Money has always been king in the White House, but never more so than with Donald Trump
Since George Washington in 1789, American presidents have had a close relationship with money. But with Donald Trump, the richest of all, we entered another dimension!
For $ 200,000 (approximately $ 188,000) per year, you can gain access to the most powerful man on the planet: the President of the United States himself. This is indeed the price of the membership fee to become a member of Mar-a-Lago, the very select club hotel that Donald Trump owns in Florida. Since the chief executive recently spent two weekends there, the establishment has even been dubbed the Winter White House.
Before the presidential election in November 2016, the membership fee was only $ 100,000. It just goes to show that politics is in no way incompatible with business. But that, we suspected! This sum goes directly into the coffers of the Trump Organization, whose management has been delegated to his two oldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric.
OF THE FORTY-FIVE CHIEF EXECUTIVE ELECTED SINCE APRIL 1789, ONLY NINE WERE NOT MILLIONAIRE
No one knows exactly the amount of Trumpian fortune. Bloomberg Group (financial information) puts it at $ 3 billion, and Forbes magazine at $ 4 billion. Very focused on bragging, the person concerned for his part evokes the sum of 10 billion ... His refusal to make public his tax slip - unique case in recent history - does not help to see it clearly.
Only certainty, he is the richest American president of all time. And yet, the competition is fierce! Of the forty-five chief executives elected since April 1789, only nine were not millionaires. The fortune of the first, George Washington, is estimated at 525 million dollars today: he owned 8,000 acres of land and 300 slaves. Another notorious slave owner, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) was at the head of a fortune estimated at $ 212 million.
Heirs
Like Trump, many were heirs. This is the case of the Roosevelts, Theodore (1901-1909) and Franklin Delano (1933-1945), offspring of a large New York family. A formidable businessman, Joseph Kennedy, father of John Fitzgerald (1961-1963), was also immensely wealthy. If he had survived her, her son would have inherited a jackpot of around $ 1 billion.
As for the Bush family, who, for better and especially for worse, gave America two presidents - George Herbert Walker (1989-1993) and George Walker (2001-2009) -, they extract most of the oil from oil. of its opulence ...
Obama, the writer
Others, on the other hand, are self-made men. Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969) is one of them: he was a schoolteacher before making wise investments, particularly in breeding, and accumulating a fortune estimated at $ 98 million. Barack Obama (2009-2017) also falls into this category. A middle-class child, he built his fortune on two books he published, Les Rêves de mon père (1995) and L'Audace d 'espéré (2006), which each sold over 3 million dollars. 'copies in the United States. He earned $ 12 million in cash for the latter book and won two Grammy Awards for the audio versions of both books.
THE ANTIMUSULMANS DECREE AIMS AT SEVEN COUNTRIES IN WHICH THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION HAS NO INTEREST
But back to Donald Trump. The current president is not satisfied with being the richest. He wants to be able to shout it from the rooftops. Quite the opposite of Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), famous for his extreme frugality. Trump owns a New York mansion inspired by the Palace of Versailles. And a private Boeing that bears his name.
Conflicts of interest
As a result, some come to harbor suspicions about possible conflicts of interest between Trump the businessman and Trump the president. He remains the owner of the Trump Organization since, unlike all his predecessors, he refused to divest himself of his assets and put up a wall between his past activities and his current functions. Some observers have noticed that the all-too-famous anti-Muslim decree adopted in the name of national security targets seven countries in which the Trump Organization has no interest.
This is certainly not the case in Saudi Arabia, the country of origin of the majority of the terrorists of September 11, 2001. The organization planned to build a hotel there, before giving it up in December 2016. But do not insult the future… On February 25, the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington held at the Trump International Hotel, a stone's throw from the White House, its annual gala to celebrate the independence of the emirate . What to show off the American president!
The Clintons are also sensitive to money
The Clintons also have a taste for money, but they are less open to it. We remember that Bernie Sanders, Hillary’s opponent in the Democratic primary, sharply denounced the astronomical sums - $ 200,000, on average - demanded by her rival for a private conference.
The former first lady had also explained that when she left the White House in January 2001, she and her husband were "broke like wheat", which made people smile: an American president earns $ 400,000 a year and has little cost. The couple had even had to return furniture belonging to the White House, taken "by mistake" during the move ...
