Unveiled amidst a daily grind of outrage and threats, Donald Trump’s latest swindle — $100,000 Trump watches — has been largely overlooked by voters and mainstream media. It shouldn’t be. Trump has made the watches available for purchase through virtually untraceable Bitcoin; any foreign actor seeking favor with Trump can purchase one, two, or 50 of them.
From oven-mitts to candle kits to pieces of the suit he wore when he was indicted, keeping up with Trump’s rotating grift machine is exhausting, but four weeks before the election is not the time to look away.
For media trying to keep up, it’s an endless game of Whack-a-mole. For voters who play along, Trump keeps putting quarters in the slot and charging them a dollar.
The embarrassing racket never ends
Despite being found guilty of business fraud to the tune of $355 million, Trump continues to hawk tacky merchandise like a B-list actor on QVC. After failed Trump steaks, vodka, and bankrupt casino ventures, he hyped his $99 virtual trading cards as a “major announcement.” They were a major embarrassment, depicting Trump as a superhero, astronaut, and Top Gun fighter pilot only an emotionally stunted teenager could love.
His “Victory 47” cologne (for the “confident, determined man who makes things happen!!”) sells for $250 on Ebay. A signed TrumpBible
can be yours for $59.99, his spray-gold sneakers cost $400, and his “collectible coins” containing $30 worth of silver sell for $100 each.
Trump’s ever-tanking Media & Technology Group was absurdly overvalued at $7 billion, despite posting no revenue and millions of dollars in losses. Query how many low income marks supporters who bought Truth Social stock spent all of their savings to do it. For the more well-heeled foreign investor, Trump sells private club, membership-only access to himself and Mar-a-Lago, for $1 million per membership.
The lucrative grift beats on.
Trump is openly soliciting Bitcoin purchases from foreign actors
The website treads carefully about the watches. It explains that these watch sales “have nothing to do with any political campaigns,” but then urges buyers to, “Join President Trump’s watch community. Be a part of history.”
The “Trump Victory Tourbillon” watch itself has triggered laughter from the fine watchmaker community. It is advertised as “one of classic sophistication, combined with President Trump’s symbol of success: Gold. You’ll be wearing the absolute statement of success.” Trump’s repeated bankruptcies must be implied in that absolute statement, because terms and conditions are clear: no refunds will be issued.
As an option, payments can’t be traced to be refunded anyway. The GetTrumpWatches.com website accepts Bitcoin, which will prove exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, for the Federal Election Commission, the IRS, and other authorities to trace.
A presidential candidate peddling $100k gold trinkets is more than an embarrassment. Any foreign actor or head of state seeking influence can buy these exorbitantly-priced watches, and Trump has openly courted and praised the most dangerous among them: Putin, Jong-un, Orban, and Saudi Arabia’s ‘bone saw’ Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has already delivered $2 billion to Jared Kushner’s ‘sovereign wealth fund.’
One month before the election is not the time to look away.
From foreign emoluments …
Trump says he will limit the $100k premium sales to 147 watches, which will total $14,700,000 in non-traceable money. Earlier this year, a House committee issued a report, “White House For Sale,” itemizing the extra ‘compensation’ Trump received from private ventures while he occupied the Oval Office.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines an emolument as an “advantage, profit or gain received as a result of one’s employment or one’s holding of office.” The foreign emoluments clause says that no one holding federal office can accept anything of value from any foreign state or head of state. The clause is meant to prevent corruption, and to limit foreign influence on federal officers. Trump has been sued under it several times.
One case, CREW v. Trump, involved Saudi government lobbyists who spent almost $300,000 on rooms at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. Another involved members of Congress, and a third case was brought by the State of Maryland. Federalist Society hacks on the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the cases, one for lack of standing, and another as moot because Trump no longer held the presidency. If such a suit is brought again while he’s president, the highly partisan Roberts court would likely find immunity, political speech, standing, or an as-yet non-existent legal basis to dismiss it again.
… To foreign campaign contributions
Trump has evaded emoluments accountability like he’s evaded legal liability for everything else, but the long-standing prohibition against foreign campaign contributions may prove to be another matter.
Federal law prohibits contributions, donations, expenditures and disbursements made directly or indirectly by foreign nationals in connection with any election, whether federal, state or local. It is also a violation of federal law to knowingly accept such payments, and the non-partisan FEC doesn’t play.
Meanwhile, as Trump hawks “diamond and gold” watches to foreign nationals in the final stretch of his 2024 campaign, the press is revisiting whether Egypt funneled $10 million into his 2016 presidential campaign…
Pundits, the media, and the average American voter are exhausted. Trump has orchestrated one outrage following another until they blend together and we lose sight of and interest in the details. As the Pew Research Center reports, many have tuned out and turned away from politics altogether as a result.
The November election is too close and far too consequential to look away now. Pay attention, and do everything you can think of to get young people in your family/life/church/neighborhood to vote.
Most of all, keep in mind that exhausting America is part of the grift, and there’s only one sure way to make it stop.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25-year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.