Remember those innocent days when people were actually asking the question whether or not Donald Trump would use his second term as president to enrich himself and just how much profiteering would be acceptable to the American public?
It’s like we’re living not just on a different planet but a different solar system today. It turns out that Trump’s whole reason for craving the Oval Office again had nothing to do with governing or power or, really, not even necessarily avenging his enemies.
Instead, it’s just about making a buck — or billions of them, as it turns out. In other words, entirely on brand for this guy.
Trump has made a mockery of the emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the anti-corruption ones that serve to restrict exploiting federal office for personal gain. Fourteen months in, his entire presidency has been one giant scheme. The grift that keeps on taking.
Shameless doesn’t even begin to describe it. The man didn’t take an oath to serve, protect and defend the United States and its people, but to make a fortune off of their backs.
For starters, take a trip over to the Trump Store (trumpstore.com) and check out the capitalist catastrophe that’s waiting there for you. There’s a Trump 250 blanket ($200), a Trump Chocolate Gold Bar ($86), a Trump Straw Hat ($69), a Mar-a-Lago Pickleball Paddle (Trump Sneakers (149.99) and literally hundreds of other products designed to separate you from your cash and line the pockets of our dough-driven chief executive.
That’s merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
What Trump has done that so singularly crooked has been to use his position of power to push individuals, corporations and other nations to give him money and expensive gifts in exchange for favorable treatment by his administration. He hasn’t even tried to hide this. It’s right out there in the open.
One estimate had Trump’s financial benefit from exploiting his presidency at $4 billion during his first year in office ending in January. But of course, that was two months ago. It’s liable to be closer to $5 billion by now, vaulting him to a possible net worth exceeding $9 billion. The truth is we don’t know exactly how much he’s earned because he’s good at concealing it (along with his tax returns).
How has he done it? Besides his massive Trump-emblazoned merch bonanza, here’s where it’s come from:
It has been proven time and again that this is a man who can be bought and bought many times over. Trump has never met a moneymaking opportunity he didn’t like, ethics be damned. He gleefully squeezes American corporations, flaunts gifts from foreign leaders and celebrates the massive growth of his own fortune.
Fittingly, it was announced on Thursday that Trump’s signature will adorn U.S. currency – a first for a sitting president – beginning later this year. In other words, he isn’t just money-obsessed; he’s literally going to have his name on it.
This isn’t even to take into account the powerful, well-heeled influencers who make donations that benefit Trump politically, including to his planned White House renovation and ballroom monstrosity. In short, everything in his life and presidency surrounds dollars – the acquisition of them, the spending of them, the use of them to generate domination over everything and everyone.
And of course, we all got a valuable lesson in just how far Trump would go to benefit those whose financial interests he supports early this past week when Trump announced his “productive” peace talks with Iran. The price of oil dropped sharply after the announcement, some 14 percent in a matter of minutes.
Questionably, mere minutes before Trump made that morning post on Truth Social, there was a gigantic spike in oil futures trading with a value of nearly $600 million.
What did these traders know and when did they know it? We can all hazard a pretty good guess. It would surprise no one if it could be proven that Trump was in on this seeming market manipulation scheme. Unfortunately, it can’t. But the suspicion will long remain.
This is unfortunately the man who is our president. He puts financial interests over all else, certainly above country. His loyalty is to greenbacks, yesterday, today, and as long as he lives.
Trump is the wealthiest person to serve as president of the United States as well as the most morally bankrupt. This is a horrifying combination.
When the man who is supposed to be setting an example at the top of your country is solely concerned with reaping maximum benefit from his position, that impacts the citizens who purportedly look to him fore guidance. The way he runs his job influences them to put materialism over personal accountability, as the aim of the nation shifts from public good to private gain.
America is now an empty shell of what it was before Trump got his greedy paws on it. I’m just hoping our democracy can survive this man whose craven instincts and kingly ambitions have served to grievously transform the country into a place we no longer recognize.
Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.