[Danny Dravot is the central figure in The Man Who Would Be King based on the Rudyard Kipling story. He is initially successful, but his hubris and desire for power eventually lead to his downfall.] 

This is “probably not” Trump’s Danny Dravot moment. The MAGA faithful seem to have an unlimited tolerance for pain. Schadenfreude is a strong motivator. The President can inflict visible and invisible costs on us, steal the nation’s resources for himself and his rich friends, engage in grift “the likes of which have never been seen before” and get away with it. The true believers accept all of it as long as he STICKS IT to the pointy-headed intellectuals, the bureaucracy, uppity women, and anyone else they deem different or threatening.

In 2016, I declared: I am your voice,” Trump said. “Today (in 2023), I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”Since being elected to his second term he has delivered on his promise of retribution by firing government employees, attacking America’s colleges and universities, threatening private law firms and the media, removing all references to so-called DEI by rewriting American history, threatening and betraying our foreign allies and more all in pursuit of his illusive Golden Age.

I recall a popular book from the Nineties, The Winner Take All Society by Robert Frank and Phil Cook. They were classmates of mine at U.C. Berkeley and their big idea was that in a technologically advanced global economy the very best athletes, actors, artists, etc. will garnish the prime rewards (income, recognition, power) while the second, third and fourth best in their field must make do with the leftovers.

Two decades later a couple of political scientists, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, published Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made The Rich Richer-And Turned Its Back On The Middle Class. Today we have a system of Winner Take All Leadership where our retribution and wealth seeking leader ignores the public interest for private gain.

Are we there yet? Have we reached the point where, as our Winner In Chief himself said in a rare moment of clarity, we’ve grown tired of winning? “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’”

Trump didn’t drain the swamp — he built a resort on it and started charging admission. (Kelley Benson, Arizona Wildcat Newspaper)

The question about whether Trump has reached his Danny Dravot moment was prompted by the current bruhaha over the gift of a $400 million luxury jet (“a palace in the sky”) from the Qatari government to replace the 40-year old Air Force One. Trump says the gift is “temporary.” Ownership of the airborne palace will be transferred to the Trump Presidential library foundation at the end of his term presumably for the public to enjoy in a museum, I presume, of all things Trump.

In an unusual breach of MAGA obedience, several prominent MAGA supporters have come out against the idea (prominent rightwing commentator Ben Shapiro, far-right MAGA activist Laura Loomer, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky). “Rightwing pundits on social media have proceeded to dredge up uncomfortable material for Trump with an enthusiasm which they normally reserve for progressive Democrats. A clip of Trump talking on the White House lawn from 2017 in which he accused Qatar of historically being “a funder of terrorism at a very high level” circulated widely.” (Trump Faces Backlash of MAGA Faithful Over Plan To Accept Plane Gift From Qatar)

Senator Rand Paul made the curious statement “it’s not worth the appearance of impropriety.” Speaking of “appearance” of impropriety, we’ve witnessed much more serious “actual” improprieties in the past few years that neither Rand Paul nor any other MAGA supporter has objected to.

America’s 47th president has more than doubled his estimated fortune, from $2.3 billion to $5.1 billion by ignoring the public interest and focusing on his interests. (How Truth Social and Crypto Helped Trump Double In Just One Year, Dan Alexander, Forbes).

According to a report by CBS News, the Trump family’s net worth has increased by $2.9 billion thanks to investments in crypto. At the same time,  Trump loosened the federal government’s regulatory approach to the digital currency industry as a whole. His holdings consist of $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins and a large stake in World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto exchange affiliated with the Trump family launched last year. The Trumps have a 60% interest in WLF. They make money on all transactions on the exchange regardless if crypto goes up or down.

The President’s net worth is expected to get another bump, with WLF’s announcement that an Abu Dhabi-backed firm will invest billions of dollars in the Trump family-affiliated crypto fund.

“In terms of prior presidents in the modern age, they’ve all divested their assets, or they’ve rolled them over into what we call blind trusts. President Trump did not do that in his first term, and it seems as if in the second term he’s doubled down and he is all in (on) the crypto industry.” (Virginia Canter, State Democracy Defenders chief counsel for ethics and anticorruption).

