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Trump Thinks It Was 'Stupid' Not to Cash in Harder on His First Term. He's Making Up for It (Rolling Stone)
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-cash-in-presidency-corruption-sky-palace-crypto-1235345468/-snip-
The meme coin contest is just the latest example of Trump wielding the public office of the presidency for his private enrichment. In fact, sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone that one of the lessons Trump took away from his previous stint in the White House is that he was wrong to leave a ton of money on the table as president.
The president himself has privately said this on multiple occasions in recent months and years, according to two people who’ve been in the room with him. In moments of casual banter, Trump has mentioned that it was “stupid” of other Republicans and advisers to persuade him — at least on occasion — to side with government ethicists who cautioned him from obliterating the line between public good and private gain.
Trump says such things often enough that he can’t help himself from repeating some of it in public, including recently about the proposed gift of a $400 million 747 jumbo jet “sky palace” from the government of a Gulf emirate. “I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar; I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the president told the press at the White House in mid-May. “I mean, I could be a stupid person saying, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’” (As Rolling Stone previously reported, Trump often does not distinguish between what’s his and what belongs to the people or its government, including when it comes to this plane — which he privately refers to as “one of my” new airplanes.)
Trump does not hold space in his mind for any distinction between his private interest and the public interest. “A deal is a deal,” the president has said in the past several months, according to one of the two sources, dismissing Democratic complaints about the meme coin, or about how his business and real-estate empire is working to strike major foreign deals.
-snip-
The meme coin contest is just the latest example of Trump wielding the public office of the presidency for his private enrichment. In fact, sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone that one of the lessons Trump took away from his previous stint in the White House is that he was wrong to leave a ton of money on the table as president.
The president himself has privately said this on multiple occasions in recent months and years, according to two people who’ve been in the room with him. In moments of casual banter, Trump has mentioned that it was “stupid” of other Republicans and advisers to persuade him — at least on occasion — to side with government ethicists who cautioned him from obliterating the line between public good and private gain.
Trump says such things often enough that he can’t help himself from repeating some of it in public, including recently about the proposed gift of a $400 million 747 jumbo jet “sky palace” from the government of a Gulf emirate. “I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar; I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the president told the press at the White House in mid-May. “I mean, I could be a stupid person saying, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’” (As Rolling Stone previously reported, Trump often does not distinguish between what’s his and what belongs to the people or its government, including when it comes to this plane — which he privately refers to as “one of my” new airplanes.)
Trump does not hold space in his mind for any distinction between his private interest and the public interest. “A deal is a deal,” the president has said in the past several months, according to one of the two sources, dismissing Democratic complaints about the meme coin, or about how his business and real-estate empire is working to strike major foreign deals.
-snip-
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