Donald Trump makes his money in the daylight
Dennis Jett, April 3, 2026
These days it seems like Americans are divided into two camps — those who believe everything Donald J. Trump says and praise every move he makes, and those who do the opposite.
There is one thing on which everyone can agree, however: no president in American history has enriched himself and his family more while in office than Trump.
That won’t bother the Trump fans who admire his skill as a businessman and dealmaker. Forget the fact that his “deals” and his businesses have often been, to put it politely, problematic, which is one reason he was involved in an estimated 3,500 lawsuits and declared bankruptcy so often.
He does deserve credit, however, for not hiding his efforts at wealth accumulation while living in the White House. He did it all in broad daylight.
A transparent government
The Speaker of the House pointed this out when asked about a private dinner Trump gave for the top investors in the “Trump” meme coin. He asserted “President Trump is the most transparent president, in the most transparent administration, probably in history.”
Cynics might say that Trump is able to engage in self-enrichment in plain sight because he is unconstrained by laws, conflict of interest considerations, or propriety. That is because most members of Congress, who are now on vacation, have also taken a permanent holiday from any form of oversight.
And the Justice Department will never investigate anything he does, either. Its performance under him has made its very name a sick joke. There isn’t any need to investigate anyhow because as Trump himself once said “I found out that nobody cared.” His Attorney General Pam Bondi, who’s now out, wouldn’t investigate, and her replacement, once Trump’s personal lawyer, won’t either.
Trump fans will say that their president making several million dollars a year by peddling Bibles, watches, fragrances, sneakers, and so much more merch is no big deal. Why shouldn’t he make money off being president?
Trump foes, on the other hand, will note that little in government today does not seem to be for sale. For example, as the Editorial Board of the New York Times commented this week, Trump “has created a veritable pardon industry, in which people with White House connections accept payments from wealthy convicts.”
Corey Lewandowski, the chief of staff and rumored boyfriend of former Secretary of Homeland Security and dog killer, Kristi Noem, reportedly bragged to colleagues that he could do whatever the (expletive) he wanted because Trump would pardon him.
CNN has reported that the Inspector General of DHS has launched an investigation of how Noem and Lewandowski handled contracts. She had to personally approve every one above $100,000. This is surprising, since one of Trump’s signature efforts has been to destroy the independence and internal auditing capability of the inspectors general throughout government. So don’t hold your breath while awaiting the results of the investigation.
A transactional president
The “transactional” nature of our businessman president has also affected the standing of the United States. The nongovernmental organization, Transparency International, does an annual ranking of 182 countries based on how independent experts and businesspeople perceive the integrity of a country’s government. The U.S. ranks 29th in the 2025 assessment tied with the Bahamas and behind most other major democracies. No doubt it will be worse next year.
There are those who think that this is just the way Washington has always done business. So why care when it doesn’t have much impact on the rest of the country? It does and here are some reasons why.
Many of those receiving pardons and commutations of their sentences are having penalties and restitution payments they paid returned to them. That will potentially cost the government and the victims of their crimes hundreds of millions of dollars.
One example is the Chinese billionaire, Changpeng Zhao, whom Trump pardoned even though he claimed, “I don’t know who he is. I know nothing about the guy.” He may be getting back the $50 million fine he paid, not to mention the 4.3 billion dollars his company forked over. Zhao’s cryptocurrency company had a $2 billion business relation with one of Trump’s.
While our government has long been influenced most by those with the biggest check books, today it seems there is no limit to when and how much Trump-approved special interests can trump the national interest. The Pentagon has been ordered to buy more coal, for instance, which might not be so bad, if our warships ran on that fuel.
That is not the only way the energy industry is being supported as long as it is not renewable energy. A French company is being paid $1 billion by our government to not build wind farms. Those who believe climate change is a hoax, a group that does not include 99% of the scientists who study the environment, will be fine with that.
Not a normal government
One very important thing a normal government does is regulate industries that have a potential for doing serious harm to reduce the risks of catastrophes. That is not the way our current government does it. New technologies with huge financial backing can easily convert Trump into a cheerleader for them regardless of the potential consequences.
He has become a champion of freeing industries from burdensome regulations that protect the rest of us. They include crypto, artificial intelligence, social media, and the nuclear, coal oil and gas energy industries. What could go wrong?
Everything.