The 'New Deal' of grift: Trump sets standard for presidential self-enrichment
Qatari plane and crypto auction highlight a precedent-smashing presidency, historians say
There's a reason Franklin D. Roosevelt's portrait still hangs in the Oval Office, even under Donald Trump, despite his being a Democrat. FDR set the standard for a prolific presidency.
Trump hasn't actually signed any transformative laws in his first 100 days, like Roosevelt did. But Trump has surpassed all presidential standards in one area: He's the FDR of grift.
A pair of events just this week underscore the extent to which Trump has turned the U.S. presidency into an unprecedented engine of self-enrichment.
There's the half-billion dollar plane from Qatar he insists he'll never actually use for personal reasons, though it will go to his presidential museum.
Then there's the more than $100 million auction for his family's cryptocurrency, where a group of mostly non-Americans won a private audience with Trump.
These and multiple other actions make a mockery of precedent, including the Constitution's emoluments clause against foreign gifts.
Other presidential families have engaged in shady hustles, from Jimmy Carter's brother hawking a beer brand and taking a Libyan loan, to Hunter Biden's lobbying and hefty art commissions, to Bill Clinton letting campaign donors use the White House's Lincoln bedroom.
But this? To torture the moniker of FDR's signature program, this is New Deal-level grifting.
This is more brazen, more frequent, with more zeros attached than the sums involved in past presidential cash scandals, says one presidential scholar.
"It's just off the charts. No other president has done anything like this," said James Pfiffner, a presidential expert at George Mason University.
Another presidential historian expresses fear that people are so cynical about politics they believe Trump's behaviour is normal — Everyone does it, right?
No, says Barbara Perry, this is not normal.
"My take? This administration is on the take," said Perry, co-chair of the presidential oral history program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
"I don't think I'm exaggerating. I would say if you added all the previous corruption of all [past presidents]… Trump, individually, surpasses them all. Especially if the plane deal with Qatar goes through. But even prior to that."
Trump has said he'd be "stupid" to refuse such a valuable gift and insists this is a gift to the nation. His plan is to use the plane while in office — the current Air Force One over 30 years old and its replacement behind schedule.
What's the plan with the plane?
Then, he says, he'll have the plane decommissioned and added as an attraction at his presidential museum, like the old Air Force One at Ronald Reagan's.
But this defies logic, says one government ethics watchdog. This jet might not be ready for years, perhaps not until after Trump leaves office, according to Jordan Libowitz, vice-president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The Boeing plane needs to be stripped bare, scoured for bugs and other security risks, then renovated to accommodate a flying White House.
The arrangement also raises disturbing ethical questions, Libowitz says.
"No country gives a half-billion dollar gift to the head of another country out of the kindness of its heart. It clearly wants something. And the question is: What does it think it's going to get?" he said.
The plane is just the most vivid example, Libowitz says.
Just this week members of Trump's family profited off an auction where the prizes are dinner and a private event with him.
The largest buyers of a cryptocurrency controlled by the Trump family were promised exclusive access to the president.
A group of two dozen people, mainly foreigners, bought their way into a reception with Trump; about 200 others will attend a dinner with him next week.
A small commission from an estimated $148 million in $TRUMP coin purchases went to the family. The contest helped boost the price of the digital currency when it was announced in late April.
A cryptocurrency researcher likens this to a bribe — of the Trump family.
"Frankly, I find it shocking, and totally unethical," said Kevin Werbach, a digital-assets expert at Trump's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who once served on Barack Obama's presidential transition team.
"For any other president [this] would have been grounds for impeachment."
There have been other money-making enterprises.
Trump's inaugural committee has smashed records by amassing $239 million, far more than the event cost. It's not clear where the remaining funds are going.
Democrats had already urged a police probe into $2 billion handed from Saudi Arabia to Jared Kushner's investment firm, despite the presidential son-in-law having no experience in private equity.
The president's sons have a string of Middle East real-estate investments where governments are involved. Family properties in Florida and New Jersey have also received millions in taxpayer funds from White House delegations' regular weekend travels there.
Guardrails? Probably none
Could there be legal consequences for any of this? Don't hold your breath, ethics experts say, for at least three reasons.
For starters, conflict-of-interest laws don't apply to the president. Also, bribery law requires a quid pro quo — a clear benefit in return. Further, the Supreme Court has granted presidents near-total legal immunity for acts connected to the presidency.
As for the political penalty, impeachment, the mere idea of a charge, let alone an ouster from office, is laughable with a Republican Congress.
Even normally pliant Republicans, however, are voicing unease with the Qatari plane gift. Not that they'll dare even utter the word "impeachment."
When the country's founders wrote the Constitution, they had certain fears. Like a president being corrupted by foreigners, or a president behaving lawlessly.
They included remedies in the Constitution: the emoluments clause on foreign entanglements, and the impeachment clause.
"They just did not foresee political parties," Pfiffner said.
There have been other self-enrichment scandals involving presidents and their families.
George W. Bush's brother Neil got $2 million worth of stock from a Chinese chip company connected to the son of a former Chinese president.
Lyndon Johnson enjoyed a multimillion-dollar broadcast business during his time in politics, benefiting from federal licensing decisions.
And the U.S. government spent a little over $700,000 on improvements to Richard Nixon's California estate, including a $6,600 gazebo. The Secret Service said it conducted renovations for security reasons.
But "that's nothing compared to Trump," Pfiffner said.
"Nixon was a piker… It's trivial, minor stuff. Trump seems to be maxing out — doing all that he can to help him and his family personally," he said. "It's different in kind, as well as different in scope."
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