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Last year, Donald Trump’s financial disclosures gave the public its first look at how he and his family businesses were positioned to profit from his political agenda, showing their investment in bonds for businesses and municipalities over which his administration wields influence. The president’s latest financial disclosure forms continue that similar theme.
Trump has said that as president he has handed over the reins of his business entirely to his older sons, but after he was caught on a hot mic last year arranging a business meeting between Indonesia’s president and one of his sons, Eric Trump seemed to concede that the separation is closer to a guideline than a rule.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein pointed out on Thursday that the new forms show Trump’s family has purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars in Victoria’s Secret bonds, intertwining the president’s fortunes with the major apparel corporation. Coincidentally, that company was largely built by Les Wexner, a businessman who, like Trump, has come under scrutiny for his association with deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. (Wexner, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, stepped down from the company in 2020. He said in 2019 that he was “embarrassed” by his association with Epstein, whom he called “depraved.”)
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As Bloomberg reports:
The new White House disclosure posted Thursday shows Trump’s buys included bonds from Netflix Inc., CoreWeave Inc., General Motors Co., Boeing Co., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and United Rentals Inc. He also purchased municipal bonds from American cities and local school districts, utilities and hospitals. The report, which all federal elected officials and appointees who trade must submit, doesn’t specify exact amounts or prices, since only broad ranges of transactions involving stocks, bonds, commodity futures and other securities are required. Trump reported making 189 purchases and two sales, the latter for at least $1.3 million, between Nov. 14 and Dec. 29 of last year.
Bloomberg notes that Trump has promoted Boeing planes to foreign officials, recently touted General Motors during a visit to a Ford plant, and has personally weighed in on Netflix’s contested bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
A senior White House official told Bloomberg in August after a previous disclosure that “neither Trump nor any of his family members made the investment decisions” and that the Office of Government Ethics had signed off on the documents.
It’s worth noting that Republicans in Congress attempted to impeach Joe Biden over spurious claims that he and his family illegally used his position to enrich themselves at a time when Biden wasn’t even in office, yet the party hasn’t made a peep about Trump’s disclosures that he’s hoovering up bonds tied to entities his administration has a hand in regulating.
Together with the financial stake that the government itself has been taking in a range of businesses and industries, it appears the president — who has portrayed himself as America’s “king” — is seeking additional avenues of control over American industries, all while he and his family aim to profit from the office.