Donald Trump en route to Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, for a dinner with top purchasers of his meme coin. Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Politics
Trump Has Dropped the Pretense of Ethics Free plane, crypto dinner, foreign deals: the first family doesn’t seem to care how corrupt it looks.
By Dan Friedman, Senior ReporterBio | Follow
Do Donald Trump and his family “actually give a fuck” about appearing to profit from his presidency? Evidence is mounting that they don’t.
Mother Jones reported yesterday on various ways that corporations, foreign governments, and random rich people with agendas are giving money and other benefits to the first family—and noted that the president and his kin have largely dispensed with even their first-term pretense of adherence to ethical norms.
This view was seemingly bolstered by Arthur Schwartz, an adviser to Donald Trump Jr., who, while explaining his unwillingness to address my questions about conflicts resulting from Trump Jr.’s business ventures, texted: “Write your ridiculous story. Literally no one cares…We don’t actually give a fuck.”
The president indeed did not appear overly troubled by extensive bipartisan criticism when he accepted, on Wednesday, a plane from Qatar (a country where his business just cut a deal to develop a golf resort) to use as Air Force One. And he ignored critics accusing him of corruption again on Thursday, when he hosted a dinner at his Virginia golf course rewarding 220 of the largest purchasers of his $TRUMP meme cryptocurrency, including dinner guests who said they hoped to use the access to influence him.
