One of President Donald Trump's most reliable Senate allies turned on the administration this weekend with a charge usually reserved for its critics.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused the Trump administration of corruption in an interview with Fox News on Saturday, The Washington Post reported. The Wisconsin Republican pointed to allegations from Calley Means, a former White House health adviser who resigned last month.
Means appeared on an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" released Friday, where he claimed that Trump's top aides and political strategists had catered to special interests. According to the Post, he singled out people close to the president who he said blocked policies favored by the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Among those claims, The Daily Beast reported, was an allegation that Susie Wiles, who has served as Trump's chief of staff, repeatedly pressed Means about money for the midterms. Means also alleged that companies that hired Wiles' daughter as a lobbyist went on to receive preferential treatment from the administration, according to the outlet.
Johnson told Fox News that Means had described the problem "in gory detail," including corruption "within the Trump administration."
"This is how government operates on a bipartisan basis," the senator continued, arguing that the rot stretches across "government agency after government agency, captured by the very...corporations that are regulated by government."
The White House did not immediately respond to the Post's request for comment.
Johnson also weighed in on Republican losses in the midterm elections, lamenting that GOP voters "were expecting us to drain the swamp, but it seems like the swamp won."
He contended that his party must "embrace the enduring principles of our founders, limited government" if it hopes to win elections in 2028.
The Wisconsin senator is now gathering signatures in a push to delay Senate Republican leadership elections. He told Fox News that the GOP conference "ought to have robust, robust, soul-searching discussions" in the aftermath of the midterms.