DONALD Trump has been lambasted on the cover of New York Magazine in a photoshopped image depicting the US president as a pig.

The explosive April 2 cover has replaced the president’s nose with a pig snout to highlight its cover story on corruption.

New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait has outlined his case that corruption should be the weapon that Trump’s opponents use to bring him down in an article titled ‘Corruption, Not Russia, Is Trump’s Greatest Political Liability.’

Chait’s story attacks Trump for what it claims is “corruption” and “greed” in his presidency, including his staff he’s hired, to his decision to let his sons take over his business after he became the 45th President of the United States.

“Since Trump took office, his pledge to ignore his own interests has been almost forgotten, lost in a disorienting hurricane of endless news,” Chait writes.

“It is not just a morbid joke but a legitimate problem for the opposition that all the bad news about Trump keeps getting obscured by other bad news about Trump.”

“Not only has Trump made no effort to raise ethical standards but he and his administration have flamboyantly violated the existing guidelines,” Chait writes.

“Lobbyists are seeded in every agency, ‘regulating’ their former employers and designing rules that favour bosses over employees and business owners over consumers.”

“The sheer breadth of direct self-enrichment Trump has unleashed in office defies the most cynical predictions,” Chait writes in the publication.

“It may not be a surprise that he continues to hold on to his business empire and uses his power in office to direct profits its way, from overseas building deals down to printing the presidential seal on golf markers at the course near Mar-a-Lago.

“It is certainly not a surprise that Trump has refused to disclose his tax returns.

“What’s truly shocking is how much petty graft has sprung up across his administration.

“Trump’s Cabinet members and other senior officials have been living in style at taxpayer expense, indulging in lavish travel for personal reasons (including a trip to Fort Knox to witness the solar eclipse) and designing their offices with $31,000 dining sets and $139,000 doors.

“Not since the Harding administration, and probably the Gilded Age, has the presidency conducted itself in so venal a fashion.”

The article comes as campaigns get underway for the US midterm elections, to be held in November.

All seats in the US House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the US Senate will be contested, opening the door to Democrats winning control of one of the houses.

Chait argues Democrats should use corruption as their narrative to win.

He writes that despite Trump’s vow to “drain the swamp”, he has made no effort to raise ethical standards and his administration has “flamboyantly violated the existing guidelines”.

“If Democrats win control of a chamber of Congress and thus the ability to hold hearings, they should investigate whatever co-ordination yielded this nexus of self-interest,” Chait writes.

“A Democratic House or Senate could also compel disclosure of Trump’s tax returns, and both the documents themselves and any drama surrounding them would attract more attention to the administration’s commitment to self-enrichment.

“But that can happen only if the Democrats win the midterms, and the best way to do that is to tell a very simple story.

“Trump represented himself as a rich man feared by the business elite.

“He had spent much of his life buying off politicians and exploiting the system, so he knew how the system worked and could exploit that knowledge on behalf of the people.

“In fact, his experiences with bribery opened his eyes to what further extortion might be possible.

“Trump was never looking to blow up the system. He was simply casing the joint.”