Trump’s second term will go down in history as one of the most chaotic governments the world has ever seen short of a bloody revolution. He has declared (economic) war on every country in the world and aims to destroy or bend to his will all federal institutions, universities, law firms and journalists, in fact, anyone or any organisation who has the temerity to call him out. But while this is going on he is busy with the steal.
Trump is not particularly talented, but he has no shame and his biggest strength has always been his ability to monetise his name. Winning the presidency for the first time was a match made in heaven. It fed his ego while it fed his wallet in a variety of indirect ways such as people or delegations who wished to meet with him stayed at his hotel. Directly, he started pushing all manner of merch such as a Bible, hypocritically endorsed by himself. If Trump could think that war heroes like John McCain were losers for being captured, he must privately think that Jesus was the biggest loser in history for allowing himself to be crucified.
But his first term was just his Apprenticeship until he was fired by the Electorate. Luckily for him, the second time around he was not facing a sentient Zimmer frame, but a wonky and not particularly sentient Zimmer frame. This time he found himself much better prepared. Project 2025 had compiled a 920-page document on how he could wield virtually dictatorial power via executive orders. Apart from continuing his trivial pursuit of merch, the world presented some unique opportunities, namely the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. While cognizant of the potential of a much-wanted Nobel Peace Prize, he sided with Putin as he eyed real estate development opportunities for himself while pressurising Zelensky to allow the USA to exploit their rare earth minerals. A 3-in-1 win if he could pull it off.
Next up, the Israeli bombing of Gaza into an uninhabitable pile of rubble tweeked his inner real estate reptilian brain. He saw that the Israelis preferred the Gazans to be gone and, since it was by then an unliveable pile of rubble, he proposed that Gaza be redeveloped into a Middle Eastern Rivera obviously with him and his buddies having first dabs. Both projects have yielded nothing yet except a lightly pencilled in deal with Ukraine.
Schmoozing with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi recently, he accepted a $500 m jet for his foundation when he leaves office and all manner of real estate development deals for Trump Inc.
But he hadn’t forgotten his merch. In a 2019 tweet, Trump thought that Bitcoin and the like were Kryptonite and could “facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.” But his stance changed dramatically during his re-election campaign and he started championing it. He was preparing the ground for his ultimate merch, the $TRUMP meme coin. Although crypto currencies are merely computer algorithms, meme coins are another story and have no substance or utility whatsoever which probably resonated with Him. He might have been a late convert but he literally hit gold when he launched $TRUMP on 17 January, 3 days before his inauguration. He issued 200 million coins via the Solana blockchain and held back 800 million. The price soon rose to a peak of $77 but is now languishing at around $13 so many people must have burnt their fingers. This happens quite a lot with Trump investors as six bankruptcies will testify to. Nevertheless, speculators continue to trade at the rate of 20-50 million trades per day and Trump gets a cut of the transaction fees as well. On 14 February, Fortune magazine noted that while ‘investors’ lost about $2 bn, Trump made an estimated $350 m from the initial sales and, together with his partners, made a further $100 m in fees.
Nice work if you can get it.
