{"id":154183,"date":"2025-06-21T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/this-presidency-is-a-brand-franchise-trump-has-taken-the-commercialization-of-politics-to-a-new-level-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:15:06","slug":"this-presidency-is-a-brand-franchise-trump-has-taken-the-commercialization-of-politics-to-a-new-level-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/this-presidency-is-a-brand-franchise-trump-has-taken-the-commercialization-of-politics-to-a-new-level-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This presidency is a brand-franchise\u2019: Trump has taken the commercialization of politics to a new level – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s $499 gold phone is only the latest ask of the Maga faithful to show their commitment in dollar terms
\u201cI like thinking big. I always have. To me it\u2019s very simple: if you\u2019re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.\u201d
Those were Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> words to writer Tony Schwartz in the Art of the Deal. In his second term, Trump has been thinking big about making money. Since his reelection campaign began, Trump is estimated<\/a> to have more than doubled his net worth to $5.4bn.
A sizeable chunk of that cash has come from the launch of Trump-branded products. This week the Trump Organization entered the mobile phone business with a Trump-branded service that will include a \u201csleek gold\u201d phone<\/a>, which costs $499, that is \u201cmade in America\u201d. Maybe?
Never to miss a patriotic marketing moment, they launched Trump Mobile at Trump Tower in New York on the 10-year anniversary of their father\u2019s announcement at the top of a gold escalator, to the sound of Neil Young\u2019s Rockin\u2019 in the Free World, that he would run for president. The premium tier of service would be dubbed the 47 Plan, priced at $47.45 a month.
Donald Trump Jr said the brothers had partnered with \u201csome of the greatest people in the industry to make sure that real Americans get true value from their mobile carriers\u201d.
\u201cCelebrity\u201d phone launches are hardly new. The launch announcement came days after the actor-hosts of the popular SmartLess podcast \u2013 Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes \u2013 announced their own cut price phone plan, and more than two years since actor Ryan Reynolds profited from his stake in Mint Mobile, sold to T-Mobile for $1.35bn.
So was Trump \u2013 or the Trumps \u2013 thinking big or just following a pattern of seemingly random licensing deals that renew concerns about the president\u2019s business enterprises? After all, if Trump is really concerned about phone prices, he could \u2013 as president \u2013 push for legislative change.
\u201cThere was a lot of dialog when Trump returned to power that we would see in this term a particularly interesting residency in the White House about how much money would be made,\u201d says marketing-PR guru Mark Borkowski, \u201cand this is a typical Trump side-hustle playing off Maga patriotism.\u201d
The blurred lines between business and politics, impacting how candidates are portrayed, policies are shaped and voters engage with the political process \u2013 commonly referred to as the commercialization of politics \u2013 may not be Trump\u2019s to own exclusively, but he\u2019s taken it to a new level.
\u201cIt is troubling, and more than in jest, that this is now a political economy and he\u2019s actually saying this presidency is a brand-franchise,\u201d says Borkowski. \u201cThere is no separation between power and profit. He\u2019s redrawn the boundaries between commerce and the office of the president, and he\u2019s accelerated the notion of post-ethical politics.\u201d
The gold phone and patriotically-priced phone plan \u2013 \u201c47\u201d referring to Trump\u2019s current term, and \u201c45\u201d referring to the previous \u2013 is only the latest ask of the Maga (Make America Great Again) faithful, otherwise known as ultra-Magas, to show their commitment in dollar terms.
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\u201cThe Trumps\u2019 continued business expansion often serves to reinforce Trump\u2019s political persona rather than distract from it. For Maga supporters, his business ventures are interpreted as proof of his self-made success and outsider status \u2013 both key pillars of his political brand,\u201d says Zak Revskyi at the New York brand management consultancy Baden Bower.
\u201cThese business moves don\u2019t just coexist with his political identity \u2013 they actively feed into it. They help sustain the image of Trump as a results-oriented executive who blends capitalism with populism,\u201d Revskyi adds.
On Thursday, Bloomberg revealed<\/a> that investment bank Dominari Holdings, where Donald Jr and Eric work as advisers, helped an obscure toymaker selling <\/a>Smurf-branded tumblers, koala backpacks and plush sea turtles, pivot into crypto this week, sending its shares up more than 500%.
The outlet noted that there was no sign in regulatory filings that Trump family members were involved in this or previous crypto-related transactions through the bank \u2013 which is based in Trump Tower \u2013 but noted that \u201cthe gain added to the windfalls of executives orbiting the president\u2019s family\u201d.
Aside from the Trump\u2019s well-publicized (and profitable) adventures in crypto \u2013 his ownership stake in World Liberty Financial produced $57,355,532 in income since it was launched last year \u2013 the family brand has upped by 20 its Trump-branded real-estate projects around the globe, calculated Citizens for Ethics,<\/a> including an 80-storey skyscraper in Dubai, and plans for branded hotels in Riyadh and Jeddah, and a golf course in Qatar, to an estimated value of $10bn.
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A 234-page financial disclosure form<\/a> released by the Office of Government Ethics this month showed 145 pages of stock and bond investments. The disclosure showed that 2024 was a very good year for royalty payments from products featuring his name and likeness.
Among them, calculated NBC News<\/a>, was $3m from a Save America coffee table book; $2.5m from Trump sneakers and fragrances; $2.8m from Trump watches; $1.3m from a Trump-endorsed Bible<\/a>; and just over $1m each from \u201c45\u201d guitars and non-fungible token (NFT) sales. Most have at least some aspect of gold-coloring, according to a review of the \u201cGolden Age of America<\/a>\u201d Trump collection.
Many of the assets are held in a revocable trust overseen by Donald Jr, including more than 100,000 shares, or 53%, of Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that owns Truth Social, valued at 5.15bn, or held in partnerships that do not require divestment under conflict of interest laws.
The business of selling the family name hums along despite, or because of, the on-the-fly dramas that envelope the White House from week to week.
The White House claims that the president \u201chas been the most transparent president in history in all respects, including when it comes to his finances\u201d, noting that Trump handed over \u201chis multibillion-dollar empire in order to serve our country, and he has sacrificed greatly\u201d.
The Trump phone, which analysts doubt<\/a> can be \u201cmade in America\u201d, as promotional materials assert, is merely an add-on to a thriving political-business operation.
Democrats have found it hard to find a footing in calling out the interplay, in part because Trump\u2019s predecessor, Joe Biden, was similarly accused of allowing a family business of influence peddling to evolve around him and issued a pre-emptive pardon of family members before he left office.
\u201cI don\u2019t do it for the money. I\u2019ve got enough, much more than I\u2019ll ever need. I do it to do it,\u201d Trump wrote in the opening lines of in the Art of the Deal, published in 1987. \u201cDeals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That\u2019s how I get my kicks.\u201d
But under Trump politics and business have become melded as never before.
\u201cIt\u2019s a new hyper-reality that exists in America,\u201d says Borkowski. \u201cIt\u2019s about turning political fandom into money, and he\u2019s laughing all the way to the bank. He\u2019s doing exactly what was expected. Nobody in Trump\u2019s heartland sees this as damaging \u2013 it\u2019s what they expect a deal-maker to do. The absurdity of everything Trump does is the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s $499 gold phone is only the latest ask of the Maga faithful to show their commitment in dollar terms\u201cI like thinking big. I always have. To me it\u2019s very simple: if you\u2019re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.\u201dThose were Donald Trump\u2019s words to writer Tony Schwartz in the Art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}