President marketing
But, of course, Trump takes the confusion between business and government to unattainable heights. In mid-February, after a North Korean missile was fired, he dealt with the ensuing crisis ... in front of dumbfounded patrons of his hotel's restaurant in Mar-a-Lago. Which hastened to post pictures on the internet. "Mar-a-Lago represents an almost unprecedented commercialization of the presidency," historian Jon Meacham, biographer of President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), wrote in The New York Times. Executives have always spent a lot of time with the rich. But a club where people pay to be with the president is new! "
This commercialization is not, however, an absolute novelty, even if, in the past, it was more readily carried out after than before the end of the presidential mandate. An example ? It was in his capacity as former president that Bill Clinton won the trifle of $ 153 million for the 637 lectures given between February 2001 and May 2015.
THE 2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COST $ 1.7 BILLION
On the last day of his presidency he, it will be recalled, pardoned one Marc Rich, an unscrupulous businessman convicted of tax evasion. Evil tongues saw it as a backlash, Rich having donated $ 100,000 to fund Hillary's senatorial campaign and $ 450,000 to establish the presidential library.
As for the Obamas, according to the Financial Times, they have just signed with Penguin Random House a dizzying $ 65 million contract to write two books - one each. By comparison, George W. Bush only received $ 10 million for his Memoirs. And Bill Clinton, 15 million for his autobiography (My Life).
Obama too….
Let us also remember that American presidents are accustomed to appointing their most important financial supporters to prestigious diplomatic posts. And it doesn't matter whether they are qualified or not! Obama had proposed to appoint as head of the American embassy in Norway a certain George Tsunis, who had donated $ 1.3 million to him for his 2012 campaign.
The trouble is, during his Senate hearing, this same Tsunis saw fit to mention "the Norwegian President", when this position does not exist! The outcry was such that the aspiring ambassador was forced to step aside. It has also been claimed that Anna Wintour, patron of Vogue magazine and staunch supporter of Obama, was almost appointed to London or Paris, two fashion capitals ...
Campaign financing by companies
It goes without saying that Trump has persevered in this direction. Didn't he name Robert Johnson, heir to Johnson & Johnson, owner of the New York Jets, a National Football League (NFL) franchise, ambassador to the UK? Quite simply, the president loves nothing more than the company of the rich. Several members of his cabinet are millionaires, starting with Betsy DeVos, his secretary of education, who, to his personal fortune, adds that of his in-laws: 5 billion dollars. As for Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, he is sitting on a hoard estimated at $ 150 million.
In the land of capitalism, money is the lifeblood of this ruthless war of politics. And this is even truer since a Supreme Court ruling (Citizens United, 2010) allowing corporate financing of election campaigns.
IN EXCHANGE FOR HUGE GIFTS, ADELSON DEMANDS FLAWLESS SUPPORT FROM ISRAEL AND THE KOCHS ONLY FUND CLIMATOSCEPTICS
There is indeed a significant increase in "dark money" paid by anonymous donors hidden behind "Super PAC". During the recent senatorial in Kentucky, the said Super PACs spent 23 million dollars to elect Mitch McConnell, now leader of the Republican majority in this assembly.
Pressures
Presidential campaigns are becoming more and more expensive: $ 1.7 billion, for example, in 2012. And the most ostentatious sponsors, such as the brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch (oil, chemicals, finance, etc. ) or Sheldon Adelson (real estate, gambling), have become essential figures, although not very transparent, in American political life.
In the home stretch of the presidential election, Adelson would have invested $ 25 million to elect Trump. The Koch brothers did even harder: to support the candidates of their choice, they would have, it is said, gobbled up $ 300 million in the various ballots (presidential, legislative and local). Of course, there are tradeoffs. Adelson demands unwavering support for Israel from his foals; and the Kochs only fund climate skeptics.
Paradox
Never has the inbreeding between Washington and Wall Street been so marked. Should we remember that half of the congressmen are millionaires? However, money isn't everything. Trump spent "only" $ 66 million on his campaign, which did not prevent him from triumphing over much better-off competitors. A candidate for the Republican primary, Jeb Bush, for his part, had a war chest worth an estimated $ 100 million.
By November 2016, Trump had managed to raise $ 646 million, mostly in the form of small donations, when Camp Clinton and its Super PACs had $ 1.2 billion. Insufficient to counter The Donald’s incredible ability to capture media attention with his populist message and his outrageous overtones. Paradoxically, it was Trump the billionaire who demonstrated that money does not yet reign supreme in American politics.
