From President to profit

Donald Trump's approval numbers continue to crater. Even Republicans have cooled on the president's performance. But the president shows no sign of noticing, nor is he changing his ways. Even his gaslighting has gone wan. He's failed to make Americans believe that prices are going down when they're clearly not. What gives? Why isn't he trying to win back the public's love? Perhaps because he no longer cares. The only infrastructure he seems interested in building is his family fortune. Trump charmed farmers into supporting him twice. He's bankrupting them with his trade-war antics. Many farmers have finally turned on him, but so what? Trump's not running again. He no longer needs their affection or their votes. This ability to seduce then abandon goes way back. In 1995, Trump was a near-broke developer whose Atlantic City casinos were going under. He needed suckers to bail him out and found them through an initial public offering of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts stock. Rubes buying into his spinner-of-gold act poured $140 million into his empty coffers. In 2004, burdened by debt and never turning a profit, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy. For every $10 that his marks invested at that stock sale, they had $1 left. "People don't understand this company" was his explanation. The presidency offered new and powerful tools to get people to hand over their money. Days after returning to office, Trump's regulators dropped the fraud case against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. The Chinese-born speculator, target of an FBI investigation, fixed his problem by "investing" more than $40 million on $TRUMP coins -- a crypto meme coin with no fundamental value. Last month, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao. The Chinese-born Canadian had spent four months in prison for failing to prevent his crypto exchange, Binance, from laundering money. Zhao made his woes go away by having Binance facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial stablecoin. World Liberty was founded by Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Jr. Asked about the pardon of Zhao, Trump said, "I don't know who he is." By June, Trump and family had already taken in about $1 billion in crypto ventures alone, according to Forbes' calculations. That included profits from $100 million of World Liberty cryptocurrency tokens that a murky entity based in the United Arab Emirates said it was buying. You enrich me and I'll get you off whatever hook you're hanging from. How better to embolden financial lawbreakers than a president saying, in effect, I've got your back -- for a fee? Being blatant about corruption is part of the mob boss' business model. Trump is telling those needing government favors that he's not shy about granting them, appearances be damned. Not only does he hand out pardons without blushing, he's been firing the regulators whose job it was to police wrongdoing. Trump's agenda for a second term appears to be not giving a damn. He doesn't even care about the Republican Party, which just felt the sting of an unhappy electorate. Trump probably figures that Democrats will soon take control of at least the House in the midterms, so he might as well use the months left with a servile Republican Congress to increase his fortune. He could also turn attention freed from the nation's concerns to immortalizing himself. Start by leveling an entire wing of the White House for a banquet hall that administration officials are already calling "The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom." Asked about the naming, Trump said, "I won't get into that now." It hardly needs mentioning that rich donors needing inside deals are paying for the ballroom. Trump does care about numbers, but his job approval doesn't seem among them. Follow Froma Harrop on X @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.