The self-enrichment presidency of Donald Trump

[BabaVoss]

The self-enrichment Presidency

During his first presidency, Donald Trump collected millions of dollars of other people’s money. He charged the taxpayer nearly $2 million to protect him during the hundreds of times he visited his own properties. He accepted millions of dollars of campaign-related funds from Republican candidates who sought his favor. His businesses collected at least $13 million from foreign governments over his first term in office.

When it was all over, Trump apparently decided he had been thinking too small. In his first term, he made improper millions. In his second term, he is reaching for billions: a $2 billion investment by a United Arab Emirates state-owned enterprise in the Binance crypto exchange using the Trump family’s stablecoin asset. An unknown number of billions placed by Qatar in a Trump-family real-estate development in that emirate, topped by the gift of a 747 luxury jet for the president’s personal use in office and afterward. Government-approved support for a Trump golf course in Vietnam while its leaders were negotiating with the United States for relief from Trump tariffs. Last week, Trump hosted more than 200 purchasers of his meme coin, many of them apparently foreign nationals, for a private dinner, with no disclosure of the names of those who had paid into his pocket for access to the president’s time and favor.

The Trump Presidency’s World-Historical Heist

He is taking self-enrichment to a scale never seen before in America.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[The Populist Right]

There's enough geriatric members in congress with ample money to retire who could put an end to this administration, but they have the spines of jellyfish.

These are the real villains of this political satire novel we're living in, not the people that voted Trump among other Democrats because they hate the political class.

 

[element94]

It's their Constitutional duty to oppose the criminal whims of Trump. Instead, they are complicit, and thereby just as guilty. The right thing to happen would be each and every one of them being removed, maybe prosecuted, and most definitely barred from future office. It's right there in the U.S. Constitution!

 

[Peacenik]

There's enough geriatric members in congress with ample money to retire who could put an end to this administration, but they have the spines of jellyfish.

These are the real villains of this political satire novel we're living in, not the people that voted Trump among other Democrats because they hate the political class.

No, actually they aren't. Oh, they are on the take, no doubt. And, yes, they are doing favors for the oligarchy that controls our government. But the real villains are the oligarchy which sees fit to spend millions/billions over the years to shape public opinion to resent government and get people to vote for Republicans to 'make it smaller,' which they never do. The deficit and the debt just keep going up and up as the taxes on the rich just keep getting cut, cut cut.

It is amazing after all these years of Republican control that their voters would get it that Republicans never make good on their word to make government smaller, and voting for them to do so is the foolish height of absurdity.

We actually don't need a smaller government. What we need is to tax the rich more to pay for the government we've got. What we need is for government to RepresentUS instead of the oligarchy.

 

[The Populist Right]

No, actually they aren't. Oh, they are on the take, no doubt. And, yes, they are doing favors for the oligarchy that controls our government. But the real villains are the oligarchy which sees fit to spend millions/billions over the years to shape public opinion to resent government and get people to vote for Republicans to 'make it smaller,' which they never do. The deficit and the debt just keep going up and up as the taxes on the rich just keep getting cut, cut cut.

It is amazing after all these years of Republican control that their voters would get it that Republicans never make good on their word to make government smaller, and voting for them to do so is the foolish height of absurdity.

We actually don't need a smaller government. What we need is to tax the rich more to pay for the government we've got. What we need is for government to RepresentUS instead of the oligarchy.

I actually agree with this. Our democracy has been a ticking time bomb since we've auctioned off our elections.

 

[Pyrite]

The self-enrichment Presidency

During his first presidency, Donald Trump collected millions of dollars of other people’s money. He charged the taxpayer nearly $2 million to protect him during the hundreds of times he visited his own properties. He accepted millions of dollars of campaign-related funds from Republican candidates who sought his favor. His businesses collected at least $13 million from foreign governments over his first term in office.

When it was all over, Trump apparently decided he had been thinking too small. In his first term, he made improper millions. In his second term, he is reaching for billions: a $2 billion investment by a United Arab Emirates state-owned enterprise in the Binance crypto exchange using the Trump family’s stablecoin asset. An unknown number of billions placed by Qatar in a Trump-family real-estate development in that emirate, topped by the gift of a 747 luxury jet for the president’s personal use in office and afterward. Government-approved support for a Trump golf course in Vietnam while its leaders were negotiating with the United States for relief from Trump tariffs. Last week, Trump hosted more than 200 purchasers of his meme coin, many of them apparently foreign nationals, for a private dinner, with no disclosure of the names of those who had paid into his pocket for access to the president’s time and favor.

The Trump Presidency’s World-Historical Heist

He is taking self-enrichment to a scale never seen before in America.

www.theatlantic.com

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/business/sec-binance-lawsuit-dropped.html

...Mr. Trump launched the memecoin just days before his inauguration, setting off a flurry of trading. Initially, the coin’s price skyrocketed, before it eventually crashed, costing investors billions of dollars.

The dinner was designed to fuel more sales. The organizers framed it as a contest: The top 220 buyers would dine with Mr. Trump at his golf club, while the top 25 would attend a more intimate gathering with the president before dinner and go on a tour of the White House. (In a quirk, the winners were selected based on the average number of coins they held during the three weeks the contest was held, rather than their total at the end of bidding.)

“We want to be the leader in crypto, we want to be the leader in everything,” Mr. Trump told the top 25 guests on the $TRUMP coins leaderboard, according to a video shared with The Times. “It’s very important to me.”

A business entity tied to the Trumps sits on a large stash of the $TRUMP cryptocurrency and collects fees every time the coins change hands. So far, the coin has generated at least $320 million in fees, which the Trumps share with their business partners, according to Chainalysis, a crypto analytics firm.

Mr. Trump’s oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, largely stayed silent while the $TRUMP memecoin contest played out, even though the company that they help run directly benefits from the sales.

Speaking at a government-sponsored business forum in Qatar, Donald Trump Jr. said this week that the Trump family has decided it should not hesitate to find new ways to profit, rejecting the business limits it voluntarily committed to during President Trump’s first term....

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Using the Presidency - and the WH - to enrich himself.

Nothing hidden about this.

 

[jpn]

I actually agree with this. Our democracy has been a ticking time bomb since we've auctioned off our elections.

We can thank (largely) the conservative Supreme Court and Citizens United for that.

 

[jpn]

“We want to be the leader in crypto, we want to be the leader in everything,” Mr. Trump told the top 25 guests on the $TRUMP coins leaderboard, according to a video shared with The Times. “It’s very important to me.”

Why? "Stablecoins" are a good example of what crypto is good for.

Stablecoins are privately issued tokens that are supposedly backed by dollars.

So why not just use dollars instead of tokens that are supposedly backed by dollars?

Because the ownership and disposition of stablecoins, unlike the ownership and distribution of bank deposits, is anonymous. This is a highly valuable feature for those who want to engage in money laundering, extortion, purchase of illegal drugs, and so on.

In other words, the only economic reason for crypto in general and stablecoins in particular is to facilitate criminal activity--or make unreportable and untraceable donations to grifting politicians in return for political favors.