Pay Me
Trump is exploiting the Presidency with relentless consistency. Just look.
When I host “1A” Friday news roundup show on NPR I try to end most hours flagging for listeners the latest way Donald Trump is advertising open corruption at the White House. Usually it’s the last thing they hear before I thank the guests, because I want it to stick. For all of the chaos, dishonesty, and rights violations, profiting directly off a position of public trust is one of the worst betrayals an elected official can commit. Whether or not the president’s party or his voters “care” has no bearing on its urgency. “Conflict of interest” is uttered so often that its gravity tends to get lost. If the President of the United States is making money directly from his office or influence, how can we who rely on him for our safety and our prospects know that he’s making decisions in the national interest, and not his own?
It’s such a basic idea that typing it out feels like compiling the syllabus for the first week of what was once known as a high school civics course. But it’s important. And conflict of interest is one of the most fundamental stories political journalism can, and must, tell.
You’ve likely already heard about many or most of the conflicts and invitations to corruption Trump has spawned in just the first four months of his second term. But even if you “know” the ways Trump is getting rich off of our White House, news reaches us piecemeal. When a novel cash-funneling scheme for Trump or his family or is friends surfaces, the outrages of just a few days ago get crowded out.
So here’s everything, all at once, together, in no special order. The scope is mind blowing, and tragic:
CBS lawsuit - I put this one first because I sense it’s flying under the radar. Trump is demanding $25 million and an apology to settle his private lawsuit against Paramount over a 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview he considered unfairly edited during the 2024 campaign. Paramount, which owns CBS News, offered $15 million, which Trump rejected this week. But $15 million and journalistic integrity isn’t what’s at stake for Paramount. They have an $8 billion merger deal pending before the Trump Administration. Paramount executives have even been warned that settling with the President of the United States before the merger deal is done could expose them to potential bribery charges. That’s right: A corporation controlling one of America’s largest news networks understands that the president could kill its financial prospects if it doesn’t capitulate and pay up to him personally.
World Liberty Financial - Trump and the Trump Org. are 60% partners in this crypto-brokerage business. Early on in their investment, Justin Sun, a Chinese national under an SEC fraud investigation, poured $30 million in token purchases into World Liberty, an estimated $18 million of which went directly to the Trump family, and the president. The SEC, which answers to Trump, then suspended its investigation. Sun’s total investment has since been upped to around $75 million. World Liberty was also the place where a UAE-backed fund purchased $2 billion in stablecoins to invest in Binance. Trump will earn tens of millions per year in interest on the $2 billion in addition to millions in transaction fees for the original purchase…all courtesy of the royal family of the a Middle-Eastern government. Trump is also in charge of enforcing (or not enforcing) regulations on the crypto industry, as well as holding the keys to whether new crypto rules become law.
$TRUMP - Donald Trump launched his personal memecoin just before taking office. It’s not clear how much he owns. Last month the group the runs the coin offered a private dinner with the president to top 220 holders. The top 25 got a VIP White House tour. Attendees spent a total of $148 million to attend the dinner, hosted at Trump’s private club in Virginia. Incidentally, Justin Sun, who had been avoiding travel to the US for fear of arrest, bought $20 million worth of the $TRUMP memecoin and showed up without fear to attend the dinner.
$MELANIA - First Lady Melania Trump has her own memecoin, with a current market cap of $203 million. And speaking of the First Lady…
Amazon - Disney bid $14 million for the rights to Melania’s autobiographical documentary film. Then Jeff Bezos’ Amazon swooped in an paid $40 million. Melania nets an estimated $28 million from the deal. Amazon is embroiled in a massive antitrust suit with the Federal Trade Commission and has billions in government contracts.
Trump Media & Technology - Trump is the majority shareholder in the company that controls Truth Social. It’s publicly traded, meaning any individual or entity wishing to increase his net worth need only buy stock. Alternatively, anyone wishing to leverage Trump could threaten to sell shares. This week the company announced a $2.5 billion Bitcoin buy. As tariffs, trade wars and $3 trillion in new debt in the GOP reconciliation bill weaken the dollar, that’s a potential upside for Bitcoin. That means Trump increasingly stands to gain personally from the policies he’s pushing that weaken the dollar’s standing as the world’s reserve currency.
Tariffs and the Trump Org. - Trump still makes money IRL. His sons are busy negotiating development deals—some worth billions—in countries looking for ways out of Trump’s tariffs. Pressure to avoid 27% tariffs and the “personal attention” of President Trump spurred the Vietnamese government to “break its own laws” and fast-track a $1.5 billion Trump golf and resort deal earlier this month. Other Trump real estate deals are going ahead in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Starlink - US trade officials are also pushing countries negotiating on tariffs to buy contracts with Elon Musk’s satellite internet company. Starlink has secured deals in India, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Lesotho and Vietnam. Musk spent $280 million on Trump’s 2024 election.
Qatari jet - Who can forget Trump’s $400 million gift jet courtesy of the Qatari royal family? Even GOP lawmakers couldn’t hold back their discomfort with the gift to the Defense Dept, to be later transferred for Trump’s personal use at his presidential library foundation. After expressing discomfort, they’ve done nothing about it.
Executive Branch - If you pay Don Jr. and his partners $500,000 you can get into the posh club they’re launching in DC’s Georgetown. For the payment you get access to a place meant to “cater to the business and tech moguls who are looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration.”
Trump properties - This one seems almost quaint at this point, and it’s worth millions. Donald Trump continues to profit directly from every event and presidential visit to one of his properties. That includes the crypto dinner in Virginia, which paid Trump for hosting the event for a memecoin where investors also paid him. Trump charged the US Secret Service nearly $2 million in his first term alone just to accommodate personnel at Mar-a-Lago.
Pardons - Trump issued more than two dozen pardons and commutations this week to a legion of admitted fraudsters, tax cheats and thieves. There’s no direct evidence I’m aware of that he’s been paid money for them. BUT a sordid cottage industry sprang up in Trump’s first term where cronies charged clients tens of thousands of dollars to lobby Trump for pardons. Former CIA officer and convicted felon John Kiriakou claimed Rudy Giuliani asked for $2 million. How much money, if any, was kicked up to Trump is unknown. This week Trump pardoned tax cheat Paul Walczak after his mother touted her political support and spent $1 million to attend a Trump fundraiser…at Mar-a-Lago (meaning Trump personally made money on the dinner itself.) But, worse than in the first term, supplicants, applicants and everyone else are now aware that all they need do to increase the president’s net worth is buy stock in Trump Media. If more anonymity is desired, purchase $TRUMP. No one need ever know except them, the boss, and the blockchain.
Did I forget anything? Hold onto this list and look at it once in a while. Its sheer size—and the variety and consistency of self-dealing it represents—are critical reminder of what’s at stake for for journalism, for democracy, and for all of us.
At some point we are going to find out what he got in exchange for pardoning PG Sittenfeld, the former corrupt Cincinnati city council member, who is a Democrat.
This one's bizarre because Sittenfeld is a Dem, and Cincinnati city council seems like small potatoes.
His case was headed for the supreme Court. Is Trump pardoning him to bail out the court from having to make some kind of uncomfortable decision? I don't get it...
Thank you Todd. I think in additional to the things which are named we have to add the brokerage/transactions fees we don't know about. I will hold onto this list. Comprehensive. In an aside I was thinking about June 14. In Chicago, Pope Leo, in D.C. trump[ Saruman and Gandalf; God and the Devil -- Every Good vs Evil Energy, battling it out on our soil.