Donald Trump's Corruption After the Presidency
Donald Trump has enriched himself dramatically since becoming president again. He must not be allowed to keep that money.
Trump’s second term in the White House has been characterized by corruption on a scale that is radically different from that of any other administration in American history. According to a very thoroughly researched article earlier this year in The New Yorker, Trump has enriched himself to the tune of about $4 billion since returning to the presidency. That number has undoubtedly increased since the article was published in January.
It is understandable to be outraged about this and to feel fury towards all those Republicans who so righteously accused the Biden family of corruption only a few years ago, but who remain utterly silent in the face of what Trump is doing. The low-level influence peddling in which Hunter Biden engaged is like stealing a few coins from the collection plate in church compared to the corruption around Trump and his family.
Some have already begun to think about post-Trump transitional justice and a it is likely that Trump’s life after the White House, whenever that comes about, will be defined by court appearances and legal troubles. This is yet another reason to doubt this regime will ever give up power without a struggle and will not simply recognize an electoral defeat-something that is increasingly likely if we have free and fair elections in 2028.
There is another issue that must be taken into consideration here. Trump must not be allowed to keep the money that he has accumulated from selling access to the White House and in exchange for who knows how many political or financial favors. Real transitional justice requires taking that money from Trump and giving it, in one form or another, back to the American people.
The amount of money Trump has accumulated through corruption in only fifteen or so months is astronomical. If he is allowed to keep it, that money will create generational wealth not only for Trump, but for his children, all of whom are complicit and participating in this corruption. If they get away with this, the Trump family will be living in extraordinary and ill-gotten wealth for the imaginable future, while the rest of us wrestle with the economic, political, environmental and health fallout of the havoc and destruction Trump has wrought while pursuing that wealth.
Another reason it is critical to strip the Trump family of this wealth is that it is a very real possibility that Trump, who will soon be eighty years old and is in obvious mental and physical decline, may shuffle off his mortal coil before facing any legal consequences for his action. If that happens, his children must not be allowed to simply keep the benefits of the Trump crime family’s corruption.
The question of how precisely to do this may be better left to the lawyers, but we must be steadfast in demanding Trump is not allowed to keep this money. It is also useful to think about what to do with the money that must be confiscated from the Trump family.
One idea would be to simply return it to the coffers of the US Treasury once a new administration is in place, but it is also may be useful to think more creatively about this question. The money could be used to create a fund to help students pay for community college, subsidize healthcare, rebuild Gaza, reperations for descendants of people who were enslaved in the US, women’s healthcare or any combination of these causes. It would not be enough to make a substantial dent in any of these areas, but the symbolism would be important and, more importantly, the money would no longer belong to Trump or his family.
Stripping the Trump family of these assets is the only way to send a clear message to the Trump family in one of the few languages they understand. Moreover, if the Trump family is allowed to keep their money, it incentivizes them to keep the grift and corruption going. Although Trump himself is quite old, his children are young and, if left alone, have decades of grift, criminality and fascist dalliances ahead of them. However, if Trump and his family face both legal and financial repercussions for their actions, it is much more likely that other grifters and criminals will understand that the era of Trump-sized corruption is over.
There is no precedent for taking away a former president’s assets, but there is also not precedent for a president being even a minute fraction as corrupt as Trump has been during this term, which is not even half over.
This must all be part of a larger understanding that when the MAGA regime ends-and while we cannot know when that will happen, we can be certain it eventually will-it will be imperative to reckon with the damage it has wrought and to construct new and more powerful ways to restore democracy and justice, rather than fall back on the older institutions which, based on their failure to prevent the current fascist regime from taking shape, are unlikely to be able to ensure it won’t happen again.