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Trump, Helping Americans or Helping Himself?

Luckyone

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The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution does not allow Presidents to personally gain from their presidencies during their presidential period. Throughout our history, that Clause has been adhered to faithfully by all presidents, until now when Trump has greatly profited from his presidency.

This year alone (2025):

Trump Store launched 168 products to profit off presidential transition period​

The Trump Store launched at least 168 new products online costing $13,803.92 total between Election Day and Inauguration Day, according to a new analysis by CREW. That marks 168 more items sold by a president-elect’s company for personal profit during the presidential transition period than any former president-elect.

A Trump supporter buying one of each of the products sold at Trump's online store, would have paid $36,273

In addition to the online store, Trump has profited from numerous other ventures and merchandise. His 2025 financial disclosures revealed income from various products featuring his name and likeness:
  • Cryptocurrency: Trump's ownership stake in the platform World Liberty Financial earned him over $57.3 million in 2024.
  • NFTs: Licensing and royalties from his digital trading cards brought in over $1.1 million.
  • Sneakers and fragrances: Over $2.5 million was generated from these items.
  • Watches: Sales totaled over $2.8 million.
  • Bibles: The "Greenwood Bible" yielded more than $1.3 million.
  • Guitars: The "45" guitar produced over $1 million.
  • Books: A "Save America" coffee table book generated $3 million.
This is not a presidency where Trump is solely thinking about helping Americans, but thinking about helping himself. Americans are paying for all of this.

One additional thing to criticize Trump for is his hypocrisy in all of this:

This is what Trump has stated clearly to Americans. "Buy American and hire Americans":


and yet here is the Trumps store reality:

Only 15% of the products in the Trump store are made in the US​

There are 268 items for sale on the Trump Organization's online store. Of those, 41 are made in the USA. This means that American products make up exactly 15.29% of Trump's available merchandise.

Is this the man that we can trust has our best interests (first and foremost) in his mind? A man that lies, that cheats, and that scams us?

 
He's running a grift and making tons of money. Could you imagine MAGAs if Obama had done this? They'd explode.

But MAGAs don't care about America, all that matters is Dear Leader and Party. ****ing communists.
 
Luckyone said:
The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution does not allow Presidents to personally gain from their presidencies during their presidential period.
Click to expand...
You're not paying attention. Trump told you the emoluments clause is phony. It's not really in the constitution. Fake news.


 
Trumps already a rich guy, but that makes him a target. He's being sued left and right by the Democrats for all sorts of crazy pointless things. Fighting against the deep state and activist judges, its difficult if not impossible to prevail in court. Unlike lefties who just leave others holding the bag, Trump intends to pay off what he legally owes. Most of his income come from monetizing his name and stature from those more than willing to pay and support him. I can't say I blame him for trying to protect himself.
 
You do know that he is a President, don't you?

Presidents take a vow to help the people he is a leader to, first and foremost and before he helps himself. As such, protection of oneself should be secondary, shouldn't it?

As a simple example............we are fighting an enemy and our leader (who is in charge of protecting us) protects himself first and at the cost of our well-being. Would you want to follow such a leader? Do what he suggests we do?

Oh, and by the way, I just found this:

The "Take Care Clause"

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states that the president "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed". Legal scholars have interpreted this clause, along with the presidential oath, as establishing a public trust relationship, or a fiduciary duty, between the president and the people.
Fiduciary duty and public service

In this context, a fiduciary duty requires a public official to act with due care and solely in the interest of their beneficiaries—the public—and to avoid self-interested actions. This concept is a core component of government ethics, with the understanding that public officials must put the public's interest before their own.
 
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Right... He's the president. Should any president have to put up with he BS & crap he's put up with? Democrats are just a bunch of sore losers who can't win fair and square but are willing to take whatever means possible to reclaim their position that their arrogant egotistic brains tell them that they somehow rightly deserve. You can't fault a person for protecting himself when they are no rules, boundaries or limits that the other side wouldn't sink down to.
 
When a person chooses to run and be president, he has to know (unless he is stupid) that automatically there will be opposition and that they will use anything and everything against him.

What a president has to do is cope with it and have the ability to prove the opposition wrong. Trump has not done either.
 
Ikari said:
He's running a grift and making tons of money. Could you imagine MAGAs if Obama had done this? They'd explode.

But MAGAs don't care about America, all that matters is Dear Leader and Party. ****ing communists.
Click to expand...

Chart shows net worth of US presidents before and after office

Donald Trump was the only president who lost money during his time as president, which was thought to be driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic.
www.newsweek.com
Trump lost money
Clinton made the most 9000% increase.
Obama second, 5300% increase.

They all do it. Clinton and Obama just had tinier bank rolls at the start.
President's set their portfolios up while in office.
They all take advantage and manipulate the system to benefit themselves.
 
Trump is making millions hawking his crypto for access, and that's just the crypto.

It's estimated that he's made billions since his first term.

Ali Velshi: Trump’s family has made $3.4 billion during his time as president, new report finds

Once upon a time, Americans worried about politicians being bought. Under Trump, the most powerful office in the country is now up for sale.
www.msnbc.com

 
Obama's net worth was around 1.3 million before he took office. He is worth around 70 million now. 15 million was from book signings at speeches. How did it increase 370% more in 7 years? 10 million was made just from his books while he was president with advance book signing bonuses. He also has a production company that works with a lot of media outlets. All from relationships nurtured while he was president. Real estate dealings that netted him millions more without taking a single loss on any of the properties.
Trump is being perused on this because he started out with cash unlike Obama and Clinton.
Clinton was actually in debt after his presidency. Now he is worth over 80 million. Kind of the same game plan as Obama's.
The difference being the Republicans were not suing them every time they endorsed something.
Bush's net worth went up doing books and speeches also.
This is an interesting link describing some of the things that Obama endorsed during his presidency. I thought it was interesting that it stated that pretty much any product a president mention is an endorsement.
 
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