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Donald Trump en route to Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, for a dinner with top purchasers of his meme coin.<\/span>Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Do Donald Trump<\/span> and his family \u201cactually give a fuck<\/a>\u201d about appearing to profit from his presidency? Evidence is mounting that they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n Mother Jones<\/em> reported<\/a> yesterday on various ways that corporations, foreign governments, and random rich people with agendas are giving money and other benefits to the first family\u2014and noted that the president and his kin have largely dispensed with even their first-term pretense of adherence to ethical norms.<\/p>\n This view was seemingly bolstered by Arthur\u00a0Schwartz, an adviser to Donald Trump Jr., who, while explaining his unwillingness to address my questions about conflicts resulting from Trump Jr.\u2019s business ventures, texted: \u201cWrite your ridiculous story. Literally no one cares\u2026We don\u2019t actually give a fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n The president indeed did not appear overly troubled by extensive bipartisan<\/a> criticism<\/a> when he accepted, on Wednesday, a plane from Qatar (a country where his business just cut a deal<\/a> to develop a golf resort) to use as Air Force One. And he ignored critics accusing<\/a> him of corruption again on Thursday, when he hosted<\/a> a dinner at his Virginia golf course rewarding 220 of the largest purchasers of his $TRUMP meme cryptocurrency, including dinner guests who said<\/a> they hoped to use the access to influence him.<\/p>\n \u201cWrite your ridiculous story. Literally no one cares\u2026We don\u2019t actually give a fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThey really don\u2019t seem to be making much of an effort to show they care about appearance of conflicts of interest or corruption,\u201d Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n As brazen as Trump\u2019s recent actions may appear, he nevertheless has continued to argue they are not corrupt. Trump this week threatened to sue<\/a> ABC News again<\/a> for reporting, he said, \u201cthat Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane\u201d\u2014Trump insists the plane is going to the Department of Defense, rather than to him personally, despite having repeatedly said<\/a> he plans to eventually transfer it to his presidential library.<\/p>\n White House spokespersons, too, continue to profess indignation about media reports suggesting that there is anything untoward about the president taking gifts or money from people attempting to influence him. \u201cIt\u2019s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. \u201cThis president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House has claimed<\/a> Trump\u2019s businesses don\u2019t create conflicts of interest because \u201cthe president\u2019s assets are in a trust managed by his children.\u201d <\/p>\n But these arguments are belied by Trump\u2019s failure to limit the appearance or reality that he is using his power to reward people who help enrich him. Trump continues to benefit from the family companies now run by his sons, and ethics experts note that because Trump has not set up a blind trust, the president can keep track of who is paying or investing in those firms in hopes of influencing him.<\/p>\n The Trump Organization and White House have declined to renew modest ethics restrictions they imposed during Trump\u2019s first term. In 2017, the Trump Organization, run by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., said it would not ink foreign deals during the Trump presidency. This time, the company is reaching<\/a> foreign deals. And while they claim to be avoiding agreements with foreign governments, the Trumps are making development deals that rely<\/a> on approval by foreign governments. The Trump family also appears to be benefiting from a plan by a state-backed<\/a>\u00a0United Arab Emirates firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin\u00a0in a multibillion-dollar deal.<\/p>\n Donald Trump Jr., speaking Wednesday in at an economic conference in, of all places, Qatar, elaborated on this decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first term, we actually said we\u2019re not going to do any foreign deals,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reality is, it didn\u2019t stop the media from constantly saying you\u2019re profiteering anyway. We\u2019re like, we stopped entirely, even the deals that were totally legit, it didn\u2019t stop the insanity. So this time around, we said, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to play by the rules,\u2019 but we\u2019re not going to go so far as to stymie our business forever, lock ourselves in a proverbial padded room, because it almost doesn\u2019t matter\u2014they\u2019re going to hit you no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n This comment raises questions about what Trump Jr. thinks padded rooms are used for, and what not \u201ctotally legit\u201d deals he may have in mind. But it also suggests that he understands the purpose of ethical norms to be avoidance of criticism. Critics of the first family\u2019s mix of business and politics, by contrast, are concerned<\/a> about actual corruption occurring.<\/p>\n The president and his family hear those concerns. But they don\u2019t seem to give a fuck.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n