President Donald Trump has been at the center of ethics concerns going all the way back to his 2016 candidacy, largely as a result of his strong business ties that critics say could represent significant conflicts of interest. These conflicts, many of which have to do with his Middle East dealings, have continued to cast a shadow over his presidency amid his second term in the White House.
Middle East dealings
The Trump Organization has long had ties to Middle Eastern nations. The company made several business deals in the region during Trump's first term and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, inked a $2 billion investment with the Saudi crown prince after leaving the White House. But in his second term as president, any "past conflict-of-interest concerns about Trump seem petty, as he strikes deals with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and members of the ruling families of the Arab world," said Mother Jones.
In one notable instance, Trump's son Eric "signed a deal with representatives from a Saudi real estate development firm, reputed to have links to the Saudi royal family, to build a Trump-branded resort just north of Doha, Qatar," said Mother Jones. But this is just one of a slew of connections the Trump Organization has to Middle Eastern deals. The president's sons have been "crisscrossing the Middle East, laying the groundwork for deals that will benefit the company and, in some instances, Trump himself," said The Washington Post. Trump has also "declined to duplicate his first-term pledge to not advance his personal business interests from the White House."
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One of the most visible Middle East conflicts relates to Trump's plan to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to be used as the next Air Force One. Accepting the plane could "violate the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which bars any U.S. official from accepting 'any present' of 'any kind whatsoever, from any king, prince or foreign state,'" said USA Today. Democrats and Republicans expressed concern over the plane given Qatar's alleged ties to state-sponsored terrorism. The deal "strikes me as being rife with political espionage, ethical and constitutional problems,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told CNBC.
Cryptocurrency
Trump has frequently been accused by his opponents of using the presidency for financial gain, and this has only ramped up in his second term with the advent of Trump-branded cryptocurrency. Trump launched a pair of crypto coins named after himself and first lady Melania Trump, and experts say the "tokens provide a way for foreign buyers to curry favor, as Trump-affiliated companies owned 80% of all stock and stand to benefit when the price rises," said Reuters.
In the first two weeks following its debut, Trump's crypto coin alone brought in $100 million in fees, Reuters reported. Trump also has a 60% stake in a crypto platform called World Liberty Financial. Using these crypto channels, there is "virtually no cap on the amount of money a person or government could funnel to the president, his family and the growing list of entities they control," said CNN.
Presidents "giving access to campaign donors is nothing new," but crypto "offers a level of anonymity and scale that the White House has never seen," said CNN. Even while Trump and his administration have downplayed the conflicts with his crypto brand, many "crypto advocates on the right aren't loving the optics of a president directly enriching himself and his family through an industry" that he is "actively working to deregulate."
Real estate
The Trump Organization has continued to pursue real estate deals throughout both of Trump's terms, including the aforementioned Trump resort deal in Qatar. Several of these deals "have connections to foreign governments in the Middle East," which is "raising concerns that Mr. Trump's financial interests could influence foreign policy," said The New York Times.
This includes deals in India, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, among others. Many of these are branding plays in which the Trump Organization "sells its name to international developers that build residential and resort complexes and sell luxury units at a premium, they hope, based on Trump's perceived star power," said the Times. Trump's plan to take control of Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East" has also generated significant controversy.
Beyond his new buildings, potential conflicts have also erupted due to how Trump has used his existing properties during his presidency. The office of the president "provides Trump with an unlimited marketing platform to promote his properties," said the left-leaning watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). During interviews, Trump "finds or manufactures opportunities to shower his hotels, resorts and golf courses with praise and uses his influence to drive business to his properties." Trump often visits these locations himself, and his "near-constant presence at properties that he owns and profits from signals to those looking to influence him and his administration that they should follow suit."
Trump products
From Trump Steaks to a shuttered airline, the president has tried to sell dozens of products with his name on them over the years. But as president, these types of MAGA-aligned products "illustrate just how closely Trump's personal business interests are entwined with his politics," said CNN. This includes everything from urging his followers to "buy limited edition guitars that bear his signature and Trump-themed fragrances that 'represent winning,'" to an $899 "limited-edition" Trump inaugural watch.
The "opaque structure of the companies that produce these items could create fresh conflicts of interest for Trump — with few public details about who Trump is in business with and how much he profits," said ABC News. There is some publicly available information about his crypto business, but when it comes to his merchandise, he has undergone an "unprecedented effort to commoditize his political platform." And when it comes to any products not on his official website, the "external companies that Trump licenses to sell his other items aren't subject to oversight."
Personal financial gain
Trump has maintained that he does not have any conflicts of interest as president. But he has "drawn scrutiny in Washington" from "political opponents and even some allies, who point out that the president has not divested from the Trump Organization and continues to profit from — and personally promote — these business ventures in his second term," said NBC News.
The exact amount of money Trump has personally made in his second term is unclear. In just the first month after his return to the White House, Trump's ventures netted him about $80 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, largely due to a $40 million deal with Amazon to produce a Melania Trump documentary. And thanks to his merchandising, along with a massive boost from his crypto coins, Trump has "more than doubled his estimated fortune, from $2.3 billion to $5.1 billion," said Forbes.
While there is an Office of Government Ethics whose job it is to investigate these types of conflicts, the "Trump administration has really been putting those systems under stress or just outright ignoring them," Eric Petry, a counsel for the Brennan Center's Elections and Government Program, said to Vox. Within the "executive branch, some of the tools that we typically look to to police conflicts are not going to be effective. It's a real problem that federal conflicts of interest laws don't apply to the president and vice president."