The president, who as recently as 2021 described crypto currency as a “scam,” has since embraced digital currency, saying he hopes to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.” And why not? He makes loads of money on it.

The president’s meme coin surged more than 60% in one recent week after its website advertised an “intimate private dinner” with Trump for the top 220 coin-holders, plus a “special VIP” reception and White House tour for the top 25. The website later scrubbed references to the “White House.”

 Donald Trump Jr. and his business partners, including Witkoff’s sons, Zach and Alex, are launching an exclusive D.C. club with a $500,000 membership fee, pitched as a private hangout for donors and business moguls to rub shoulders with top Trump officials.

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

According to an article in Yahoo Finance by Hafiz Rashid, Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, have been making deals and raking in money ever since Trump won the election, including a cool $40 million to license Melania’s documentary about returning to the White House as first lady. That’s just one of Trump’s numerous moneymaking schemes since his return to office, which have netted him and his family nearly $80 million so far, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. That includes donations to his future presidential library and a hefty $10 million settlement with Elon Musk’s X. 

The President did not sign an ethics pledge for his presidential transition process, as is called for by law. And hours after being sworn into office, he rescinded former President Joe Biden’s ethics rules – without issuing a pledge covering his own administration.

Even if Mr. Trump does eventually sign such an order, it’s unclear who will enforce it. In his first week in office, he fired the director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, as well as 17, or about 1 in 4, of the inspectors general who serve in watchdog roles at various federal agencies (disregarding the 30-day notice to Congress required by law). (Story Hinckley, CSMonitor)

Lawmakers this week rejected the GENIUS Act, a bill meant to establish federal rules for stablecoins, due in part to concerns that President Trump’s personal cryptocurrency ventures have created an unprecedented conflict of interest. “Currently, people who wish to cultivate influence with the president can enrich him personally by buying cryptocurrency he owns or controls,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a statement to CNBC explaining his opposition to the bill. “This is a profoundly corrupt scheme. It endangers our national security and erodes public trust in government.” (Mackenzie Zigzlos, CNBC)

In his first term, foreign dignitaries frequently booked stays at Mr. Trump’s golf clubs and hotels throughout his tenure, which critics called a blatant form of currying favor. And Mr. Trump himself spent substantial amounts of time at his own properties during those four years, often with other high-level government officials – at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money. So far during his second term Trump has spend nearly half his time playing golf at his clubs at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers.

Trump has long been a merchandiser of numerous products (bibles, spring water, gold watches, sneakers, steaks, cologne, education, books, etc). He has real estate interests including golf courses in foreign countries. He recently held what amounted to a live advertisement for Tesla cars at the White House with CEO and “special government employee” Elon Musk who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Trump political operation and other Republican candidates.

Until the gift from Qatar, the president’s supporters have raised few to no concerns about any of Trump’s money making schemes. Mr. Trump has long had a reputation as an aggressive businessman unabashedly pursuing wealth and success, and now say his MAGA supporters he’s doing it for the country as well as for himself. Whether he’s following every ethics guideline or worrying about possible conflicts of interest doesn’t so much matter as long as he’s delivering results for America. Many also point to the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter as an example of how other first families have blatantly profiteered off the power of the presidency.

On Wednesday, the president said that he was considering renaming the Persian Gulf (which is thousands of miles away from U.S. shores) the “Arabian Gulf,” just days after his family announced billions of dollars in forthcoming real estate deals in the region. (As a side note, Iran has warned of “wrath” for Trump’s geopolitical meddling.)

Never-the-less, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to brush that under the rug, scolding the press for questioning whether Trump had something personal to gain out of the pitch or his upcoming trip to the Middle East. Instead, she implored Americans to believe that Trump is completely selfless in his pursuit of power.

“I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” Leavitt said. “He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once but twice.”

“The American public reelected him back to this White House because they trust he acts in the best interests of this country and putting the American public first,” Leavitt continued. “This is a president who has actually lost money for being president.”

So there you have it. For all the billions Donald Trump has made and stands to make as President he’s “actually lost money for being president.” Danny Dravot be damned.