Trump’s second term is the cherry on top of a scam-filled life

Donald Trump pumps his fistThe following one-hour video is a serious, though entertaining and humorous, look at “[…] every way Trump is using the presidency to make him and his family billions.” It is historically exhaustive but not repetitive, despite the lack of imagination on Trump’s part.

Why be inventive when just telling obvious lies to get people to give you money seems to work just fine? Trump’s motto is now and seems to have always been, “do no more work than you have to.” The picture to the right of Trump celebrating with a fist-pump illustrates this perfectly.

I have included several interesting quotes from the video below.

All The Ways Trump Is Using The Presidency To Enrich Himself by Some More News | Cody Johnston (YouTube)

At about 05:30,

“Sharper Image was a semifancy gadget store that was basically Spencer’s gifts for the upper middle class. Also, for our younger viewers, Spencer’s Gifts is a shop at the mall that sells silly tchotchkes and blacklight posters. Like a proto Hot Topic that had lava lamps and mugs shaped like a boob. Also, a mall was like a physical version of Amazon that you could eat soft pretzels in. Oh, and the middle class was this third class between dirt poor and having all the money ever.”

At about 8:30,

“He essentially made himself the shorthand for a rich guy. […] Instead of actually being super rich and successful, he became a mascot for being rich and successful. A monopoly guy. Scrooge McDuck. Richie Rich, the Ronald McDonald of luxury. Donald McDonald, a walking Sharper Image for upper-middle-class people to admire and actual rich people to ignore. And he slapped that name on everything like the affforementioned stakes, but also vodka and dietary supplements.”

At about 12:30,

“Trump’s name is mostly used as a label for other companies to license, including foreign governments and investors that are developing large-scale hotels and luxury properties. The Trump Organization has at least five real estate deals with Saudi real estate company DarGlobal. One of which, Trump International Oman, is partnered with Oman state-owned tourism group, promising investors both hands-off investment expertly managed by Trump to generate income on top of lifetime residency visas. This is along with developments in Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

“The New Yorker estimates that these licensing and management deals being made in the Gulf are bringing in a minimum of $15 million. Vietnam also struck a deal with Trump to build $1.5 billion luxury golf courses and hotels.

“And while that’s all well and good for Trump, the scammy business mascot, I probably don’t have to stress that this is a president now. It is the United States president—now the mascot of the Republican party—being used as an international brand while he’s the president. I know it seems normal now. I guess since Trump is a TV real-estate guy and has been president once before and nobody seems to be willing or able to stop him from doing all of these things that are obviously weird for a president to do. But it’s very weird. It’s abnormal actually for a president to be developing all of these opulent resorts overseas in order to curry favor with others or to allow others to curry favor with him or to generally enrich himself.”

At about 15:30,

“The president who has spent a third of his presidency at his own properties using taxpayer dollars to promote his business when he’s supposed to be doing president stuff. He’s just flying around in a jet we pay for doing his side hustle. We pay for that. It’s the company car and he’s using it for personal stuff. He’s hosting official government events at his hotels, making foreign governments and the Secret Service pay millions at his properties using our tax dollars.”

At about 32:30, he does a segment on cryptocurrencies:

“ It’s a very fickle, highly volatile investment that has limited regulations that are currently in flux around the world, has no safety net, gets lost frequently, and is the go-to method to shadow-fund criminals and hate groups and online gamblers.

“Again, it’s cool in theory. It’s like anarchist bucks, but instead of being used to get into some cool bondage club to learn about the matrix, it’s mostly being used by Wall Street types and the literal president of the United States to get around laws.

“This is why cryptocurrency is frequently used as a pump and dump scheme, which is when people talk up their cryptocurrency to maximize its value, sell it off for real money, and then watch its worth fall down to nothing. It’s money but worse.”

At about 38:00,

“I will reiterate that a handful of people purchased [Melaniacoin] before it was announced, meaning that they must have preemptively known, perhaps because they knew Melania or the company hosting it. It could, in theory, not be people in Trump’s circle.

“But I also need to remind you that there are still transaction fees and the entity in charge of the Melaniacoin, a company called Meteora, also made at least $64 million in real money through those transaction fees. So you have a small group of anonymous traders making $100 million, seemingly tipped off in advance, on top of the extra money going to the company hosting this. The first lady presumably gets a cut because it’s her coin that she launched. But thanks to the third party, she is also legally insulated from any corruption.

“That means the most innocent scenario is that the president and first lady are licensing their names to the futuristic version of a shady gambling app and are unaware that it’s a scam. Again, the most innocent scenario is that the president is ignorant and gullible.

“And of course, the exact same situation is happening with Trump coins. He announced the launch on Truth Social, and wouldn’t you know it, the value way the heck up to $6 billion within days of launch. The Trump Organization and its affiliates own 80% of the coin supply and have collected millions of dollars in just those trading fees alone.

“Just the United States president taking a rake.

“Again, it’s perfect for Trump. He has distilled everything he’s done in the past down to this digital frontier, selling his name and name alone with no product or actual value. Like, even if he wasn’t [sic] the president, he would absolutely be doing this. But of course, he is the president.

“Trump the crypto scammer. As I said, it is perfect for him. And better yet, it’s through a market that he as the president also gets to regulate on a federal level. It’s win-win if you don’t factor in the rest of the country.”

At about 53:00,

“Jimmy Carter gave up his peanut farm. That wasn’t for nothing. That was to avoid Jimmy Carter forcing American consumers and companies to become obsessed with peanuts and make him money via peanuts.

“Of course, in this case, Trump’s preferred industry is just scams. He’s helping himself and the scam industry. He’s also uniquely able to get away with this stuff. He’s done it his entire life and he has ported that ability to his time at the White House.

“Literally, when the House Oversight Committee Chair, James Comey, was asked about the Trump family’s crypto scams, he said it’s okay because, quote, “They’re admitting they’re doing this.” See, they’re holding a big sign that reads, “Doing crimes,” which makes it all above board, right? He’s donating his paycheck to renovate the White House. See, he gives back. He doesn’t need the money on account of the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s you know scammed from so many people.”

At about 54:00,

“You might notice that in all of what I just said, all the ways Trump made money involve him never producing a single worthwhile product or giving anything in return. It’s just a series of financial scams and social cheat codes where he used an inflated personal brand to run sweaty scams that compounded into enough money and power to shield him from consequences.

“There are so many Trumps out there, but only one is like the mascot for unearned wealth and power, and only one that is using the office of the president for the first time ever while he’s the president to amass massive personal wealth. We kind of need to nip this one in the bud.”