President Trump’s Self Enrichment
Through painstaking reporting, The New York Times exposed the level to which President Trump has used the office of the President to enrich himself and his friends, to degrees never before seen in the U.S. Presidency.
The Times broke open the connection between an agreement to allow valuable U.S-developed computer chips to be exported to the United Arab Emirates and a U.A.E. business deal using the Trump family’s crypto firm, giving it a revenue stream that could be worth tens of millions of dollars annually. Through FEC filings, interviews, and other reporting The Times also built a database of 346 donors who gave significantly to the President’s personal priorities, including his inaugural committee, the White House ballroom project, his family’s crypto firm, and numerous other Trump-supported groups and projects. The team then investigated each of these donors to understand how they may have benefited from the President or his administration, creating a web of payments and favors all made clear to the public for the first time.
As a result of the reporting, several members of Congress have introduced legislation to curtail these kinds of self-enriching efforts, and numerous officials and watchdog groups have called for investigations and ethics inquiries.
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