It's been nearly a year and apparently we're all just supposed to be fine with Donald Trump using the presidency as a side job between visits to his own private clubs.
• Days in office: 346
• Days spent all or in part at a Trump property: 112
• Percent of days in office visiting a Trump property: 32.4
Specifically, Trump has spent three out of every four weekends in office inside one of his own self-branded properties. He has done so with Secret Service in tow, at taxpayer expense. He has apparently demanded his staff refuse to divulge when he is golfing, even when it is plainly obvious that he is golfing, under the apparent delusion that he is fooling anyone. Of the 112 days spent at his own properties, well over half those days appear to have been golf outings. The Secret Service blew through their own budget for protecting Trump by the time September rolled around; some of those expenses were for the rental of Donald J. Trump golf carts at Donald J. Trump golf resorts so they could follow around resort owner Donald J. Trump as he whiffed at little round balls for four hours a day.
Yes, they are paying Donald Trump's business money to protect Donald Trump. No, Donald Trump has not divested from those businesses. Yes, he gets to keep those profits once he is out of office—in addition to the profits garnered from hiking Mar-a-Lago fees, profits gained from pro-Trump political groups booking his properties as cash reward for his presidential decisions, and whatever profits come about as the result of Trump using his properties as go-to resorts for the hosting of foreign dignitaries. We won't be finding out the details, as White House spokescreature Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Trump won't be releasing tax information going forward, or backward, or sideways.
Meanwhile, daughter Ivanka is making bank herself. Did you know she owns her own line of fashionable clothing? Of course you do. Everybody does.
No matter what else Ivanka Trump may do or not do in the White House, she makes very, very sure America knows about her full product lineup.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed Ms. Trump’s outfits in her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram postings about official appearances between March 29, when she became a White House adviser, and the end of October. Star Style, a celebrity-fashion website, identified the products. The analysis showed that Ivanka Trump dresses, shoes, bags or jewelry appeared in 46 of the 68 outfits reviewed, or 68%. [...]
By owning a fashion business, she is in uncharted territory. “Ivanka Trump is testing the boundaries on federal rules that bar government employees from using their position to promote brands that personally enrich them,” says Guian McKee, an associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
How much cash is Ivanka Trump making by appearing in Ivanka Trump-branded products during her own photo opportunities, thus launching the inevitable stream of tawdry celebrity what-is-she-wearing profiles that incessantly appear in tabloids and gossip magazines? We don't know. It may not even be enough to stave off the great tanking of the brand that began as soon as the Trump family scuttled into the White House.
The good news is that the Trump family is, after all is said and done, unimaginative. Donald Trump's best ideas for plundering the government seem to revolve around charging the government petty club fees; Ivanka is using her government position to boost clothing sales. Under Donald Jr.'s direction Trump's company had the grand idea of profiting off the American presidency by launching a new line of patriot-themed hotels, an idea so silly and shallow that it sounds like a satirical insult come to life.
A decent grifter would, one presumes, do better. You could make a fortune renaming federal buildings after whichever company shelled out the most dough; from now on it is not the White House, Trump could intone with his usual goading sneer, but the Papa John's White House. Why call it Fort Knox when you could re-dub it Fort Citibank? Trump could sell advertising time in his State of the Union speech; my new foreign policy, which is the greatest foreign policy any president has ever had, ask anyone and they will say the same, is sponsored by Diet Coke he could bleat in exchange for a pocketful of quarters, and compared to everything else the lout has done you can't say any of us would be any more shocked than usual.
But we should probably not say all that too loudly, lest we give him ideas. Shhh.