Sarah Gonzalez
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
First up, the funnest category, merch.
The Trump sneakers, Trump bibles, Trump guitars.
Trump gets some of those profits.
And technically, he is diverting money that would have gone to his own campaign when he does this.
And another real innovation is actually around official campaign money.
Trump found a loophole, a way to convert campaign money into money that he could use to pay for his legal defense in lawsuits against him.
Like when E. Jean Carroll sued for defamation after her sexual abuse allegation case, or when Trump was charged with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The campaign money loophole, according to David, earned Trump $100 million worth of legal defense.
So add that to the other merch money.
Next up, Truth Social.
David calls this the media category.
It includes social media, but also media deals like a payment from Amazon to Melania to make a movie about Melania's life.
And also it includes suing the media.
Next up, the private jet, the Qatari Royal Jet.
The Qatari government technically gifted this jet to the U.S.
government, but it's later supposed to go to the Trump Presidential Library.
And David says that there is a way for presidents to benefit from their presidential libraries, so that's why he counted it.
Obviously, this was a club that Trump owned before he ever became president.
And David says he really went out of his way on this one to calculate only how much extra in profits Trump's presidencies have brought him.
So, for example, after the 2016 election, Trump started hiking up the initiation fee for Mar-a-Lago members.