The Trump Grift
Part 3 The Family Business: How Every Trump Turned Access Into Cash
From Individual Grift to Family Enterprise
When Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, he faced a choice that had confronted every modern president: divest his business interests to avoid conflicts of interest, or find ways to monetize the office while claiming separation from his businesses.
Guess which one he chose.
But Trump's innovation wasn't just refusing to divest—it was turning the presidency into a family business opportunity. While previous presidents worried about the appearance of conflicts, Trump made conflicts of interest into a competitive advantage. Every family member found their own angle to extract value from political access.
The bankruptcy king had become something more powerful: the patriarch of a political dynasty that could monetize government service in ways that would have made the Gilded Age robber barons envious.
Chapter 1: Ivanka's Chinese Trademark Bonanza
Ivanka Trump's transformation from handbag designer to senior White House advisor came with an unexpected bonus: the Chinese government suddenly became very interested in approving her trademark applications.
Between 2017 and 2018, China granted 18 trademarks to companies linked to President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump, Chinese public records show, raising concerns about conflicts of interest in the White House.
But the timing wasn't just suspicious—it was smoking-gun obvious.
Dining with Xi, Cashing with China
In 2017, Ivanka's business received three new Chinese trademarks on the exact same day she dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. Think about that: while Ivanka was sitting across from the Chinese president at her father's resort, the Chinese government was approving valuable intellectual property rights for her business.
The pattern continued throughout Trump's presidency:
May 2018: Ivanka Trump's business received approval for several new Chinese trademarks a week before President Trump announced he wanted to lift the ban on the Chinese company ZTE, which had been sanctioned for violating U.S. sanctions.
October 2018: China granted provisional approval for 16 more trademarks to Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, including—and this is not a joke—trademarks for "voting machines."
Yes, the president's daughter received Chinese trademarks for voting machines while her father was running for re-election. You literally can't make this stuff up.
The Scope of the Scheme
The trademarks weren't just for handbags and jewelry. China approved Ivanka Trump trademarks for:
Voting machines (seriously)
Nursing homes
Sausage casing
Wedding dresses
Handbags and shoes
Beauty services
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington noted the obvious: "Ivanka receives preliminary approval for these new Chinese trademarks while her father continues to wage a trade war with China. Since she has retained her foreign trademarks, the public will continue to have to ask whether President Trump has made foreign policy decisions in the interest of his and his family's businesses."
Even though Ivanka announced she was shuttering her brand in July 2018, she kept the trademarks—positioning herself to resume business after leaving government with valuable intellectual property rights gifted by foreign governments.
Chapter 2: Jared's $2 Billion Saudi Payday
If Ivanka's Chinese trademarks were brazen, Jared Kushner's Saudi deal was breathtaking. Here was the president's son-in-law and senior advisor getting a $2 billion investment from the same Saudi Crown Prince he'd been negotiating with as a government official.
The Setup: Building Relationships While in Government
During Trump's first term, Jared Kushner developed a close relationship with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner made regular trips to Saudi Arabia and stayed in close contact with the Crown Prince, often to the concern of White House colleagues.
Two former senior administration officials told The Washington Post they often felt they were in the dark on sensitive diplomatic issues that Kushner took the lead on. "I didn't really know what Jared was doing with the Saudis," one former administration official said.
What we do know is that Mohammed bin Salman got a lot from the Trump administration:
Arms sales worth billions
A green light to blockade Qatar (despite a major U.S. military base there)
A hands-off policy when he imprisoned Saudi citizens in a luxury hotel, demanding billions in exchange for their release
Continued support even after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
The Payoff: $2 Billion and Counting
Six months after Kushner left the White House, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners, a private equity firm Kushner founded the day after Trump left office.
Think about the timeline:
January 20, 2021: Trump leaves office
January 21, 2021: Kushner starts Affinity Partners
Summer 2021: Saudi Arabia invests $2 billion
The Saudi crown prince overruled his own investment advisors to make the deal happen. According to The New York Times, the Saudi investment advisors had "big doubts" about giving Kushner the money, but Mohammed bin Salman pushed it through anyway.
House Democrats investigated and found that the circumstances "create the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work during the Trump Administration."
As Republican Chris Christie put it: "The grift from this family is breathtaking."
The Ongoing Returns
But $2 billion was just the beginning. Kushner's firm has continued to attract Middle Eastern investments, creating an ongoing revenue stream from the relationships he built while serving in government.
When defending the arrangement, Kushner dismissed ethical concerns and called Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince a "visionary leader"—the same Crown Prince who the CIA concluded ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Chapter 3: Melania's NFT Eye Portraits and Skincare Scams
Even the First Lady got in on the action, though her ventures showed the risks of the family business model when partnerships go wrong.
The Skincare Disaster
Melania's first major business venture was a caviar-infused skincare line called "Melania Caviar Complexe C6," launched in 2013. She had spent over a decade developing the products and hired chemists and skin experts.
But the venture immediately got tangled in the kind of business partner disputes that plagued many Trump family enterprises. Her partners at New Sunshine LLC—founded by Indianapolis millionaire Steve Hilbert and Wisconsin's wealthiest man, John Menard—ended up in a spectacular legal battle.
The dispute involved allegations that Menard pressured Hilbert's wife "to have a threesome" and Menard suing to void Melania's contract. The result? The skincare line barely shipped to stores before dying in a mess of lawsuits.
