The Con Man’s Coffers: Trump’s Unfettered Leveraging of Government Power to Reap Personal Profits Soars Yet Again

Elections & Politics #143 | By: Nicholas Gordon | February 9, 2025

Featured Photo By: news.berkeley.edu

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Inked deals for new Trump-branded properties overseas, increased stock sales to foreign investors in the Trump Organization’s media and cryptocurrency sectors, business partnerships with companies funded by foreign governments – all of these actions by a sitting U.S. president signify an unprecedented leveraging of presidential power for personal profit, and they’re all in a day’s work for President Donald Trump.

With the Trump Organization’s recent release of a so-called voluntary ethics agreement bluntly stating that the organization will continue to make deals with private foreign companies—which is a further desecration of the unethical “ethics agreement” of Trump’s first term—government watchdog groups say that foreign leaders could buy influence with the new administration, exacerbating Trump’s historical corruption. By failing to divest while pursuing new business opportunities overseas, Trump could compromise national security, letting his own financial interests shape his foreign policy decisions. 

Analysis

President Trump is once again flagrantly violating his ethical obligations to serve the best interests of the American people in favor of gaining profit for his family business. The man who once campaigned on the slogan to “drain the swamp” of wealthy D.C. insiders and backscratchers has instead refashioned the swamp to his advantage, using his properties as transactional meeting points during his first administration, and flooding his rotten swamp with billionaire cronies and groveling loyalists at the start of his second term.

Heading into his first presidential term, Trump faked a pledge to divest from his business empire by claiming to have placed his business holdings in a trust overseen by his son, Eric Trump. In actuality President Trump remained the sole beneficiary, earning a reported $2.4 billion from multiple ventures, including charging government officials and members of the U.S Secret Service exorbitant fees to stay at his properties.

Now, newly emboldened at the start of his second term by the Supreme Court ruling of Presidential immunity and by having Republican control of congress—not to mention by facing zero accountability for taking over $13 million in payments from foreign governments in his first term—Trump is mixing his family business and government power with absolute disregard for  presidential conflicts of interest.

To Name But a Few Examples

The Trump Organization has new deals in the works for hotels and golf resorts in India, Indonesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam, and is pursuing potential projects in Israel. Eric Trump is close business partners with the Saudi Arabia-based real estate company Dar Al Arkan, which is directly connected to the Saudi royal family.

The Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the social media platform Truth Social, and a new cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, has publicly traded stock coveted by foreign investors. Steve Witkoff, who is in business with Trump’s World Liberty Financial, currently serves as Trump’s Middle East envoy. Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump Media, now serves as the Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.  

At a recent press conference, Trump said that DAMAC Properties—a Dubai-based real estate firm partnered with the Trump Organization on a Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East—will invest billions of dollars to build data centers in the U.S. with support from the federal government.

The conflicts of interest list goes on. Though due to Trump’s obstruction and lack of transparency, including his refusal to release his tax returns, all of which is abetted by his allies, the American public is left in the dark regarding the full extent of the ways Trump is capitalizing on his presidency.

None of this amplified wanton blending of Trump’s executive office of the Presidency with his personal financial interests should come as a surprise, however.

In his first term, Trump severely violated the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses which states that federal government officials cannot receive profits from foreign governments, or from the federal government itself, beyond their standard government salary.

On Inauguration Day for his second term, Trump rescinded former President Biden’s ethics requirements for government officials and did not issue a new ethics pledge in its place for political appointees joining his administration to sign, a standard practice for incoming presidents. Trump no more expects his staff to abide by conflict of interest protocols ensuring ethical standards for their work while holding public office or in government agencies than he expects of himself.

Engagement Resources:

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
  • Through investigations, legal actions, and innovative policy reform, CREW works to ensure Americans have an ethical democracy that is transparent and accountable. 
• Campaign Legal Center
  • A nonprofit that monitors ethical violations committed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers and candidates.
• Open Secrets
  • A nonpartisan, nonprofit whose mission is to “serve as the trusted authority on money in American politics” by providing accurate data, analysis, and tools for policymakers and citizens.

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