Presidential Plunder

July 13, 2026

Mark Twain once quipped, “America has the best politicians money can buy,” and Donald Trump has given “new” meaning to that observation. On July 1, Trump disclosed his family had earned more than $2.2 billion this year in crypto and business profits; then he flew to North Dakota in the $400-million Boeing 747 obtained from the Emir of Qatar. Ironically, Trump took the jet to dedicate the newly built Presidential Library for Theodore Roosevelt, a corruption-buster who famously quipped in 1918: “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators don’t know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty’.” There’s little doubt that Trump’s windfalls have upset Americans. They are free-enterprisers and admire success, but are concerned about financial involvement with foreigners and that a sitting President controls policies that can and have affected the value of his family businesses. To many, that’s equivalent to a butcher putting his thumb on the scale and may cost Trump the mid-terms this fall or, as one conservative pundit suggested, even result in another impeachment.