Melania sued for $50 million in damages and won, with the court ruling in her favor and awarding her a settlement. But the experience taught her a valuable lesson about controlling her business ventures more tightly.
The NFT Pivot
When Melania returned to business after leaving the White House, she chose a medium that gave her complete control: NFTs. Her first offering was titled "Melania's Vision"—a watercolor painting of her eyes priced at $187.58.
The website described the NFT as "breathtaking" and "embodying Melania Trump's cobalt blue eyes, providing the collector with an amulet to inspire. Melania's Vision provides the collector with strength and hope."
She was literally selling pictures of her eyes as digital collectibles while her husband ran foreign policy. The NFT came with an audio recording of Melania saying, "My vision is: Look forward with inspiration, strength and courage."
Since returning to the White House, Melania has continued her NFT business, making it clear that she views the presidency as compatible with personal business ventures.
Chapter 4: Eric's Middle East Empire
While his siblings focused on individual deals, Eric Trump took on the role of international business developer, turning his father's presidency into a platform for global Trump Organization expansion.
The Gulf Strategy
Eric has been the point man for Middle East expansion, traveling regularly to the Gulf states to negotiate deals while his father sets foreign policy toward those same countries.
The deals Eric has announced are staggering in scope:
Qatar: A $5.5 billion Trump International Golf Club, including "an 18-hole golf course, exclusive clubhouse, and Trump-branded villas." The project is backed by Qatari Diar, a company owned by the Qatari government.
Saudi Arabia: Multiple projects including luxury towers in Riyadh and a $530 million development in Jeddah, all through partnership with Dar Global.
UAE: Trump International Hotel and Tower in Dubai, a luxury high-rise with a gross development value of $1 billion that will accept Bitcoin payments.
Oman: A Trump International Hotel under development, slated for completion by December 2028.
The Vietnam Gambit
But Eric's most audacious move might be in Vietnam. In May 2025, Vietnam's prime minister and Eric Trump held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5 billion luxury residential development with three 18-hole golf courses outside Hanoi.
The timing was remarkable: Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Eric Trump's visit "motivated us to expedite this project" and pledged government support. This happened while Vietnam was negotiating to avoid a potential 46% U.S. tariff that Trump had threatened.
Vietnamese trade negotiators offered concessions including "providing favourable conditions to Starlink, owned by Trump's close ally Elon Musk, to roll out satellite internet services in Vietnam."
Eric is literally cutting development deals with foreign governments while they're negotiating trade policy with his father.
Chapter 5: Don Jr.'s $500K Access Club
Donald Trump Jr. took a more direct approach: just sell access to government officials outright.
In April 2025, Don Jr. launched the Executive Branch club, charging $500,000 for membership and promising access to White House officials and Cabinet secretaries. The Georgetown-based club launched at a White House Correspondents' Dinner after-party attended by global elites.
Senator Chris Murphy called it "unbelievable corruption," while Representative Jason Crow flagged potential Foreign Emoluments Clause violations given the likelihood of foreign oligarch members.
But Don Jr. isn't stopping there. He's also been globe-trotting on business development, working on real estate deals in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. In Serbia, he's literally turning sites that the U.S. bombed during the NATO intervention into Trump-branded developments.
Chapter 6: The Supporting Cast
Even the extended Trump family found ways to monetize political access:
Lara Trump (Eric's wife): Launched her own merchandise empire with $59.99 MAGA hats and accessories, leveraging campaign events for sales.
Tiffany Trump: Got in on the action with a $5 million jewelry line promoted via Truth Social.
Barron Trump: At just 18, landed a $1 million NFT "ambassador" role, proving that even the youngest Trump can monetize the family name.
Chapter 7: The Scale of the Operation
By the time Trump left office in 2021, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had documented 3,403 conflicts of interest. The list reads like an instruction manual for how not to drain the swamp.
But the conflicts weren't bugs in the system—they were features. Each family member had found their own angle to extract value from political access, creating a diversified portfolio of government-dependent income streams.
The Trump family took 3,249 Secret Service-protected trips in just two fiscal years, compared to 933 trips for the Obama family over seven years. Much of this travel was to promote Trump Organization businesses or negotiate new deals.
The Innovation: Industrialized Corruption
What made the Trump family's approach unprecedented wasn't just the scale—it was the systematization. Previous administrations might have had individual conflicts of interest. The Trump family turned conflicts of interest into a business model.
Each family member specialized in different markets:
Ivanka: Foreign trademarks and consulting deals
Jared: Private equity and Middle Eastern investments
Eric: International real estate development
Don Jr.: Direct access sales and Eastern European deals
Melania: Luxury goods and digital collectibles
Together, they created a comprehensive wealth extraction system that could monetize every aspect of government service, from trade negotiations to foreign policy to simple White House access.
The template Fred Trump created in Brooklyn had evolved into something much more powerful: a family enterprise that could extract value from the highest levels of government while maintaining the appearance of legitimacy.
The bankruptcy king had become the don of a political crime family—not in the traditional sense, but in their ability to systematically extract wealth from systems designed to serve the public interest.
Next week in Part 4: "The $400 Million Flying Palace" - How Trump's second presidency kicked the family grift into overdrive, featuring cryptocurrency schemes that make marks of their own supporters, a "gift" jet that taxpayers will pay to convert, and Middle East business deals that dwarf anything from the first term. We'll explore how the family that perfected monetizing government access has now weaponized the presidency itself.