The New York Times notes that the president was doubled-booked this weekend (“Trump Family’s Cash Registers Ring as Financial Meltdown Plays Out”). All quotations (apart from Trump’s Truth Social account) are from the NYT :
“The Trump family monetization weekend” featured:
At the Trump National Doral resort:
- a Saudi Arabian backed LIV golf tournament (the fourth LIV tourney at Trump’s course), which feature all-day parties with food, music, wine and beer
- a full house at Trump’s 643-room hotel (featuring suites at up to $13,000 a night and a stakehouse bar with $130 porterhouse steaks)
- an American Patriots Gala fundraiser
- three merchandise shops, hawking $3 Sharpies (similar to the one Trump uses to sign his executive orders) and “everything from a $550 Trump-branded crystal-studded purse to $18 Doral-branded paperweights made in China”
At Mar-a-Lago:
Another in a series of $1,000,000-a-head dinners, benefiting Trump’s MAGA, Inc. (“as corporate interests and others seek to get access to the president or make amends for perceived slights”). The program goes like this:
Roughly 20 people gather around a candlelit table with big white flowers in the club’s “White and Gold Room” after a photo session. Mr. Trump speaks, then listens to the guests discuss their businesses, one by one. In just an hour or two, he can raise as much as $20 million — a great return on his time investment, associates say.
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” the president proclaimed on Truth Social.
Grifts Я Us
What is undeniable is the golden opportunity for corruption. The power to enact tariffs is in the hands of a single man who always has his hand out — a man who has shown himself to be influenced by flattery and tribute, and willing to exact retribution against anyone who defies him. Whatever the impact of tariffs, it is abundantly clear that the million-dollar dinners invite what is indistinguishable from bribery. Easy money.
Congress has granted the power to impose tariffs on the president. The Supreme Court that has made the president virtually immune from prosecution for criminal activity. So much for checks and balances. This is a setup for the perfect grift at the highest level of government.
And regarding the world economy, Trump’s infliction of global pain provides a compelling incentive for the powerful who can pay him protection money. How convenient. Trump re-posted this message on Truth Social: “Trump is Purposely CRASHING The Market.”
Don’t miss previous posts on Trump’s cashing in on the presidency (which began even before he was sworn-in for his second term):
- Donald Trump’s Christmas message, a second look (December 22)
- Billionaires, corporations, lobbyists, et al. offer tribute to incoming president (January 6)
- Transactional Trump continues to set records for raking in money (January 19)
- Trump meme coin is “the most brazen act of corruption of the modern presidency” (February 21)