How Donald Trump profits from White House deals during second term
He will forever be linked with the 'Teapot Dome' scandal in Wyoming. Harding and several members of his cabinet enriched themselves by hundreds of thousands of dollars (many more millions in today's money) when state lands were leased to private oil companies in return for gifts and kickbacks.
In the century since Harding died, cashing in on the presidency to accumulate riches has never really been a thing. Donald Trump is changing all of that. The sins of previous presidents have generally been committed in secret, away from prying eyes. In contrast, the riches are being assembled by Trump and his offspring in plain sight.
Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, said Trump was showing a different side in his second incarnation as President, saying he 'now feels liberated to wear his corruption on his sleeve'.
At no time has this been more evident than in last week's visit to the Middle East. Diplomacy was part of the rhetoric with his promotion of Saudi Arabia and Syria joining the Abraham Accords – the recognition and trade deals between Israel, the UAE and Morocco.
The business of the U.S. has been at the forefront of the agreements reached, with $600billion of deals signed in Saudi Arabia alone, including a ground breaking AI deal for America's computer chip champion Nvidia. In parallel, the president's 'Dragons' Den' has been in overdrive.
The pact making the headlines is Qatar's offer to gift the presidency a $400m jumbo jet inspected by Trump at Palm Beach in the weeks after the January inauguration. Much of the gilding, a key element in all of Trump's properties, is already in place.
The president is seeking to skip around rules on gifts by arguing the plane is a loan until it becomes a heritage gift to his presidential 'library' after he leaves office.
The precedent cited is a retired version of Air Force One, which is on loan from the US military. It is on permanent display in the Ronald Reagan Library, where it is a star attraction. If Ronnie was entitled, why not the 47th president?
Less in the public eye are his sons Donald Jr and Eric, who have secured their own Middle East deals. A luxury Trump-branded hotel is scheduled for Dubai. A high-end residential tower is to be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and a golf course and villa complex is to be constructed in Qatar.
Son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was instrumental in forging the Abraham Accords, and his wife Ivanka have secured $3.5billion of investments in a new private equity fund from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
Luxury hotels, real estate and golf courses are at the core of the Trump family businesses and are a slow burn as they take time to come to fruition. Trump and his family's adventures in cryptocurrency offer a faster payoff. Trump made no secret of his determination to bring crypto into the mainstream of finance before he took office.
He rid Wall Street of Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler, who was keeping approvals for cryptocurrencies at bay. And he has disbanded the unit at the U.S. Justice Department bringing prosecutions against crypto cheats and firms shielding terrorist finance. Crypto legislation making its way through Congress is less about protecting consumers and more about approving the Wild West of crypto traders, miners and exchanges.
Crypto is the gift which keeps on giving for the President and his family. American Bitcoin, a crypto miner backed by his sons Eric and Donald Jr, is heading for a multi-billion dollar Nasdaq listing.
Another scion of the administration, Brandon Lutnick, son of the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has said he is forming his own Bitcoin acquisition vehicle. It has garnered support from tech investors Softbank and Tether.
Trump's family have also struck crypto gold by attaching their names to pseudo-currencies. A group of traders allegedly scooped $100million by buying Melania Trump's branded crypto in the days before public disclosure. One of the attractions for crypto investors is the use of anonymous wallets, which make transactions hard to trace. It has become a favored source of cash for money laundering and terrorist financing.
There has been no suggestion that Trump or any of his family are engaged in such nefarious action. But there is recognition that crypto mining, exchanges, market-making and trading have proved a shortcut to wealth accumulation.
A tame Republican-controlled Congress and defanged US Justice Department mean that so far, many of Trump's activities, which in the past might have been considered scandalous, have passed by unchecked.
Monetizing the Trump family property and crypto fortunes is proving to be a leitmotif of the president's second term in office.
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