Opinion: Do Trump supporters have a breaking point?

Published: Feb 10, 2017 4:41 p.m. ET

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Looking the other way as president uses White House for personal profit

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I have a genuine and serious question for Republicans and other Trumpists.

How much profiteering is too much? Seriously. How much is Donald Trump allowed to use the White House to advance his family's economic interests before you scream “enough is enough”?

Most Americans are concerned first and foremost with their own family's economic situation, and that of their communities. They may reason that if they are doing well, who cares if the Trump family makes a little extra off of its public position? (Let's put aside the raging hypocrisy of the "pay for play" campaign against so-called Crooked Hillary.)

But at what point does this cross a line? At what point do Americans stand up to Mr. Swamp-Drainer-in-Chief and say, "What on Earth...?"

Trump supporters, please let people know if you have a breaking point. I am genuinely curious.

Not even three weeks into his presidency, here’s some of what Trump has been able to get away with:

1. Trump uses his presidential platform to attack Nordstrom JWN, -3.23%  for ceasing to carry his daughter Ivanka's clothing line, even though the company had already said it had cut the line for commercial reasons.

2. Trump uses the White House press spokesman, a government official, to double down on his comments and also attack Nordstrom.

3. First Lady Melania Trump admits in a court filing that she had intended to use her position over the next four years to garner "multimillion-dollar business relationships." She then denies what her lawyers said in a court filing, but nonetheless continues with a $150 million "damages" claim based on the value of those profits.

4. The Department of Defense announces it is going to rent space in Trump Tower on the public dime.

5. Donald Trump refuses to divest of his businesses and instead merely puts them in the hands of two independent individuals — his sons Donald Jr. and Eric. When the federal government's ethics watchdog called that move "meaningless," House Republicans responded... by attacking the watchdog.

6. Trump announces that his Florida club Mar-A-Lago will be the "Winter White House" and then doubles the admission fees to $200,000.

7. Trump lets his daughter Ivanka sit in on his official meeting with the prime minister of Japan — while she is negotiating to license her clothing line to a Japanese company that is majority-owned by the government of Japan.

8. Ivanka Trump wears an "Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry" bracelet when she appears on “60 Minutes” with her father, and then immediately uses the publicity to sell copies for $10,000 apiece.

9. Days after he is elected president, Trump holds a photo-op at Trump Tower with his Indian business partners, helping market their new luxury development near Mumbai.

10. President-elect Trump speaks by telephone with Argentine President Mauricio Macri, and three days later a Trump development project in Argentina, which had long been stalled, is underway again.

11. When Eric Trump travels abroad for a high-profile marketing trip on behalf of the Trump organization, the $100,000 security bill is footed entirely by the U.S. taxpayer.

Such so-called kleptocracy is nothing new in U.S. politics. President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson profited handsomely from her ownership of a Texas radio station. Ronald Reagan collected a big paycheck from the Japanese after eight years of appeasing their country's economic predations. Bill and Hillary Clinton raked in millions of dollars in speaking fees after leaving the White House. All of this can be criticized, with more and less force. But that doesn’t make it right.

It is surely relevant that many Americans voted for Trump because both he and politically conservative media told them Hillary Clinton was a "crook," while Trump would "clean up Washington" and "drain the swamp." So I’m asking now: When does Trump’s profiteering become too much? Or have we come to a point where anything goes?


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