So far, the scorecard for Donald Trump’s young presidency veers mostly in the negative. He called a mulligan on his travel-ban executive order after its first, hastily written iteration was halted by two federal courts; Mike Flynn resigned because he failed to disclose ties to Russia and two of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries have had to recuse themselves from various job functions because of their conflicting interests; he has been sued several times over his Trump Hotel property; the fate of his Obamacare replacement looks grim; and his approval ratings still hover in the 40s.
The opposite seems to be true for the Trump Organization. While Trump stepped down from the daily operations of his real-estate and licensing empire, leaving decisions to his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., the whole family appears to be benefitting from the patriarch’s new position. Since the election, the brothers have opened two hotels—one in Dubai and another in Vancouver. They plan to roll out a lower-tier chain of hotels in cities across the country and forged contacts while they crisscrossed the country to campaign for their father’s White House bid that they hope they can partner with in the future. They raised drink prices at the Trump Hotel in D.C. as crowds have grown to catch a glimpse of the new president and his inner circle (which is not rare, considering the president and his daughter popped by for dinner, Don Jr. and Eric frequently pose there for photos with patrons, and several of his Cabinet members stay there during their working weeks). Mar-a-Lago, their private Palm Beach resort, has been skillfully rebranded by the Trumps as the “Winter White House,” an unsubtle nod to the fact that while the club’s initiation fee just doubled, that money is at least buying access to a sitting president.
The Trumps aren’t shy about the big, fat bump their father’s public service has gifted to their private business, despite the glaring ethical concerns involved. “I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been,” Eric Trump told The New York Times in an interview from the Trump D.C. hotel. “The stars have all aligned.”
This is less a case of cosmic fate than of a presidential overreach, though. While a president is exempt from conflict-of-interest laws that govern most government employees, most presidents, pre-Trump, have been overcautious in avoiding the appearance of conflicts. President Jimmy Carter gave up his peanut farm, for one. At the very least, for the last several decades, commanders in chief have released their tax returns as a way to glean what conflicts could arise. That is something that President Trump has refused to do.
Because Trump did not divest from his businesses, he is personally financially benefiting from his perch in the Oval Office, as people around the world patronize his golf courses, hotels, and real-estate ventures in order to court the First Family’s opinion and pay for access to the leader of the free world.
Eric Trump had a few different defenses for this, first citing how George W. Bush “arguably brought name recognition to Crawford, Texas,” a comparison that does the Trumps no favor, considering that the Bushes do not own the Texas town and thus do not financially benefit from any name recognition it received. He then resorted to saying that his father sees his golf courses as “his home.” That they earn him a profit is secondary, he told the Times.
The fact is, though, that they do earn him a profit, and that profit appears to be growing under his presidency, at least judged by outside indicators. But the Trump bump goes in both directions. Those who are hosting events at Trump properties are seeing a rise in popularity, too. The Lincoln Day Dinner gala set to be held at Mar-a-Lago for later this month, for example, sold out earlier this year. “That was without confirming a speaker,” the chairman of Palm Beach’s G.O.P. told Politico. “They want to be able to say ‘I had dinner at the president’s house.’ ”
Next week, the Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association is holding an event at the Palm Beach club, according to the Times. It not only extended an invitation to the president, but it also noted on its invitation that should he be there, they will receive special security instructions—a clever way of winking at attendees who might want to rub elbows with Trump. The strategy worked. More than 100 people have expressed interest in the event, the event organizer said, though it is capped at just 75. Last year, five people showed up.
