And Republicans, particularly members of Congress, have apparently decided that if Trump does it, it’s okay.

There was a time when they worried that being too closely associated with him would taint them in the eyes of voters. Now they’ve been utterly corrupted by that association, before he even takes office. Darren Samuelsohn has a good look at what’s happening:

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Indeed, the GOP is so easily dismissing Democratic threats of investigations and ethicists’ calls for divestment out of a belief that the political landscape has shifted. Voters rewarded Trump in part on the idea that success in business will equal success in government, and Republicans are therefore unwilling to encourage the president-elect to put distance between the Oval Office and Trump Tower, or between himself and the children who serve him as trusted advisers. “This is a great test case between the pre-Trump and post-Trump worlds,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a prominent early GOP backer of the president-elect. “In a pre-Trump world dominated by left-wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.” “The American people,” Gingrich added, “knowingly voted for a businessman whose name is inextricably tied to his fortune. … I’d say to the left wing, get over it.”

Trump obviously feels the same way. Last week he tweeted, “Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!”

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Meanwhile he and his children are barely trying to hide their eagerness to cash in on the presidency. Wondering why Ivanka Trump sat in on the meeting her father had with the Japanese prime minister shortly after the election? “Ms. Trump is nearing a licensing deal with the Japanese apparel giant Sanei International,” the New York Times reports. “The largest shareholder of Sanei’s parent company is the Development Bank of Japan, which is wholly owned by the Japanese government.” Ivanka, whose husband has emerged as Trump’s closest adviser, will be moving to Washington to better coordinate their activities.

Perhaps it seems silly to say, “Imagine what Republicans would be saying if this was Hillary Clinton,” but the comparison highlights how malleable their principles are. They were (or at least pretended to be) horrified at the thought that as Secretary of State, Clinton might have a meeting with a foreign dignitary whose government made a donation to the Clinton Foundation to support the distribution of AIDS medications in Africa. But foreign interests basically depositing money into Donald Trump’s bank account? What’s the big deal?

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Just before the election, Jason Chaffetz, who heads the House government oversight committee, was forthright about the fact that if Clinton won he’d be issuing subpoenas every time she brushed her teeth. But now he has taken a very different attitude toward his committee’s watchdog role. “It’s sort of ridiculous to go after [Trump] when his financial disclosure is already online,” Chaffetz now says.

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We’re going to see this again and again: not just a disinterest in Trump’s copious conflicts of interest, but a willingness to parrot whatever ludicrous defense Trump makes of them. If some dictator somewhere wants to slap Trump’s name on a hotel and pay the Trump Organization $20 million in exchange, isn’t that just proof of what a great businessman Trump is? And why would anyone think that might affect U.S. foreign policy, when Trump’s kids are running the business? It’s not like they’re advising him on government policy and personnel. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

And while Republicans used to defend Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns on the bogus grounds that he was being audited by the IRS, you can bet that when the question comes up in the future, they’ll say that it’s just silly to ask the president to release his returns at all.

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You can say that this is just standard partisanship, and the president’s party is always going to defend him. But what’s different about this moment is how blatant and unapologetic the incoming president is being about continuing to pursue his business interests. This is a reminder that the institutions we rely on to keep the government honest are dependent upon the integrity of the people within them. One has to ask: What would it take for Republicans in Congress to take the conflict of interest issue seriously? Would you have to have Trump on video being handed a briefcase full of cash and saying, “In exchange for this bribe, I will alter American policy to help you, Mr. Dictator”? Anything short of that, they’ll find a way to deny and dismiss.

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During the campaign, there were times when Republicans would criticize something Trump had done or said, like his bigoted attacks on the judge in his fraud case or his bragging about committing sexual assault. They’d do it carefully, continuing to support him while criticizing the content of the statement he had made. But now that he’s president they won’t even go that far. There is almost nothing he could do that they wouldn’t defend.