Grifters Inc.: You will not imagine Trump household’s newest cash grabs

The Trump household is the grift that retains on grifting.

Working example: Former first woman Melania Trump shilled gold necklaces on X Wednesday, becoming a member of her husband Donald in exploiting their Trump model to promote merchandise and make a fast buck. The baubles are bought by USA Memorabilia, which additionally sells Trump-themed collectibles, cash Christmas ornaments, NFT buying and selling playing 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 launched a social media advert in a bid to promote $100 cash together with his face emblazoned on them. 

And on Thursday, a “limited edition” batch of Trump watches went on sale for as much as $100,000. The remainder of the fashions, some with vivid MAGA-red faces and others purple, white, and blue-themed, have a worth vary between $499 to $799. 

“This isn’t just any watch, it’s one of the best watches made,” Trump mentioned within the advert. “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 cash, watches, gaudy gold sneakers, and new necklaces have all been launched throughout an election 12 months—when Trump occurs to be a candidate vying for the best workplace within the land. Because the GOP nominee, Trump is an outdated hand relating to manipulating the media. He is aware of he’s getting publicity, and he’s utilizing it as free promoting to promote his merchandise. 

As Day by day Kos reported in August, Trump needed to submit his monetary disclosures to the Workplace of Authorities Ethics. The paperwork confirmed that not solely is Trump not as rich as he claims, however he makes the majority of his cash from numerous enterprise ventures. He’s spent his lifetime profiting off his world-renowned identify and political energy. 

Since he was elected president in 2016, he’s made $300,000 promoting Bibles, invested tens of millions into cryptocurrency, and bought as a lot as $250,000 price of gold bars, based on his most up-to-date monetary disclosures. And collectively together with his sons, Trump just lately launched his personal fishy cryptocurrency platform, known as World Liberty Monetary.

Individuals store for Donald Trump merchandise on the Republican Nationwide Conference on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Nearly all of his earnings, nevertheless, comes from his golf golf equipment and resorts. That features the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which generated $56.9 million, and the Trump Nationwide Doral Golf Membership in Miami, which generated $160.7 million. His Washington, D.C., resort was a bust, however a Home Oversight Committee investigation discovered he did handle to fleece overseas governments to the tune of $3.7 million.

Whereas he was chief of the free world, he collected a cool $160 million revenue from overseas enterprise ventures, based on his tax returns. Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior White Home adviser and tasked him with main a number of delegations representing the U.S. abroad. Kushner was later investigated by the Home Oversight Committee for a $2 billion funding from Saudi Arabia in his non-public fairness agency. 

Journalist David Cay Johnston described Trump’s shady dealings In his 2018 ebook “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 turning into president, Trump doubled the resort’s membership price to $200,000. 

Profiting off of your standing as an elected official has lengthy been frowned upon—if not outright unlawful. There’s a clear battle of curiosity when a public servant makes use of their political energy to ask home or overseas officers for favors, and it creates nationwide safety points. Trump modified that when he appeared to don’t have any downside ignoring these moral boundaries—and his Republican minions in Congress gladly seemed the opposite manner..

As a businessman who has filed for chapter six occasions, Trump discovered a manner to make use of his political model to become profitable off the backs of his MAGA trustworthy. And what good is a model for when you don’t use it to make a sale? 

He’s been known as a “con man” by members of his personal occasion and people who knew him when he went into politics. He developed a repute for stiffing contractors and laborers. The newest lament over his ethical failings got here from former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Rose Giuliani, who wrote a sobering essay for Vainness Honest on how she misplaced 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. 

Simply as Trump was impeached in 2019 when he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up damaging info on his political rival Joe Biden, he is aware of no bounds relating to groveling and mendacity, if solely to make a buck. He even ousted the pinnacle of the Republican Nationwide Committee and put in his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who declared that the committee would spend “every single penny” on Trump and mentioned GOP voters would “absolutely” wish to see the RNC pay his authorized payments.

The idea of integrity and the notion that you need to recuse your self from any conflicts of curiosity whereas in public workplace don’t appear to faze the Trump household in any respect. Oh, however these watches certain do sparkle, don’t they?

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