How to Have a Trumpy Christmas, and Make the President-Elect Richer, Too

The Washington Post / Cat Zakrzewski

12:14 JST, December 26, 2024

The Trump Store has a gift for every patriot on your Christmas list.

It’s a little late for this year’s celebrations, but you can get a very early jump on next year and count down with the $38 Trump Advent calendar. Or trim the tree with a $95 Mar-a-Lago bauble or a $16 MAGA hat ornament, sold in nine colors. (A glass version of the hat ornament is $92.) Stuff stockings with an $86 “GIANT Trump Chocolate Gold Bar” and a $22 pair of candy cane socks printed with “Trump.” Prepare a holiday feast with a $14 Trump Christmas tree pot holder and $28 Trump apron featuring Santa waving an American flag.

The profits from these holiday trinkets do not benefit a political committee or a charitable cause, but the Trump Organization, the Trump family’s privately owned conglomerate of real estate, hotel and lifestyle businesses. As the company encouraged customers to celebrate the holidays with Trump gifts for all ages, President-elect Donald Trump personally profited off of his upcoming term in a manner that is unprecedented in modern history – even during his unconventional first stint in the White House.

The Trump Organization thought of everyone celebrating Trump’s nonconsecutive terms this yuletide season, rolling out a line of merchandise printed with “45-47,” including $195 quarter-zip sweatshirts, $85 cigar ashtrays and $38 baseball caps. Fido can’t go without his gear, of course: The store also sells gifts for dogs, including orange leashes and camo collars emblazoned with Trump’s name. And don’t forget the kids! How about a $38 teddy bear wearing a red, white or blue Trump sweater, $8 MAGA hat stickers or an array of Trump sweets, including $16 gummy bears?

All of these gifts can be wrapped in $28 golden Trump wrapping paper or stuck into Trump ornament gift bags ($14 a pair), and accompanied by a note on $35 stationery featuring bottles of Trump wine.

“Make the holidays that much greater this year with essentials from the Trump Home and Holiday collection,” the website says, over a photo of an Elf on the Shelf toy and a lime-green MAGA hat.

Trump has long delighted in finding new ways to market his name, creating a merchandise empire that includes digital trading cards, pricey sneakers, expensive watches and signed Bibles. But his expansion of offerings in the run-up to the inauguration has further concerned ethics experts and watchdogs, who say his behavior is the opposite of what they expect from a president-in-waiting during the transition.

“How much is he going to use the presidency just to sell Trump products?” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt pushed back on claims that Trump was profiting off his election victory.

“President Trump removed himself from his multi-billion-dollar real estate empire to run for office and forewent his government salary, becoming the first President to actually lose net worth while serving in the White House,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump didn’t get into politics for profit – he’s fighting because he loves the people of this country and wants to make America great again.”

Trump’s wealth oscillated over the course of his presidency and his years out of office. In 2021, he fell off the Forbes list of the country’s 400 richest people for the first time in 25 years as his real estate portfolio took a hit because of the pandemic. He was back on the list this year, buoyed by his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group.

The Trump Organization and Trump Media & Technology Group did not respond to requests for comment.

During Trump’s first term, his company sold merchandise including hats and products related to his prominent real estate properties and hotels, Libowitz said. However, he said, the 45-47 Collection and other products referencing the presidency represent a greater overlap between Trump’s business and political activities than was apparent during his first term.

Traditionally, presidents-elect are expected to take steps to limit conflicts of interest and adopt ethical guidelines in the run-up to the inauguration, Libowitz and other government ethics experts said. In the weeks since Trump won the election, he has not yet made commitments like the ones he made in 2017 to limit his financial conflicts. In 2016, he said he had sold all of his stock holdings, and the Trump Organization limited foreign deals, saying it turned down a $2 billion real estate deal in Dubai.

Trump has not resumed working at the Trump Organization since he handed over control in 2017 to his sons, but he continues to own a stake in the privately held firm. He placed all of his shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social, into a trust controlled by his older son, Donald Trump Jr., according to a regulatory filing this week. The president-elect continues to own those shares. Days after the election, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “NO INTENTION OF SELLING!”

Trump’s campaign previously said he will follow ethics guidelines in office.

The Trump-branded merchandise is just one of the most visible examples of how the president-elect’s vast network of businesses – which now includes the crypto company World Liberty Financial – could profit from Trump’s new position.

