to be ethically pure but are caught all the time in nepotism, pat my back / wink wink deals and worse. Does anybody really trust politicians?

Trump’s supporters put him in the White House to shake things up. While he does this, they want him to keep telling it like it is, tweeting and saying provocative things. None of them care if he makes a little money along the way. At least he is open about it. And it is a drop in the bucket compared to what they know others (big business, etc.) are ripping the government off for.

Trump’s only vulnerability is from is staff and appointees. He knows where the line is between an conflict his supporters will accept and one they won’t. It remains to be seen whether the rest of his team understands this as well as he does.