The incoming US president Donald Trump has hit the jackpot. And not just because, come January, he will again be the leader of the free world and one of the most powerful men on the planet. But because he is nothing if not wholly self-interested, retaking the White House gives him all new opportunities for self-dealing and self-enrichment.
Trump’s first term was a financial boondoggle for the nation, and a boon for him. His companies made $160m from foreign governments that may have been looking to gain favour after he refused to divest from his businesses; his golf courses in the UK alone reportedly grossed his businesses by $58m (“Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world,” he tweeted about his Trump International Scotland course in May 2019. “Also, furthers U.K. relationship!”). The Qataris spent $6.5m on an apartment in Trump World Tower. The Saudis, he told a crowd of supporters in 2015, “buy apartments from me. They spend $40m, $50m… Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” True to his word, Trump has continued cultivating ties with Saudi Arabia, despite the country’s involvement in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Earlier this month, just weeks before he takes office, the Trump Organization signed a new property deal with the kingdom, which has an abysmal human rights record.
Trump spent one of every three days of his first three years in office at one of his own properties – and US taxpayers footed the bill for Secret Service to come along not just for the president but for his family members as well, paying well over $1m to Trump properties (the Trump Organization also allegedly over-charged the Secret Service, billing as much as $1,185 per room per night, according to a House Oversight Committee report). Special interest groups hosted more than 140 events at his properties across his presidency, and 144 members of Congress visited one.
Trump’s self-enriching first term may be a test drive for his second. Since departing the White House, he has only expanded his businesses. He has a social media network and a cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. He sells Trump-branded trainers, watches and perfume (“A FRAGRANCE YOUR ENEMIES CAN’T RESIST!”). He’s hawking Trump-branded Bibles.
When he is sworn into office next month, he will have unprecedented opportunities to maximise profits. There will be his well-established pay-to-play strategy – he’s looking into reopening the Trump hotel in DC, for example, which was shuttered after his first term, once Republican lobbyists, politicians, business leaders and foreign dignitaries no longer had any reason to stay there; there seems little doubt that those actors will once again spend their time and money during Trump’s presidency at Trump properties. He is highly susceptible to flattery, and any foreign leader looking to get or stay on Trump’s good side can simply spend their money on Trump goods and at Trump businesses, and lavish him with praise.
Trump has so far refused to clarify how, or if, he would divest from his business holdings and put his finances in a blind trust. This is a big ethical red flag – other presidents have divested from their business ventures and turned over their financial lives to others so that they wouldn’t be tempted to put their own interests above those of the nation. Trump has no such concern: he is arguably president because he put his own interests ahead of those of the nation. And he’s acting accordingly: picking cabinet members, for example, who will likely do his bidding – whether that’s going after his political enemies or helping him and his family get richer. For example, Trump has selected a cryptocurrency proponent to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency with the power to regulate crypto; Trump, who owns a cryptocurrency business, also recently announced that he will implement a Bitcoin reserve, which sent Bitcoin prices skyrocketing. Trump’s partner in World Liberty Financial is the billionaire Steve Witkoff, who Trump has said will be his Middle East envoy, and who recently spoke at a cryptocurrency conference in Abu Dhabi.
These proposed appointments are typical of a man who considers the government as working for him, instead of something that works for the people. Trump’s picks could serve his interests in a host of ways. A Federal Communications Commission head could target media outlets that are critical of Trump, or social media outlets that compete with his platform, Truth Social. Pro-Trump heads of national security, the CIA, and other agencies could look the other way as Trump compromises American interests and defences in an effort to turn a profit from potentially compromised entities in other countries and foreign governments.
At the same time, Trump and those around him have been transparent about their plans to gut the federal bureaucracy by pushing out many career employees who carry over from administration to administration and replace them with loyalists – people who won’t stand in Trump’s way, whether he’s using the Justice Department for political revenge or using the rest of the government to enrich himself or gain business advantages. The goal is to push out people who might say no to Trump’s most dangerous ideas.
America’s global reputation has already been cheapened by a second Trump term. And the president-elect seems willing and troublingly able to sell America out for cheap – as long as he enjoys the windfall.
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