The Trump family is the grift that keeps on grifting.
Case in point: Former first lady Melania Trump shilled gold necklaces on X Wednesday, joining her husband Donald in exploiting their Trump brand to sell products and make a quick buck. The baubles are sold by USA Memorabilia, which also sells Trump-themed collectibles, coins Christmas ornaments, NFT trading cards, and, curiously, Melania’s new memoir.
“Embrace boldness in your style this season with the ‘Vote Freedom’ necklace, which features the iconic Lady Liberty,” she wrote. “A tribute to America's enduring commitment to freedom, this piece is a statement of pride and empowerment.”
On Sept. 21, the Republican presidential nominee released a social media ad in a bid to sell $100 coins with his face emblazoned on them.
And on Thursday, a “limited edition” batch of Trump watches went on sale for up to $100,000. The rest of the models, some with bright MAGA-red faces and others red, white, and blue-themed, have a price range between $499 to $799.
“This isn’t just any watch, it's one of the best watches made,” Trump said in the ad. “I love gold. I love diamonds. We all do. Only 147 of these extraordinary watches will ever exist in the world. And owning one puts you in a very exclusive club.”
The coins, watches, gaudy gold sneakers, and new necklaces have all been introduced during an election year—when Trump happens to be a candidate vying for the highest office in the land. As the GOP nominee, Trump is an old hand when it comes to manipulating the media. He knows he’s getting publicity, and he’s using it as free advertising to sell his products.
As Daily Kos reported in August, Trump had to submit his financial disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics. The documents showed that not only is Trump not as wealthy as he claims, but he makes the bulk of his money from various business ventures. He’s spent his lifetime profiting off his world-renowned name and political power.
Since he was elected president in 2016, he’s made $300,000 selling Bibles, invested millions into cryptocurrency, and purchased as much as $250,000 worth of gold bars, according to his most recent financial disclosures. And together with his sons, Trump recently launched his own fishy cryptocurrency platform, called World Liberty Financial.
The majority of his income, however, comes from his golf clubs and resorts. That includes the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which generated $56.9 million, and the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, which generated $160.7 million. His Washington, D.C., hotel was a bust, but a House Oversight Committee investigation found he did manage to fleece foreign governments to the tune of $3.7 million.
While he was leader of the free world, he collected a cool $160 million profit from foreign business ventures, according to his tax returns. Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior White House adviser and tasked him with leading multiple delegations representing the U.S. overseas. Kushner was later investigated by the House Oversight Committee for a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia in his private equity firm.
Journalist David Cay Johnston described Trump’s shady dealings In his 2018 book “It’s Even Worse Than You Think.”
“When it came to enriching himself and his family through his official position, Trump applied subtle techniques, like frequently visiting Mar-a-Lago and his golf courses, where the Secret Service paid full price for everything, including the golf carts to follow the president,” he wrote.
Johnston reported that after becoming president, Trump doubled the resort’s membership fee to $200,000.
Profiting off of your status as an elected official has long been frowned upon—if not outright illegal. There is a clear conflict of interest when a public servant uses their political power to ask domestic or foreign officials for favors, and it creates national security issues. Trump changed that when he seemed to have no problem ignoring those ethical boundaries—and his Republican minions in Congress gladly looked the other way..
As a businessman who has filed for bankruptcy six times, Trump found a way to use his political brand to make money off the backs of his MAGA faithful. And what good is a brand for if you don’t use it to make a sale?
He’s been called a “con man” by members of his own party and those who knew him when he went into politics. He developed a reputation for stiffing contractors and laborers. The most recent lament over his moral failings came from former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Rose Giuliani, who wrote a sobering essay for Vanity Fair on how she lost her father to Trump.
“The pit I felt in my stomach then was a warning, but I had no idea how much destruction my father would come to face due to his one-sided fealty to a con-man,” Caroline wrote.
Just as Trump was impeached in 2019 when he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up damaging information on his political rival Joe Biden, he knows no bounds when it comes to groveling and lying, if only to make a buck. He even ousted the head of the Republican National Committee and installed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who declared that the committee would spend “every single penny” on Trump and said GOP voters would “absolutely” like to see the RNC pay his legal bills.
The concept of integrity and the notion that you should recuse yourself from any conflicts of interest while in public office don’t seem to faze the Trump family at all. Oh, but those watches sure do sparkle, don’t they?
Campaign Action Morgan Stephens October 03, 2024 at 12:05AM From Daily Kos
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