'Theft and destruction': Trump's escalating self-dealing exposed in new report

16 June

Donald Trump

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump insisted that if he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he would maintain a strict separation between his business activities and the White House. And one of MAGA Republicans' talking points is that Trump cares so deeply about the United States that he was willing to step away from his business, put his son Eric Trump in charge of the Trump Organization, and take a hit financially in order to be president and "make American great again."

But in fact, President Trump's net worth has increased substantially since 2016 and continues to increase. Trump, according to his critics, is monetizing his presidency in a wide range of ways,

In an article published on June 16, The Guardian's Ed Pilkington stresses that Trump has even more conflicts of interest during his second presidency than he did during his first.

"Trump signaled that he would be a president like no other at the start of his first term, when he became the only occupant of the Oval Office in modern times to refuse to divest his assets by putting them into a blind trust," Pilkington explains. "Though presidents are not bound by conflict-of-interest laws applying to other elected officials, the norm has been for incumbents to set themselves high standards, the archetype being Jimmy Carter's sale of his peanut farm. Trump, by contrast, put his assets in a trust that remained under the control of his family, with him as its sole beneficiary."

The Guardian reporter continues, "He incurred numerous accusations of first-term conflicts of interest, as foreign officials from 20 countries descended on his hotels, while Secret Service agents in Trump’s security detail were made to pay premium rates, pouring at least $10m into his bank account. Such unprecedented disregard for time-honored ethical boundaries was shocking at the time. Now, it looks merely quaint."

During his second term, Pilkington notes, Trump has monetized his presidency with everything from promoting Tesla vehicles to receiving a jet as a gift from the Qatari government.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) told The Guardian that Trump is operating a "pay-for-play presidency." And Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, laments that Trump and his allies "have mastered the technique of flooding the zone" by "doing so much so fast that they are overwhelming the ability of ethics groups and institutions to respond."

Clark told The Guardian, "People talk about 'guardrails' and 'norms' and 'conflict of interest,' which is all very relevant. But this is theft and destruction. This is the looting of America."

Read Ed Pilkington's full article for The Guardian at this link.

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