Remember when conflicts of interest, apparent and actual, mattered? Remember when being the president of the United States was considered an act of patriotic service not a business opportunity? That time in American history has passed. Donald Trump is the president, and along with hollowing out American norms, institutions, and reality, he is going to make money from being president. He is making money from being president. Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has dubbed the “Winter White House,” doubled its membership fee to $200,000 just days after the inauguration. And that’s surely just the surface of the profiteering—shameless chump change compared with bigger, darker moves that have been hinted at by friends and family.
Trump—and his team of lawyers, financiers, and apologists, of course—will point to stacks of paper and the fact that he appears to no longer be in control of the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization as evidence that all is well. But, as a front-page story in the New York Times on Saturday outlines, Trump is still closely tied to his business interests; he still profits from them, and he still has ultimate control over them:
While the president says he has walked away from the day-to-day operations of his business, two people close to him are the named trustees and have broad legal authority over his assets: his eldest son, Donald Jr., and Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer. Mr. Trump, who will receive reports on any profit, or loss, on his company as a whole, can revoke their authority at any time. What’s more, the purpose of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust is to hold assets for the “exclusive benefit” of the president. This trust remains under Mr. Trump’s Social Security number, at least as far as federal taxes are concerned. …
The Trump Organization, which is privately held, has also released a list of 488 Trump companies that Mr. Trump has held positions at, saying he resigned from all of them. Public records show that he has severed ties from some of these entities.
So let’s just be clear about what’s happening here: Donald Trump, temporary president of the United States, is still a businessman.
