Donald Trump and his family are profiting off the presidency.
This is something we’ve heard over and over since Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017. But I’ve heard it more than most — my organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has spent countless hours tracking and calculating those profits. At the end of Trump’s first term, CREW calculated that Trump made more than $1.6 billion in outside revenue and income during his four years as president. Recently, however, The New Yorker staff writer David D. Kirkpatrick tallied up a new number, encompassing ventures from both Trump’s first and second terms: $3.4 billion.
That is an astounding amount without any historical equivalent. But at the same time, it’s a new Trump normal. Of course he’s using his public office for private gain. Of course he’s launched another business venture. Don’t presidents get rich all the time? What’s the big deal?
The fact is, while this may feel like a new normal, nothing about it is normal, and it’s a real problem worthy of the American people’s attention.
Indeed, anything that smacks of presidential profiteering has always struck the American public as a big deal, regardless of the person or party in office. We want to trust that our leaders are working in our best interests, not using a position of trust to line their own pockets.
After leaving office in 2001, Bill Clinton signed a “record book deal” for $10 million, which would amount to approximately $18.5 million today. Hillary Clinton received an $8 million advance for her book about being first lady, which drew particular conflicts of interest concerns, as she had just been elected to the Senate. As a New York Times editorial from the time remarked: “It would have been far better if she had avoided this entanglement. As she above all others should know, not every deal that is legally permissible is smart for a politic[i]an who wants and needs to inspire public trust.”
When a book published in 2007 reported that then-President George W. Bush wanted to hop on the speaker circuit after his time in office to “replenish the ol’ coffers,” critics reportedly accused him “of venality, greed and capitalizing on his presidency in a time of war.”
Barack Obama’s book profits also made headlines. His jump in household income from $1 million to $4 million was considered “substantial” in 2008. Upon leaving office, he and former first lady Michelle Obama signed a book deal that included a $65 million joint advance. Trump, perhaps in an attempt to distract from investigations into his own misconduct, called for an investigation into that book deal in 2019. Barack Obama also received criticism from both sides of the aisle for taking a $400,000 Wall Street speaking engagement after leaving office.
There are a couple of reasons Trump’s profiteering is so different from these past incidents. Historically, former presidents and presidential candidates voluntarily released their tax returns prior to and while serving in office. This gave the public a window into their wealth and clearly showed how their net worth changed after they left office. Trump infamously has refused to release his tax returns, leaving the public in the dark.
Second, past presidents and their families largely made money after leaving office, not while they served. Presidents have routinely divested from business interests when they’ve taken office; only Trump maintained ownership of a large international company while serving, although he handed over daily management to his sons. And he has started his second term by not just holding on to, but by growing his business empire, including the publicly traded social media company, cryptocurrency venture, and new international developments.
CREW maintains this means that Trump is very likely violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses — key anti-corruption clauses in our founding document, the Constitution —as he did in his first term. (The Department of Justice defended his behavior during his administration by arguing for a much narrower interpretation of the clause; The Supreme Court has also declined to hear several cases on the issue.) It also means that he is regularly in business with, and benefiting from, those who may want to influence his decision-making as president, from a fund tied to the United Arab Emirates entering into a lucrative crypto transaction that will benefit him, to a Saudi-backed golf league holding tournaments at his properties, to wealthy investors with clear policy interests buying his meme coin and attending an exclusive dinner with him.
And of course, the scale is vastly different from anything this country has ever seen before: Tens of millions of dollars in book deals is enormous, but billions of dollars in profit is truly staggering, and Trump seems to just be getting started. We cannot get so used to his constant, growing corruption that even profits of this gargantuan scale from the presidency stop seeming outrageous.
The dizzying amount of scandals and unethical behavior coming from the second Trump administration can make even a $3.4 billion profit feel like a drop of water in the ocean. But this kind of profiteering is changing the conception of what the office of presidency even is. No longer a public servant, its current occupant is a salesman, focused on enriching himself and his family. That is — and has to be – unacceptable, and Americans must continue to speak out against it.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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