As someone who grew up watching American politics from afar, I held a certain image of the U.S. presidency. It was an institution, steeped in symbolism and guarded by norms that, while unwritten, seemed as sturdy as the White House columns (those not yet bulldozed). Then came the presidency of Donald Trump – not once, but twice. Like many around the world, I watched the first four-year spectacle with profound bewilderment, only to see it return in 2025 with an even more audacious flair. What unfolds now is not just a reprise of a different political style; it is a deepened inversion of the very idea of public service, one that fuses personal gain with public power while turning its back on the most vulnerable.
Let’s be blunt: the use of the office for self-enrichment remains anything but subtle. In his second term, President Trump has escalated the playbook from his first, organising his business interests to openly facilitate foreign gifts and investments that skirt the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses. Foreign diplomats and governments, seeking influence, continue to patronise Trump properties, from the revived Trump International Hotel in Washington to Mar-a-Lago, now more entrenched as the “Winter White House.” U.S. taxpayer dollars flow directly into his coffers as the Secret Service and government officials foot the bill for stays at Mar-a-Lago during his frequent Florida sojourns – 13 visits in the first 10 months alone.
A glaring example: a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, repackaged as a “gift” to the Pentagon but tied to Trump family entities, exemplifies the imperial corruption the Framers sought to prevent. Previous presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, placed their assets in blind trusts to avoid even the appearance of conflict. President Trump, however, has turned the presidency into the ultimate branding machine, with deals like Abu Dhabi-backed investments in Trump-affiliated crypto ventures raising fresh Emoluments alarms. The message is unmistakable: the business of America is, increasingly, the business of Trump.
This alone is a shocking departure – but what makes it truly jarring in 2025 is the stark, almost cruel, contrast with his administration’s policy direction, amplified by a Republican-controlled Congress eager to enact his agenda.
While the President flaunts his gilded life – the private jets, the opulent clubs, the billionaire persona – his administration has methodically advanced policies that strip essential support from the poor. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law on July 4, 2025, slashed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), imposing work requirements that will cut benefits for 2.4 million people, including families with children, with average losses of $146 per month per affected household.
Amid a government shutdown, the Administration even ordered states to “undo” full November SNAP payments, citing unauthorised funds despite ample reserves – plunging 42 million low-income Americans into uncertainty. Year after year, his budget proposals demand deep cuts to Medicaid, the lifeline for low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled. The same bill carved out over $1 trillion from Medicaid alone – part of $1.1 trillion in total health spending reductions – projected to leave 11.8 million uninsured by 2034, hitting rural hospitals hardest and forcing states to abandon coverage expansions.
The juxtaposition is impossible to ignore, especially now. On one screen, the glittering chandeliers of Mar-a-Lago, where foreign leaders like China’s Xi Jinping are hosted amid lavish events. On another, families face “coverage cliffs” as Medicaid work requirements disqualify millions, including those in their 50s and 60s scraping by on part-time jobs. The spectacle is no longer just about wealth; it’s about a perceived indifference, a prioritisation of private opulence over public duty that feels even more alien in this second act – especially as Trump remakes the White House itself with Mar-a-Lago-inspired gold accents and ballrooms, blurring the lines between public trust and personal empire.
From my vantage point, this is not “normal” political hardball. This is a rupture, deepened. The norms separating national interest from the leader’s personal gain are not just bent; they are shattered with defiant glee. The unspoken contract – that a leader perform humility and service to all citizens, not just their base – has been voided twice over.
As the world watches the United States grapple with this ongoing presidency, my bewilderment has hardened into urgent alarm. The American experiment remains a beacon, however dimmed. But a leader who enriches himself through foreign largesse while his policies hunger millions sends a chilling message to citizens and the global community alike. It declares the highest office a vehicle for personal gain, with the plight of the poor an expendable footnote. That is the new normal under Trump 2.0 – and from where I sit, it’s a profoundly perilous one.
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None of this is new, Trump is just more blatant in the way he has gone about it. In reality Trump is not the problem,, it’s the system.
As an American I can attest that this is definitely new.
Having a president who uses the office to enrich himself, and flaunting that wealth while taking food from millions of poor Americans… is new.
Roswell, please correct me, haven’t all Presidents left office richer than when they entered it? Watergate, WMD, “I never had sex with that woman”, I could go on.
Do you really believe what Trump is doing is new?
jonangel, we might have our wires crossed.
What I was saying is that this is the first time all these have been done at once. That’s my understanding of what the article is suggesting.
MT who wrote this article “held a certain image” so that is how he saw things. I see Presidents over the last 50 years in a different light, we all differ.
Which is why I don’t condemn Trump (although I disagree with his actions), I condemn the system. Trumps will come and go, the system needs upgrading and that is up to the people.
Damn you Michael.
I was going to attack the squinting, beady-eyed, bespectacled King Julien for accepting free tickets to the rugby grand final to sit with a handful pro-gambling people, but now it would look like chicken feed.
The two serious imported pillars behind and within the Trump regime are Koch Heritage’s Russell Vought Office of Budget Management and Tanton Network’s Stephen Miller Policy Advisor; both networks equal Project 2025 which is newish, but old.
Guess reaching this point also partly inspired by the infamous ‘Powell Memo’ and secretive CNP Council for National Policy, while keeping a distance from the John Birch Society (Koch senior) and membership competitors, the KKK.
Accordingly, what we observe is also described as ‘segregation economics’ of Koch’s muse James Buchanan who was hidden behind Hayek’s (other) bastards.
Their last chance of permanent change before the natural ‘great replacement’ does its work on the electorate….