Trump has made it very, very easy to believe he tried to leverage his position to benefit his golf club

Every three months, the White House makes an ostentatious presentation of President Trump donating his salary to a government agency or department. In early March, he donated his $100,000 quarterly salary to the Department of Health and Human Services “to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat coronavirus.” The amount was equivalent to 0.000008 percent of the agency’s annual budget.

There is income that Trump does accept, of course: income from his stake in the Trump Organization. He earned nearly half a billion dollars in both 2018 and 2019, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, most of it from his private company. While the presidency occupies Trump’s time, the Trump Organization continues to line his pockets.

This unprecedented situation is so well established by now that it barely attracts attention when Trump’s two employers are in conflict or overlap. He spends so much time at Trump properties that, when he leaves the White House early on a Saturday morning, there’s generally no question where he’s headed: to his golf club in Sterling, Va. He has gone there on average about once every two weeks since he took office. It’s just background noise. Continue reading.