“Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder,” headlines The New Yorker. “As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests,” reports The New York Times. The Atlantic calls Trump 2.0 “The Most Corrupt Presidency in American History.”
Yes, Hunter Biden was a world-class sleazeball who traded shamelessly on his father’s name. But that doesn’t obviate the obvious conclusion: After five months in office, the Trump administration is already knee-deep in corruption, and the tide is rising fast.
During the campaign, the president railed against the “Biden Crime Family.” Well, now the Trump Crime Family is in full control of the White House and rapidly spreading its influence around the world.
“The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House,” writes Peter Baker, the Times’ chief White House correspondent. “The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking.”
This concerted campaign of self-enrichment breaks down into several categories, starting with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which bars presidents from profitable dealings with foreign powers.
Yet Trump brazenly accepted a luxury airliner from Qatar “meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office,” reports Baker. “Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.”
“Clearly, Trump benefits directly from relationships with foreigners,” states Anne Applebaum, a seasoned foreign correspondent, on The Atlantic’s “The David Frum Show” podcast. She describes a recent golf tournament at a Trump-owned club, sponsored by Saudi interests, where the president “would’ve met many Saudi people who are his investors, essentially, and clients” in his family’s far-flung real estate ventures.
“Maybe it’s touchy to say they were trying to buy American foreign policy, but they were certainly trying to influence it,” says Appelbaum. “Why else would they be there?”
A second broad area of corruption is selling access to the president and his advisers. “Even seasoned practitioners of Washington pay-to-play have been startled by the new rules for buying influence,” writes Evan Osnos in The New Yorker.
A good example is Executive Branch, an ultra-exclusive club co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. that charges members up to $500,000 to join. They are not purchasing fancy drinks, but private connections to White House insiders. “The expectation is that the president himself will make appearances,” writes Jessica Sidman in the Washingtonian.
Perhaps the most blatant — and lucrative — venture of the Trump Crime Family is in the murky world of cryptocurrency. The president has issued his own crypto meme coins, $TRUMP and $MELANIA, while family members have taken a large stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto exchange that launched in October 2024.
“Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January,” writes Baker in the Times. “Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.”
Watchdog group State Democracy Defenders Action estimates in a new report that the president’s crypto holdings now represent nearly 40 percent of his net worth, or approximately $2.9 billion. And Trump’s wealth will continue to grow as wealthy Asian and Middle Eastern investors are eager to buy his meme coins — and his attention.
“Trump is marketing access to himself as a way to profit his memecoin,” Columbia Law professor Richard Briffault, an expert on government ethics, told The Guardian. “People are paying to meet Trump and he’s the regulator-in-chief. It’s doubly corrupt. … This is unprecedented. I don’t think there’s been anything like this in American history.”
Not only is Trump “regulator-in-chief,” he’s dismantled other barriers to ethical misbehavior. “There will be no official investigations because Mr. Trump has made sure of it,” writes Baker. “He has fired government inspectors general and ethics watchdogs, installed partisan loyalists to run the Justice Department, FBI and regulatory agencies and dominated a Republican-controlled Congress unwilling to hold hearings.”
The Trump Crime Family doesn’t even pretend to play by the rules. As Don Jr. recently admitted: “They’re going to hit you no matter what. So we’re just going to play the game.”
But the game is rigged. When you toss the $TRUMP bitcoin into the air, if it lands heads, Trump wins. And if it’s tails, you lose.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.
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