At the gala dinner President Trump held last month for those who bought the most Trump cryptocurrency, the champion spender was the entrepreneur Justin Sun, who had put down more than $40 million on $Trump coins. Mr. Sun had a good reason to hope that this investment would pay off. He previously invested $75 million in a different Trump crypto venture — and shortly after the Trump administration took office in January, the Securities and Exchange Commission paused its lawsuit against him on charges of cryptocurrency fraud.
The message seemed obvious enough: People who make Mr. Trump richer regularly receive favorable treatment from the government he runs.
The cryptocurrency industry is perhaps the starkest example of the culture of corruption in his second term. He and his relatives directly benefit from the sale of their cryptocurrency by receiving a cut of the investment. Even if the price of the coins later falls and investors lose money, the Trumps can continue to benefit by receiving a commission on future sales. Forbes magazine estimates that he made about $1 billion in cryptocurrency in the past nine months, about one-sixth of his net worth.
Only a few years ago, Mr. Trump was deeply skeptical of cryptocurrency, calling it “potentially a disaster waiting to happen” and comparing it to the “drug trade and other illegal activity.” Since he and his family have become major players in the market, however, his concerns have evidently disappeared. He shut down a Justice Department team that investigated illegal uses of cryptocurrency. He pardoned crypto executives who pleaded guilty to crimes, and his administration dropped federal investigations of crypto companies. He nullified an Internal Revenue Service rule that went after crypto users who didn’t pay their taxes.
The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration is different from old-fashioned corruption. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump has received direct bribes, nor is it clear that he has agreed to specific policy changes in exchange for cash. Nonetheless, he is presiding over a culture of corruption. He and his family have created several ways for people to enrich them — and government policy then changes in ways that benefit those who have helped the Trumps profit. Often Mr. Trump does not even try to hide the situation. As the historian Matthew Dallek recently put it, “Trump is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis.” He is proud of his avarice, wearing it as a sign of success and savvy.
This culture is part of Mr. Trump’s larger efforts to weaken American democracy and turn the federal government into an extension of himself. He has pushed the interests of the American people to the side, in favor of his personal interests. His actions reduce an already shaky public faith in government. By using the power of the people for personal gain, he degrades that power for any other purpose. He stains the reputation of the United States, which has long stood out as a place where confidence in the rule of law fosters confidence in the economy and financial markets. This country was not previously known as an executive kleptocracy.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, he frequently used his powers to reward himself. He held government events at his hotels, and his family business continued to make deals involving foreign governments, in an apparent violation of the constitutional prohibition of enrichment from foreign leaders. But those erasures of ethical norms now look like a dress rehearsal for the ultimate production of the second term. Given the stakes, we believe that it is important to step back and document the range of self-dealing since he took office four months ago:
-
While administration officials engage in complex negotiations in the Middle East, Mr. Trump and his family are making billions of dollars’ worth of deals with players in the region. The Trump Organization has six real estate projects planned in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The company struck a deal with the Qatari government to build a golf club and beachside villas that will bring in millions of dollars in fees. Mr. Trump announced recently that Qatar was donating a Boeing 747-8 worth about $200 million to serve as a more luxurious Air Force One, which he has said could go to his presidential library after he leaves office. For all this, he has made clear that tiny Qatar can expect a cozy relationship. “We are going to protect this country,” Mr. Trump said in Doha. “It’s a very special place, with a special royal family.”
-
During his first term, those currying favor with Mr. Trump bought drinks and dinner or spent the night at his Washington hotel. Now they can spend half a million dollars to join the private club Donald Trump Jr. is opening in Georgetown. It is called Executive Branch. The club’s founding members include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers whose cryptocurrency company was being sued by the S.E.C. — until Mr. Trump’s administration put a hold on the lawsuit.
-
As his administration is negotiating with Vietnam to reduce the tariffs he imposed on the country’s goods, the government there is making way for a $1.5 billion golf complex outside Hanoi, as well as a Trump skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese officials said in a letter that the real estate project needed to be fast-tracked because it was “receiving special attention from the Trump administration and President Donald Trump personally.”
-
Serbian officials cleared the way for a Trump International Hotel in Belgrade by using a forged document to permit the demolition of a cultural site at the location. Serbian opposition leaders say the forgery demonstrates how eager the country’s government has been to do a deal benefiting Mr. Trump.
