10 ways the Trump family is involved in a DC corruptopalooza | Opinion
You have to hand it to Donald Trump: He’s hard to keep up with. He attacks Venezuela and before the oil deals there really get going. He attacks Iran without, apparently, a plan for when he will be done attacking Iran. Even as the bombs are falling in Tehran, he’s putting the oil squeeze to Cuba with the threat of military action there. You can’t write enough columns to keep up — and that is just on foreign policy that centers on oil.
To my chagrin, in covering Trump last year, I barely touched on the hijacking of his presidency to pad the wallets of the president and his family, so I have come up with a list of 10 awful examples of Trumpworld using his position as the most powerful man in the world to make them all richer. I think these are constitutional “high crimes” for which he should be impeached, if not prosecuted in criminal court.
1. Crypto ventures
The Trump family launched multiple cryptocurrency projects just before and after the January 2025 inauguration, netting $1 billion or more in realized profits (including some $500 million from one United Arab Emirates-linked stake alone.) These deals have been tied to policy favors such as UAE access to artificial intelligence computer chips, and a pardon for the founder of crypto exchange Binance.
2. Qatar golf resort deal
The Trump Organization partnered with Qatari state-owned Diar and Dar Global for a $5.5 billion Trump International Golf Club and villas in Qatar shortly after the inauguration.
3. UAE-Dubai Trump hotel and tower
A licensing deal was struck with Dar Global for Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai (with a private club), part of multiple Arabian Peninsula projects generating millions in upfront fees.
4. Vietnam luxury golf-resort complex
The Trump Organization secured approval for $1.5 billion project including golf courses and hotels with a Vietnamese developer tied to the country’s ruling Communist Party during tariff negotiations.
5. India Mumbai development fees
Ten million dollars in fees have been reported from a new Trump-branded project with Reliance Industries (whose chairman attended Trump state dinner). The company later secured a Venezuelan oil license.
6. Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners fund
Son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private Affinity Partners investment firm Raised billions more from Saudi Arabia ($2 billion alone!), Qatar and UAE sovereign funds while Kushner served as Trump’s Middle East peace envoy. Assets under its management hit $6.2 billion by the end of 2025.
7. Melania Trump Amazon movie deal
Nearly $30 million was paid by Amazon for the money-losing Melania-focused documentary project. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post, has significant federal contracts and regulatory interests.
8. Trump Media & Technology Group
Trump’s 40% stake in Truth Social’s parent company has boosted his net worth by over $1 billion so far in his presidency, as his posts on the platform announce many federal actions first on the Trump-owned social media platform.
9. Foreign officials, sponsored events at Trump properties
There have been at least 19 visits by foreign officials from 10 countries to Trump’s resorts. Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf held a major tournament and sponsored events at Trump National Doral.
10. Luxury jet gift
Qatar provided a $400 million gold bedazzled 747 jet for Trump’s use, coinciding with economic deals between the two countries, and the Trump Organization’s Qatar deals. (I did manage to write about this one.)
In a normal administration, any one of these, well, scandals would be front-page news with coverage spanning months, congressional investigations, special prosecutors and the whole deal. But Trump’s chaos has, for the most part, completely blocked them from public view. Who knows which ones fall into the gray areas of ethics laws and which are genuine crimes? Regardless, any one of them is a bigger deal than the Biden administration’s sordid relations with that president’s sleazy son, Hunter.
The audacity of these crimes against good government is amazing. Anyone involved has to know that if any decent person ever becomes president again, all these cases will be investigated with an eye to prosecuting any provable wrongdoing.
If Trump were planning to leave office in any way other than upon his death, why would he saddle himself with the misery of spending the rest of his life in a courtroom? I am more than a little worried that this is a sign that Trump is so obvious in his corruption because he plans to spend the rest of his life as president.
David Mastio is a columnist for The Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
