It's well known that Trump is highly susceptible to flattery, and Democratic politicians who have ended up in legal trouble have begun sucking up to him, likely in hopes of receiving a pardon. Shortly after being indicted on corruption charges last year, New York's mayor Eric Adams began aggressively courting Trump by praising his immigration policies and saying that previous New York mayors were wrong to oppose him. After Trump's victory, he made a trip down to Mar-a-Lago and ditched multiple important Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events in New York City to attend Trump's inauguration. And on Wednesday, after he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting lavish bribes, New Jersey's former Senator Bob Menendez said "President Trump is right—this process is political and it's corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system."