John,
CREW has been telling the story of Donald Trump’s corruption for nine years now – and through it all we’ve consistently seen him use his political position for profit.
Earlier this week, we explained how he’s still doing so, directing $1.2 million in campaign money from his political apparatus to his own businesses this election cycle alone.
But today, I want to tell you about what’s different this year about Trump’s profiteering and the potential for even worse and more insidious corruption going forward.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, went public under the name Trump Media & Technology Group. Now we are in the unprecedented situation of a presidential candidate, and potentially a president, controlling and profiting from a publicly traded company.
That means that a foreign government, a wealthy person or a candidate for office could invest in the company in order to curry favor with Trump – and the investment could remain secret unless they buy up 2% of Trump Media stock.
Because Donald Trump owns a significant portion of the company’s stock, anyone seeking influence who buys or sells large numbers of shares and therefore affects share value could directly and significantly affect his personal wealth.
I’ll tell you more below, but first, I’m asking you to make a donation to CREW to support our important work fighting to expose Trump’s corruption, bring his financial conflicts of interest to light and hold him accountable. Click here to contribute →
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John, as CREW Board Member Zephyr Teachout noted in a recent New York Magazine article about Trump Media:
“We saw a little of this in his first term with the Trump hotel and Mar-a-Lago, but the potential here is just on another level. For a hotel, there are only so many rooms. If you book it for an event, you have to hold the event. Here, there is no limit to what foreign governments, corporations, or shady actors can do. The design of it makes the funneling of money into Trump’s pocket much more direct.”
The corruption potential gets even more obvious when you look at the fundamentals of the business and compare it to other companies.
As CNN reported, Trump Media’s market value is still more than twice the $2.2 billion of JetBlue. That’s despite the fact that JetBlue generated 2,300 times more gross revenue last year than Trump Media’s paltry $4.1 million.
The whole value proposition of the company is as a proxy for Donald Trump’s political fortunes and a way to monetize his position. It’s shocking – and it’s the opposite of what America’s founders envisioned when they put anti-corruption provisions into the Constitution. We’ll keep pushing as we have for years for Congress to legislate additional anti-corruption protections and for Trump to divest this and all of his business interests should he take office.
Public service should not be about private gain, whether you’re running for president, serving in Congress, sitting on the Supreme Court or serving in local office.
Make a donation to CREW today and help us hold Trump and every corrupt politician accountable →
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Thanks for your support,
Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW
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