Trump has dropped the pretense of ethics

Do Donald Trump and his family “actually give a fuck” about appearing to profit from his presidency? Evidence is mounting that they don’t.

Mother Jones reported yesterday on various ways that corporations, foreign governments, and random rich people with agendas are giving money and other benefits to the first family—and noted that the president and his kin have largely dispensed with even their first-term pretense of adherence to ethical norms.

This view was seemingly bolstered by Arthur Schwartz, an adviser to Donald Trump Jr., who, while explaining his unwillingness to address my questions about conflicts resulting from Trump Jr.’s business ventures, texted: “Write your ridiculous story. Literally no one cares…We don’t actually give a fuck.”

The president indeed did not appear overly troubled by extensive bipartisan criticism when he accepted, on Wednesday, a plane from Qatar (a country where his business just cut a deal to develop a golf resort) to use as Air Force One. And he ignored critics accusing him of corruption again on Thursday, when he hosted a dinner at his Virginia golf course rewarding 220 of the largest purchasers of his $TRUMP meme cryptocurrency, including dinner guests who said they hoped to use the access to influence him.

“They really don’t seem to be making much of an effort to show they care about appearance of conflicts of interest or corruption,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a recent interview.

As brazen as Trump’s recent actions may appear, he nevertheless has continued to argue they are not corrupt. Trump this week threatened to sue ABC News again for reporting, he said, “that Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane”—Trump insists the plane is going to the Department of Defense, rather than to him personally, despite having repeatedly said he plans to eventually transfer it to his presidential library.

White House spokespersons, too, continue to profess indignation about media reports suggesting that there is anything untoward about the president taking gifts or money from people attempting to influence him. “It’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. “This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly.”

The White House has claimed Trump’s businesses don’t create conflicts of interest because “the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children.”

But these arguments are belied by Trump’s failure to limit the appearance or reality that he is using his power to reward people who help enrich him. Trump continues to benefit from the family companies now run by his sons, and ethics experts note that because Trump has not set up a blind trust, the president can keep track of who is paying or investing in those firms in hopes of influencing him.

The Trump Organization and White House have declined to renew modest ethics restrictions they imposed during Trump’s first term. In 2017, the Trump Organization, run by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., said it would not ink foreign deals during the Trump presidency. This time, the company is reaching foreign deals. And while they claim to be avoiding agreements with foreign governments, the Trumps are making development deals that rely on approval by foreign governments. The Trump family also appears to be benefiting from a plan by a state-backed United Arab Emirates firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin in a multibillion-dollar deal.

Donald Trump Jr., speaking Wednesday in at an economic conference in, of all places, Qatar, elaborated on this decision.

“In the first term, we actually said we’re not going to do any foreign deals,” he said. “The reality is, it didn’t stop the media from constantly saying you’re profiteering anyway. We’re like, we stopped entirely, even the deals that were totally legit, it didn’t stop the insanity. So this time around, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play by the rules,’ but we’re not going to go so far as to stymie our business forever, lock ourselves in a proverbial padded room, because it almost doesn’t matter—they’re going to hit you no matter what.”

This comment raises questions about what Trump Jr. thinks padded rooms are used for, and what not “totally legit” deals he may have in mind. But it also suggests that he understands the purpose of ethical norms to be avoidance of criticism. Critics of the first family’s mix of business and politics, by contrast, are concerned about actual corruption occurring.

The president and his family hear those concerns. But they don’t seem to give a fuck.