Washington, like the rest of the world, was once again faced with a test of how much they can be outraged by Donald Trump's disregard for rules, institutions, and the understanding of politics as a public service. The reason for this was the publication on Tuesday of the annual report on the financial condition of the President of the United States, the Spanish edition of "Pais" wrote in its commentary article.
It is noted that during his first year in the White House, Trump's income has jumped to over $1 billion, with most of it coming from cryptocurrency transactions.
"This is happening after Trump actively promoted investments in cryptocurrency and openly placed the government, the prosecutor's office and the stock exchange regulator in support of the crypto industry, which in turn poured millions of dollars into his election campaign and his inauguration ceremony.
The colossal income of Trump and his family from the crypto business is added to multimillion-dollar donations from companies, funds received under court agreements to avoid lawsuits at the discretion of the president, as well as other business ventures, including the sale of products with his name. The new revelations also come on the day Trump was set to take the first flight of a presidential jet donated by Qatar and valued at $400 million. This is not a gift for the White House, but for Trump himself - he has already announced that he intends to take the plane with him after leaving office.
In January, the "New York Times" published an estimate of Trump's income in the first year after his return to Washington. According to it, they amounted to at least $1.4 billion - many times more than the income of his real estate empire before the power of the presidency was added to it. None of this is happening in secret. The business of Trump's sons and son-in-law, related to the president's foreign policy, is developing before the eyes of the whole world. The claim that the companies are in the hands of his children and that he has no influence on them is simply not convincing.
Such behavior should surprise no one. The United States has elected a businessman as president whose moral code can be summed up in the words he himself uttered years ago, when he boasted that as a celebrity and television star he could afford to assault women. Today, the same principle applies to the office of president. Trump believes that as president he can use institutions as he sees fit. From his own statements, we know that he sees nothing wrong with using his position to amass wealth. When he was criticized years ago for tax evasion schemes, he replied that this made him a "smart guy." He may not even understand why all this provokes such outrage.
One of the most enviable characteristics of American democracy is its deep respect for institutions, and especially for the office of the presidency. While this cult of ritual, tradition, and the dignity of the presidency has never been entirely free from hypocrisy, it is as essential to the functioning of the system as the laws themselves. Today, however, this democratic culture has been replaced by a culture of corruption that emanates from the White House and, thanks to the passivity of Republican majorities in Congress, which have refused to play their role as institutional correctives, is gradually corroding the rest of the state architecture.
Trump's greed knows no bounds, and sometimes it seems that even democracy is unable to impose any".