Times are tough for most Usanians – with forecasters projecting them to get tougher. But these are the days of unparalleled prosperity for President Donald Trump. Seems like the self-styled business mogul, six of whose companies filed for bankruptcy, has found the key to success: run an entire government for one’s personal profit.
On the day following his inauguration, Trump began buying bonds. Since then, according to Steve Kopack of NBC News, he has bought “at least $103 million worth of corporate and municipal bonds, … that includes debt sold by companies, local governments and entities that could be directly affected by his sweeping agenda.”
Unlike honest previous presidents, the ultimate inside trader not only maintains control of his financial empire, but also prioritizes his finances in his policies.
The most obvious example was the $10 million July junket to promote his Scottish golf courses. S.V. Dale of HuffPost called the White House’s official \ YouTube coverage of one ribbon cutting ceremony “a brazen new level” of “using government resources to put money into his pockets.”
Of course, Trump’s golfing addiction ran up a $152 million tab – at his own golf courses – during his first administration.
Then again, Qatar giving Trump a $400 million jet plane might be a bit more blatant example of his profiteering off the presidency.
While allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to raze Gaza to bare soil – well, Trump has fantasized about building a hotel upon stolen land – and getting played the fool repeatedly by Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, Trump devotes his time to such national interests as promoting his $TRUMP memecoin, with a Wall Street Journal estimated worth of “several billion dollars” at the first of this month.
On July 21, David Hollerith of Yahoo Finance reported, “Trump is deepening his financial involvement in the crypto world as Washington, DC, moves new legislation that offers the industry more favorable oversight.
“Trump on Friday signed into law a bill that establishes the first federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, giving those digital assets backed by U.S. dollars a massive stamp of approval that is expected to encourage wider adoption.”
How convenient for those investing in the creeptocurrency market – such as the president pushing the policy.
It is small wonder that many people thought his early tariff waffling that played havoc with the financial markets were orchestrated for someone knowing Trump’s next move to take advantage of the fluctuations.
In fact, in the midst of this economic seesawing in April, Trump spent [yet another] weekend at his Florida golf courses. Liam Archacki of Daily Beast observed: “In just a few days, Trump managed to hold multiple glitzy fundraisers as well as a LIV Golf tournament – the fourth tournament paid for by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to be hosted at a Trump course.”
[The Saudis’ payments to Trump and his family will require at least two chapters in The Art of the Grift.]
On his Truth Social platform that Friday, Trump proudly asserted his devotion to his presidential duties: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.”
As if every day is not a Trump profitability day. Since January, his MAGA Inc. PAC has raked in more than $177 million, with the Independent reporting in August that the donor list includes people he appointed to federal positions, other cryptocurrency traders and “a mom who managed to get Trump to pardon her son.”
The previous month AP writers Brian Slodysko and Will Weissert reported:
“From crypto coins to bibles, overseas development deals to an upcoming line of cell phones, Trump family businesses have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars since his election, an unprecedented flood of often shadowy money from billionaires, foreign governments and cryptocurrency tycoons with interests before the federal government.”
James Thurber, a retired professor who specializes in documenting lobbying and campaign financing, told the reporters:
“He is president and is supposed to be working in the public’s interest. Instead, he is helping his own personal interest to grow his wealth. It’s totally not normal.”
Trump continues to profit from getting his name attached to products. A June financial filing showed him raking in $3 million for the Save America coffee table book; $2.5 million from Trump sneakers and fragrances; $2.8 million from Trump watches; $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible and another million dollars from the “45” guitar.
Our Huckster-in-Chief is “very likely violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses – key anti-corruption clauses in our founding document, the Constitution – as he did in his first term,” according to Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. “It also means that he is regularly in business with, and benefiting from, those who may want to influence his decision-making as president.”
Blatantly threatening companies with the power of the government he heads, Trump has milked another source of income, which The New Indian Times has called “the corporate payoff.”
Trump, despite his bluster and bravado, is apparently a delicate flower, a sensitive soul easily hurt by harsh words. Furthermore, he is quick to sue those who will not do his bidding.
The recent $16 million payoff by Paramount Global to settle a lawsuit it had described as “completely without merit” is only the most recent example where, “Trump has wielded the enormous power of the federal bureaucracy, including the power of the purse and regulatory oversight of businesses, to silence critics and control the viewpoints of private speakers,” according to Katie Fallow of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
In December, ABC News ponied up another $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit and his sometime ally, Elon Musk, paid off another Trump lawsuit after he was banned from Facebook and Twitter following his attempted coup of Jan. 6, 2021.
The Paramount capitulation coincided with the firing of Trump critic Stephen Colbert and – hmm – the FCC approval of its merger with Skydance.
When not shaking down corporations for cash, Trump has spare time to feud with other celebrities – most of whom still have their wits about them.
Musician and music producer Jack White of White Stripes responded to one attack by including an assessment of the business acumen of the “stable genius,” calling “this low life fascist” a “bankrupter of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump water …This man and his goon squad have failed upward for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over.”
Trump has now found a business model that even he cannot botch: make every person in the country an unpaid employee of his enterprise as he wields the power of our country to grow his portfolio. We should have someone looking out for us with such determination.
