Where's the outrage? 'Trump World Inc.’s' many conflicts of interest

In 2018, President Trump’s infamous former chief strategist Steve Bannon said that “Democrats don’t matter; the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with s—.”

Trump’s “flood-the-zone” strategy is working right now about as well as Bannon could have ever imagined. A media so flooded with breaking news faces the prospect of something like reporting on a game of Whack-a-Mole. By design, many of Trump’s significant pronouncements and questionable activities are drowning under layers of excrement, whereas traditionally they would have generated headlines.

Trump’s extreme conflicts of interest are one such story. It is completely lost on the public that Trump is enriching himself daily with millions — potentially even billions — of dollars through his vast, diverse, growing domestic and international business empire.

And the 47th president is only just getting started.

Trump is the first president to own a controlling stake in a publicly traded company. Trump Media and Technology Group (symbol DJT) debuted on NASDAQ in March. Its home page exclaims, “A Uniting Force For Freedom of Expression — No Political Discrimination, Canceling Cancel Culture, Standing Up to Big Tech and Follow the TRUTH.”

Barron’s, a respected financial news source, reported on Inauguration Day that this company “is largely a cipher with scant disclosures, hardly any revenue, and no coverage on Wall Street. The stock has meme-like qualities, trading on presidential utterances and spikes in volume that vanish as quickly as they arise.”

Not only is Trump Media a shaky investment, but it represents a political-financial alternative universe that has become “normalized.” Consider that the president owns approximately 53 percent of the company’s stock, and that its communication platform, Truth Social, is the president’s mouthpiece.

Trump utilizes Truth Social 24/7 to make official government announcements, inject controversy, spew misinformation, hurl insults and rant against his enemies. As of January 2025, Truth Social had only 6.3 million active users, but media amplification keeps it top of mind. Truth’s home page reads, “Your Voice — Your Freedom,” language that could have been ripped from George Orwell’s classic “1984.”

Trump Media’s stock has settled at around $30 a share nearly a year after it went public with its $79.38 opening day 52-week high and low of $11.75. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from December, Trump transferred 115 million shares of stock, worth approximately $3.4 billion, to a Trust controlled by his son, Donald Jr. However, the fine print states that Trump is still the Trust’s “settlor and sole beneficiary.”  

Because it is a public company, Trump Media’s stock can be purchased by anyone, anywhere, including governments. Through its Swiss National Banks, Switzerland was the first to own 157,000 shares of DJT stock valued at $5.37 million. Switzerland is benign, but it represents what CREW — a longtime watchdog organization — warned could “open Trump up to endless potential conflicts of interest, national security threats and potential violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments clauses.”

Such conflicts of interest include the company’s board of directors, which is full of familiar names: Kash Patel, nominated as FBI director, and Linda McMahon, nominee for secretary of Education. Two post-inauguration SEC filings dated from last month show that both Patel and McMahon received 25,946 shares of stock valued at approximately $778,380 “as consideration for services rendered.” Was that a lucrative payout for future cooperation with the Big Boss?

Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is Trump Media and Technology Group’s chairman and chief executive officer. He served on the House Intelligence Committee when Patel was a staffer. As FBI director, Patel will nicely dovetail with Nunes, whom Trump appointed chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board to “ensure that the Intelligence Community is working to advance the president’s America First agenda.”

Another intelligence advisory board member is Scott Glabe, the company’s general counsel. Nunes and Glabe will have access to national secrets for strategic planning and investment purposes, which could be used to enrich themselves and Trump. Where is the outrage?

Potentially most egregious is that even more lucrative presidential business conflicts are on the horizon for Trump Media. Its recent press release stated, “Trump Media Registers Trademarks for Truth.Fi Investment Vehicles.” If Trump’s SEC approves it, you will be able to invest in six financial instruments, such as “Truth.Fi Made in America ETF,” “Truth.Fi U.S. Energy Independence SMA,” and “Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF.”

“[T]hese are for investors who believe in America First principles,” said Nunes. But Americans should ask what could possibly go wrong when an incumbent president’s public company starts offering investment instruments.

I may have seen the future last Sunday morning while watching Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox News. Her interview with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was followed with an ad for Trump Watches. Pitched by Trump himself, the ad could have been a Saturday Night Live skit.

Thus, we eagerly await Trump’s “Truth.Fi” ads on Fox News for “investments that strengthen the Patriot Economy.”

If those are not enough potential conflicts, the Trump Organization’s website, run by Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, is stacked with business and global entanglements that intertwine with Dad’s conduct of foreign policy. Check out Trump Inc.’s new “global portfolio expansion” to India (four projects), Saudi Arabia (two projects), United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and more.

When Trump meets those nations’ leaders, does he ever discuss Trump Inc.’s business deals? Might the Gaza Strip be renamed “Trump Strip” and added to their “global portfolio expansion”?

In April, the president’s private business will meet Saudi Arabia’s longstanding quest for global recognition through sports when state-owned LIV Golf hosts a tournament at Trump National Doral in Miami — a revenue hole-in-one for Trump Inc.

Trump’s ethics guidelines, announced in January, are rife with loopholes to grow what I call “Trump World Inc.” As the president reigns and “floods the zone” with news, he drowns opposing media along with national outrage over conflicts of interest with business and cryptocurrency deals that could earn him and his family billions of dollars while Trump promotes “America First.”

Myra Adams is an opinion writer who served on the creative team of two Republican presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008.