President Joe Biden was clearly too old and tired to run a presidential campaign. Donald Trump, by contrast, is so young and energetic that he can run for president and simultaneously run multiple side hustles. He’s selling bibles, sneakers, and coins, both real and imaginary.
This ought to infuriate Trump’s die-hard followers — the very people he is targeting with his Trump-branded schlock. Trump is taking time away from campaigning for president and fundraising for his party to rent out his name and enrich himself.
“Hello everyone, I have something incredible to share today,” the Republican nominee for president announced in a video posted to his official social media accounts. While Democrat Kamala Harris was announcing housing policy and rolling out attacks on Trump, he was using his platform to line his own pockets.
“We are announcing the launch of Trump Coins — a true symbol of American greatness. Trump coins are designed by me,” Trump said to the camera, holding up one of his silver pieces for viewers to see. His coin collection, he said, “commemorates our movement, our fight for freedom, prosperity, and putting America first — we always put America first.”
One would assume that “putting America first” requires focusing all your time, energy, and credibility on winning the presidential election rather than leveraging your position as the GOP nominee to make some extra cash.
It’s not just silver coins, of course. Trump is also selling gold sneakers. He’s selling “Trump Cards,” which are basically computer images of himself as a superhero that are supposedly unique because they are nonfungible tokens. NFT images are an embarrassing scam, and yet earlier this year, he hosted a gala for folks who had spent enough money on Trump NFTs.
After wrapping up the Republican nomination earlier this year, Trump started hawking the Trump Bible. Set aside the sacrilege of such a thing — it had nothing, plausibly, to do with his campaign. It was about making millions for Trump and making money for whoever was paying for the right to use his name during his presidential campaign.
Trump announced a new cryptocurrency venture this fall. He hasn’t explained exactly his stake in the company or his compensation, but at the same time he started pitching the enterprise, called World Liberty Financial, he switched his view on crypto. He used to call it a “scam,” and now he calls for policy accommodations of crypto.
Melania Trump, meanwhile, is spending the campaign season hawking a $600 “Vote Freedom” medallion necklace. And while she is basically absent from the campaign trail, in contrast to her counterparts on the Democratic side and on past GOP tickets who stump for their spouses, she is charging speaking fees to Republican groups that bring her in to talk.
The coins, sneakers, and all the rest are not campaign merchandise. The proceeds do not go to Trump’s election efforts or to the Republican Party. The profits from selling these scammy products — opaque cryptocurrencies, $30 of silver for $99, gaudy gold jewelry or sneakers, and JPEGs — go into the Trumps’ private bank accounts.
Trump personally made over half a million dollars off the NFTs, according to his financial disclosures. He is not, as far as we can tell, self-funding his campaign. All this Trump schlock exists to enrich him.
Trump has every right to pursue riches. Politicians have been parlaying their public positions into private wealth forever. But he used to admit that this was corrupt. His “I alone can fix it” argument in 2016 was premised on the claim that he was done playing politics for profit.
When Trump said “Drain the Swamp,” he was attacking exactly this insider enrichment. Voters found it gross that Bill and Hillary Clinton made millions in speaking fees off of corporations and foreign governments while Hillary rotated into and out of office.
And, of course, Hunter Biden spent decades as a revolving-door influence peddler trading on his father’s name.
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But it was corrupt for them to do so — that’s why “Drain the Swamp” was effective, and that’s why Democrats, Big Tech, and so many in the media tried to cover up Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Trump, being out of power, isn’t using governmental power to enrich himself, but he’s using his political position. His voters, his campaign donors, and the Republican Party as an institution all gave him the privilege of the GOP nomination so that he could use it for the common good. Using that platform for blatant, petty personal enrichment is an abuse of that privilege.