Eric Trump, his son who serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said in an interview with CNBC that his father would be “walled off” from the business when he returns to office and that he takes ethics concerns very seriously. Eric Trump plans to continue to do foreign real estate deals, including in the Middle East, he said in the interview.

“I’m going to be very sensitive to ethics,” he told CNBC. “He’s going to have nothing to do with the company. I’m going to have nothing to do with the administration.”

Eric Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Presidents and vice presidents are not held to the same ethics requirements as other executive branch employees, who are subject to strict rules on financial conflicts of interest and misuse of their positions for private gain. Some advocates for greater oversight of politicians’ finances say the holiday merchandise and Trump’s other financial dealings signal that existing regulations are ill-equipped to address the modern presidency.

“It’s kind of amazing the president is held to a significantly lower ethical standard than an accountant at the Social Security Administration,” Libowitz said.

Presidents since Jimmy Carter in the 1970s have used blind trusts to shield their assets and avoid any appearance of a conflict. Historically, presidents have faced congressional scrutiny of their business practices, but Trump is unlikely to face such challenges while his party controls both chambers of Congress. Also, under the Constitution, Trump cannot run for office again, so the political stakes of his decisions are lower.

“This time he goes in as a lame duck,” said Don Fox, former general counsel for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. “He didn’t really care the first term. I don’t think he would care any more this time.”

Throughout December, Trump has used his account on Truth Social to hawk products for the holidays. In between posts laying out his positions on the chaos in Syria and the government spending bill, Trump posted that the “hottest gift” this Christmas is his $99 coffee table tome, “SAVE AMERICA.” The book is sold by Winning Team Publishing, a company co-founded by his son Donald and Sergio Gor, the next director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.

Incoming first lady Melania Trump promoted her own line of Christmas ornaments and necklaces during a December interview with Fox News, where she discussed her husband’s “incredible” election victory. She described the ornaments as “very patriotic” and said the design was inspired by the election. The $90 brass ornament features “USA” in red, white and blue, and the gold “Vote Freedom” pendant retails for $600.

A representative for Melania Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, the president-elect also announced he had launched a fragrance line, which includes the $199 “VICTORY 47” perfume for women and the “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” cologne for men. Products for Christmas delivery were sold out as of Dec. 19. Trump promoted the fragrances on Truth Social with a photo of Jill Biden smiling at him during a service this month celebrating the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

“A FRAGRANCE YOUR ENEMIES CAN’T RESIST!” the caption said.

The fragrance website is operated by 45Footwear LLC, the same company that operates GetTrumpSneakers.com, a website currently selling $499 “Trump Won Gold Low Top Sneakers.” The fragrance website says that Trump’s name and associated design are trademarks of CIC Ventures LLC and that 45Footwear uses Trump’s likeness under a licensing agreement.

“Trump Fragrances are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals,” the website says.

The precise structure of the fragrance deal is unclear. CIC Ventures is a Trump company, The Washington Post has previously reported, and 45Footwear is affiliated with an LLC of the same name that is based in Sheridan, Wyo., according to state records. The LLC was filed by a Wyoming lawyer named Andrew Pierce.

Politicians have long sold T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers and even ugly Christmas sweaters to finance their campaigns or political action committees, and the Trump National Committee is also selling some Christmas merchandise, including a variety of MAGA stockings that feature a photo of Trump in a Santa hat. After leaving office, presidents often make money from speaking fees or by selling their memoirs.

But a president privately profiting off merchandise related to his election is highly unusual.

Government ethics experts say Trump’s merchandise sales are just one example of the new financial conflicts of interest that Trump’s presidency will raise. It is unprecedented for a president to own a multibillion-dollar stake in a publicly traded company, as Trump does in Trump Media & Technology Group. Because the stake represents a significant portion of the president-elect’s net worth, ethics experts are concerned that wealthy individuals, companies and funds associated with foreign governments could seek to influence Trump by pouring money into the business.

Trump also has signaled that he will pursue a deregulatory cryptocurrency agenda with Cabinet picks like Paul Atkins, an adviser to cryptocurrency companies, for the top job at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The moves come just months after Trump launched his own new cryptocurrency venture.

“Is the president more interested in using the office to make himself more wealthy?” said Danielle Caputo, a legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “Or is he acting as president and using that office to do what’s best for the people who put him in office?”