Luxury resorts in foreign countries, a crypto empire, and a private club in Washington for the ultra-rich.
That is the highly abridged version of all the projects lined up by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump while zigzagging across the world since their father, Donald Trump, defeated Kamala Harris in November. And then there are the deals that entangle the president and his family with countries like Qatar, which just gave the U.S. a Boeing 747 to use as Air Force One. The gas-rich country owns the co-developer of a $5.5 billion Trump-branded golf and beachside resort that was announced in April and will be built near Doha, Qatar’s capital.
By one measurement, the president has doubled his net worth to more than $5.4 billion since an early point in his reelection campaign. By another, a total of 20 real-estate projects with the Trump name will be developed in foreign countries during his second term as president.
“There is no modern parallel,” said Russell Riley, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Ethics experts and Democratic lawmakers say that might be putting it mildly. They are decrying many of the deals as rife with conflicts of interest, shockingly unpresidential, and potentially compromising to the national security and economic self-interests of the U.S. The criticism seems to be having no impact whatsoever on the Trump family’s appetite to line up even more business.
“It’s ridiculous to expect me to stop doing what I’ve always done to provide for my five children just because my dad was elected president,” Donald Trump Jr., who has helped run the Trump Organization since 2001, told The Free Press in a statement.
The appearance of a president’s family members unethically profiting from their proximity to power and prestige is nothing new.