On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal published an exhaustive report on the myriad ways members of the Trump family are monetizing his presidency. The headline and subtitle spoke volumes:
- How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza – First lady’s documentary deal with Amazon, president’s legal settlements, and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary
Of course, “so far” are the operative words. If the Trumps keep grifting at this rate, they’ll rake in $3.8 billion in four years. But that doesn’t even include profits from Truth Social, Crypto, and other investments — holdings that make $3.8 billion look like chump change.
Meanwhile, Trump is normalizing pay-to-play politics, a racket corporations and foreign strongmen seem eager to bankroll. The real haul? Likely tens of billions more.
In short, Trump seems hell-bent on using his presidency to become even richer than Elon Musk, his putative co-president. But we didn’t need an exhaustive report WSJ report to know this. After all, Trump telegraphed his intent so transparently that I scooped the WSJ back on December 12, 2024, with a post titled:
- Trump Will Extort ‘Broligarchs’ to Become Richer than Elon Musk.
Enough said?