Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.

Krauthammer is criticizing the modern U.S. campaign-and-media ecosystem as a self-perpetuating “industry” that profits from outrage and personal destruction. By emphasizing the biennial rhythm (“every two years”), he points to the constant election cycle—midterms as well as presidential contests—and argues that relentless negative advertising, punditry, and scandal-mongering corrode public confidence. The punchline is the charge of hypocrisy: the same actors who saturate the public sphere with “character assassination” then feign confusion when citizens conclude that politicians are untrustworthy. The quote functions as a broader indictment of incentives in political communication, suggesting that distrust is not a mystery but a predictable outcome of the system’s chosen tactics.