It is hard to imagine that any previous president would have thought he could engage in such an audacious act of self-dealing.
Sue the government he runs, then settle the lawsuit with himself by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns. And as part of that deal, hand over $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies.
President Trump has used the federal government to advance his own personal interests and those of his family and allies more expansively and openly than any past occupant of the White House. Any review of history would suggest that it is not even close.
But as Mr. Trump, the only convicted felon ever elected president, heads deeper into his second term, he seems even less inhibited by the rules, written or unwritten, that governed his predecessors. While deeply unpopular with the general public, he has demonstrated as recently as this week that he remains the undisputed master of his own party, and therefore appears to feel that he can do as he likes without fear of Congress standing in his way.
His self-granted writ of immunity from I.R.S. audits amounts to a get-out-of-audits-free card, essentially the equivalent of pardoning himself for any past offenses and forgiving any tax debt or penalties. While the status of any now-short-circuited audits is not publicly known, his action could theoretically save him from paying $100 million or more, based on past estimates of what his liability might have been under an unfavorable I.R.S. decision.
The I.R.S. audit immunity for himself, along with the taxpayer payout to his supporters — potentially including those who attacked the Capitol and beat police officers on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn an election that Mr. Trump lost — stand out in their brazenness, yet not in what they say about his underlying approach to governance in his sixth year in office.
Mr. Trump has so blurred the lines between his financial interests and his public office that it is hard to define where the lines lie anymore, or if they still exist. He, his family and his friends have made a fortune in the 16 months since he returned to power in ways that once would have been seen as conflicts of interest and possibly generated investigations.
“Presidents have had corrupt, even criminal, family members,” said Barbara A. Perry, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, citing, among others, Hunter Biden. “But none of them succeeded to the extent of the Trump family in the level of graft achieved.”
She added: “They have won the presidency twice, emasculated Congress, created a supportive high court, and reshaped the law and institutions to absolve them of any wrongdoing, while making billions of ill-gotten dollars.”
Just last week, a disclosure form indicated that Mr. Trump’s investment portfolio executed more than 3,600 trades in the first three months of this year alone, many involving companies that he has favored with access or policies. His portfolio bought stock in companies run by 15 of the 17 chief executives he brought with him to China last week. The timing of some purchases has raised questions about whether they were related to statements he made or to policies he embraced.
The Trump Organization, his family-owned business, said that the trades were made by outside brokerage firms, and that he, his family and his firm did not have any role in deciding what stocks to buy or sell. But unlike most modern presidents, Mr. Trump has not put his investments in a genuine blind trust, since, as the disclosure form made clear, it is no secret to him what companies he has shares in as he goes about making policy decisions.
His family has profited enormously off his new cryptocurrency business at the same time the president has rolled back regulation of the industry. Mr. Trump pardoned the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which was involved in helping the Trump family build its crypto start-up. Jeff Bezos, whose businesses receive federal contracts and depend on U.S. Postal Service rates, approved paying an estimated $28 million to Melania Trump, the first lady, for a self-promotional film streamed on Amazon.
Mr. Trump’s sons and son-in-law are involved in multibillion-dollar business ventures in the Gulf Arab states at the same time the president is making those nations favorites of his foreign policy. An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates made a $500 million investment in the Trump crypto firm just days before his inauguration. The Trump administration later approved the export of advanced chips to the U.A.E. Altogether, Bloomberg has estimated that the family’s crypto investments have increased its net worth by more than $1 billion, at least on paper.
Polls show that most of the public has concluded that Mr. Trump is leveraging the presidency for his own benefit. A poll by YouGov in March found that 54 percent of Americans believed the term “corrupt” applied “a lot” to the president, up from 46 percent a year earlier.
Democrats lashed out after the announcement of the $1.8 billion fund for Mr. Trump’s allies and the I.R.S. immunity. “A stunning act of corruption,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. “A scam,” wrote Representatives Richard Neal of Massachusetts and Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “This one is just eye-popping unbelievable,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Even some Republicans indicated unease with the arrangement. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, said he was “not a big fan” of the taxpayer fund for Mr. Trump’s supporters. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania went so far as to say that “we’re going to try to kill it.”
