“Corruption! Ben Shapiro sounds alarm on Trump’s overseas business dealings”
“There’s a longstanding ethical debate in this country about conflicts of interest and the presidency. But what we’re looking at now isn’t abstract. It’s concrete. It’s billions of dollars. And it’s happening in real time.”“On “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” host David Remnick pressed conservative commentator Ben Shapiro with a question a lot of Americans are asking. David Kirkpatrick, who’s extremely conservative in his calculations, has said that the Trump family has enriched itself to the tune of $4 billion since taking office again in 2024. Does this concern you at all?”
“Here was Shapiro’s response:”
“Of course. I’ve been calling this out since, I think, before pretty much anybody else. I mean, early on in the Trump administration, when World Liberty Financial was pretty clearly making a fair bit of money over in the Middle East, I raised red flags on my show, consistently, about how I thought this was wrong. If the name were Biden instead of Trump, people would be screaming bloody murder.”
“This isn’t about partisan score-settling. It’s about whether the presidency is being used to serve the public, or to serve the president’s portfolio.”
“More than 20 foreign projects, from Oman to India to Saudi Arabia, often requiring cooperation from foreign governments. In one case, tariffs on Vietnam were lowered shortly after a $1.5 billion Trump Organization golf project broke ground outside Hanoi, reportedly fast-tracked by Vietnamese officials.”
“Then there’s crypto. Reuters reports that Trump’s digital coin ventures have become his biggest moneymaker — an avenue where people, including foreign actors, can buy in, often quietly, while the administration makes policy decisions that affect them.”
“Leveraging the Oval Office for personal enrichment is dangerous, no matter the party, then we’re not debating ideology anymore. We’re debating whether the presidency is a public trust or a private business opportunity.”
And none of that includes the reciprocity deals Trump is running domestically, it’s no surprise Trump suddenly got interested in the Michigan Bridge to Canada right after meeting with the Moroun family (https://www.wlns.com/capital-rundown/ambassador-bridge-trump-maroun-influence/)
Even Ben Schpiro, a MAGA icon, recognizes the reality
MAGA really is MTR, Make Trump Richer
