US politics is descending into spectacle and open corruption questions, bad news for anyone hoping for serious government.

• Trump is building a UFC fight cage in front of the White House for a June 14 event and is now floating leaving it up permanently.
• In Congress, officials were grilled over whether a president taking a million-dollar check for a pardon would be bribery — and gave evasive answers.
• Questions also hit a $2 billion payment tied to Trump's family followed by a pardon for a man linked to money laundering for ISIS and al-Qaeda.
• An unqualified real estate figure with zero intelligence background is being installed as acting national intelligence director, alarming the intelligence community.
• The Justice Department is dodging on releasing the full Epstein files and dropped its "anti-weaponization fund" after pushback.

Outlook: Expect more questions and scrutiny after the midterms, but no quick cleanup of the chaos.