-
Mr. Trump has held meetings, including one in the Oval Office, to force a merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV golf circuit, which frequently holds tournaments on Trump courses. In April, LIV Golf paid the Trump family to host a tournament at the Trump National Doral in Florida. A merger could lead to more such events.
-
The right-wing activist Elizabeth Fago attended a $1 million-per-person fund-raising dinner for MAGA Inc., Mr. Trump’s super PAC, in April. Less than three weeks later, The Times reported, he granted a full pardon to Ms. Fago’s son Paul Walczak, who pleaded guilty to tax crimes in 2024. The pardon is one of many issued by Mr. Trump to people who provided him with political or financial support or were associated with others who did.
-
After personally suing media companies that the government regulates, including CBS/Paramount and ABC/Disney, Mr. Trump has won millions of dollars in settlements. Paramount has reportedly offered $15 million to settle a baseless lawsuit Mr. Trump filed against CBS, fearing that the Trump administration would otherwise block its planned merger with Skydance Media. Mr. Trump is demanding $25 million.
-
Amazon has agreed to pay $40 million for the rights to a documentary about Melania Trump. That’s tens of millions more than such projects usually cost, Hollywood executives have said. Mrs. Trump’s cut is more than 70 percent. Defense contracts for web services would be reason enough for Amazon to curry favor with Mr. Trump.
-
Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee raised $239 million, mostly from large corporations and business leaders. The committee spent far less than that on the inauguration and faces few legal restrictions on what to do with the rest of the money. It is typical for presidents not to spend all of their inaugural funds, but previous presidents raised far less than Mr. Trump. The largest donor, a chicken processor called Pilgrim’s Pride, already seems to be benefiting from favorable government policies, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The motivation for people to give so much money to the president of the United States is plain. Some want him to bestow favors on them; others are trying to avoid being punished by his administration’s vindictive approach to governance. All of them want to shift government policy to benefit them, often at the expense of the American people.
In the case of his foreign benefactors, they may not use campaign contributions to do so because federal law prohibits foreigners from donating to election campaigns. There are no such restrictions, though, on Georgetown club memberships or crypto funds. The investors in the Trumps’ crypto company include the United Arab Emirates, which is investing $2 billion, and a small technology company with ties to China that is buying as much as $300 million worth of Mr. Trump’s memecoins.
What can be done about all this? Congressional Republicans probably have the greatest ability to influence his behavior, and they have been largely quiescent. It is quite a contrast with the past, when Republicans appropriately raised concerns about dubious Democratic behavior, such as Hunter Biden’s attempts to cash in on his family name and Bill Clinton’s efforts to reward top Democratic donors with nights in the Lincoln Bedroom or even a pardon. The Trumps’ behavior is far more egregious and voluminous.
Legal remedies also appear limited. Mr. Trump’s Justice Department and other agencies have made clear that they will not investigate his allies, let alone him and his family. Even long-term efforts to investigate corruption will be hobbled. The Supreme Court last year made it virtually impossible to hold a president criminally liable for actions even distantly related to his official duties, which may well include Mr. Trump’s self-enrichment. As for the people offering the tributes to Mr. Trump, he has made clear that he is willing to use his pardon power to protect his allies, regardless of the criminality of their behavior.
Sadly, that leaves voters as the remaining remedy. The best hope of holding Mr. Trump accountable for his culture of corruption involves calling attention to it and making his allies pay a political price for enabling it. Congressional Republicans clearly feel sheepish about aspects of it. A few of them, including Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, expressed concerns about the Qatari airplane. So did Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcaster. They all recognize that corruption is a political vulnerability.
Some congressional Democrats have tried to focus attention on the situation. “Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works,” Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a recent floor speech. “That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open.” But Democrats should do even more to highlight the ways that Mr. Trump is using powers that rightfully belong to the American people — the powers of the federal government — to benefit himself.
If Americans shrug this off as just “Trump being Trump,” his self-dealing will become accepted behavior. It will encourage other politicians to sell their offices. The damage will undermine our government, our society and even our economy. Historically, when corruption becomes the norm in a country, economic growth suffers, and living standards stagnate. Under Mr. Trump, the United States is sliding down that slope.
Source photographs by Ben Curtis/Associated Press and Jeffrey Phelps/EPA, via Shutterstock.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected].
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
The post A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption appeared first on New York Times.
