No American President ever leveraged their Presidency to enrich themselves. Then along came Trump and he made $3.4 billion from his time in the White House. He’s the only President who entered office with international businesses that’s given him the opportunity to bargain American interests away for personal profit. Shamefully, his obedient Republicans and even the Supreme Court refused to stop him.
The Constitution forbids federal officials from receiving any profit or benefit from a foreign government without Congressional consent (known as emoluments) which Trump never got.
Foreign government officials have realized they can win concessions from Trump by flattering him, spending money at his properties and promoting them in their countries.
- Trump chose Trump Towers in Istanbul and a $400 million Turkish investment over America’s security. He withdrew our troops from Syria against military advice, giving his idol Turkish President Erdoğan what he always wanted — to annihilate the Kurds. Trump did it even the Kurds fought along with American soldiers to defeat ISIS. And add that Turkish officials patronized Trump properties more than any other officials.
- When Trump lifted a bipartisan Congressional ban against selling parts to Chinese telecommunications company ZTE for spying, China awarded Ivanka Trump seven trademarks and loaned $500 million to an Indonesian resort featuring Trump-branded properties.
- The Kuwaiti embassy canceled its National Day celebration at the Four Seasons and switched to the Trump International Hotel under pressure from Trump.
- Trump bragged how the Saudis paid his businesses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Then, against bipartisan demand, Trump refused to punish Saudi Arabia or its Crown Prince for the murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
- Trump also vetoed an act of Congress blocking an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, and proceeded to make the sale. Citing hundreds of millions of dollars the Saudi’s paid his businesses, Trump asked mockingly, “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
- Trump Accepted a $50,000 donation to his inauguration committee from a Ukrainian oligarch.
In another first for an American President, Trump was convicted or indicted of multiple felonies and settled several civil fraud cases:
- A jury convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star.
- He was indicted for mishandling classified documents, which was appealed then dropped after Trump won the 2020 election.
- Found guilty of massive insurance and bank fraud for inflating and understating asset values for years.
- Trump’s company was found guilty of a long-running criminal tax fraud scheme that lasted into his presidency.
- He was found guilty of charitable foundation fraud, involving 19 personal misuses of foundation funds;
- Trump was found guilty and fined $10 million for money laundering from his Taj Mahal Casino;
- He was indicted on 10 charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
- Trump swindled small donors out of $200 million. They were told their contributions would be used to overturn the 2020 election, but he used the money for his personal expenses and campaigns.
Consistent with the Supreme Court’s pattern of delaying cases against Trump, it waited to act on two emolument cases until after Trump’s inauguration, and then vacated the 2nd Circuit’s ruling with instructions to dismiss the cases.
Now Trump wants to clear the way for more corruption, fraud and self-enrichment. He’s eliminating anti-corruption guardrails to create the perfect environment for more graft, and influence-peddling.