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But the Republican congressional majorities, which eagerly pursued corruption allegations against President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family, have until now shown little interest in scrutinizing Mr. Trump’s blending of personal and public interests. And Mr. Trump demonstrated once again on Tuesday with the defeat of Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky in a Republican primary that he still wields unrivaled power to punish those who cross him.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump defended his lawsuit against the I.R.S. over a contractor illegally providing his tax forms to reporters. The contractor has since been convicted by the Biden Justice Department and sentenced to prison, but Mr. Trump argued the agency itself should still be held responsible.
He still acted as if he had nothing to do with the eventual deal negotiated by lawyers who work for him, including the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who was his personal defense attorney in criminal cases before the 2024 election.
“I guess they made a settlement of some kind,” Mr. Trump said. “I wasn’t involved in the settlement. I could have been involved. But I didn’t choose to be.” He did not explain why the release of his tax forms, even if the government is held liable, should preclude him from being audited for his past returns.
As for the $1.8 billion fund, it is to go to those people who were supposedly mistreated by the Justice Department under Mr. Biden, which could include the Jan. 6 attackers, who were already pardoned by Mr. Trump. “People were destroyed,” he said. “They went to jail. Their families were ruined. They committed suicide.” He made no mention of the police officers who were assaulted or later died.
Mr. Trump is an unabashed tax avoider who has repeatedly come under scrutiny. The Trump Organization, wholly owned by his family, was convicted in criminal court in 2022 of 17 counts of tax fraud, a scheme to defraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records for doling out off-the-books perks to some of its top executives. The company was given the maximum fine of $1.6 million. His chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to 15 counts and spent several months in jail.
For years, Mr. Trump fought to keep his tax returns hidden from the public, unlike every other modern president who voluntarily released them. Tax documents obtained by The Times in 2020 showed that he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, when he originally ran for president on the basis of being a billionaire businessman, and only $750 in 2017, his first year in office.
In 10 of the previous 15 years, Mr. Trump paid no income taxes to the federal government whatsoever, by reporting large losses. A yearlong audit battle with the I.R.S. could have cost him $100 million absent this week’s arrangement, according to a Times analysis of his returns in 2020, a sum that could be significantly higher with six more years of interest.
Other presidents did whatever they could to avoid looking like they were skimping on taxes, trading the markets, making money off policy decisions or using taxpayer funds to reward political allies. While many modern presidents have cashed in after leaving office, none have made the kind of money that Mr. Trump and his family have during their time in the White House.
Even the most notorious presidential financial scandals in history — Credit Mobilier during Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, Teapot Dome during Warren G. Harding’s presidency and Watergate during Richard M. Nixon’s tenure — did not come close to the money swirling around the Trump family during his second term.
“Not only do the three most infamous previous presidency financial-political scandals seem minor compared to Trump’s,” said Ms. Perry, the presidential scholar, “but none of the three presidents — Grant, Harding, Nixon — padded their own bank accounts.” People around Grant and Harding traded public policy for money, but there was no evidence that the presidents themselves profited. And the money raised by Nixon’s team went to his campaign dirty tricks slush fund and hush money for the Watergate burglars, rather into the president’s pocket.
As of Wednesday, Forbes magazine estimated Mr. Trump’s net worth at $6.1 billion, up from $5.1 billion last year and $2.3 billion in 2024.
Mr. Trump has insisted that he does not make policy decisions based on his own interests, and has accused those who have investigated him over the years of political persecution. But as he grows more settled in office, he appears less concerned about the way his actions look. He told The Times in January that he saw no benefit in following the presidential traditions of blind trusts, divestment of assets or avoiding business deals.
“I prohibited them from doing business in my first term,” he said of his family, “and I got absolutely no credit for it. I didn’t have to do that. And it’s really unfair to them.” Critics would argue that he in fact did not fully distance himself from business in his first term. But he noted that it did not make a difference: “I found out that nobody cared, and I’m allowed to.”
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He is covering his sixth presidency and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework.
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