“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook,” President Richard M. Nixon said at a 1973 press conference in the middle of the Watergate scandal.
Nixon was being questioned about his knowledge of a break-in by his campaign committee at Democratic headquarters during his 1972 reelection campaign, a crime that would lead to his resignation less than a year later. That had nothing to do with being crook, but for Nixon — who had to work hard even as a boy — it seemed that being called a crook was the worst thing ever.
Twenty years earlier, as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice-presidential running mate, Nixon was accused of benefiting from a campaign slush fund created by some of his wealthy supporters. There was nothing illegal about that, but the optics were terrible at time when Americans valued post-World War II frugality and humility. Eisenhower left it to Nixon to defend himself.
Nixon addressed the nation in a 30-minute televised speech that earned wide public support and saved his political career. He talked about living modestly and working his way through college and law school. And he said that while his wife Pat did not have a mink coat, he was proud that “she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.”
How things have changed! We now have a gold-gilt highlighted Oval Office, a monumental ballroom in the works to be attached to the White House, a $400 million “flying palace” jetliner gifted to the current administration by the royal family of Qatar, plans for a giant Napoleonic triumphal arch that will obscure views of Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, and the Trump name or image attached or soon to be attached to buildings and passports and money.
And those are just some of the more frivolous things.
At the end of last year, Time magazine reported on how “Trump’s and his family’s wealth has increased” during the first year of his second term in office. As Brian Bennett reported in “3 Ways Trump’s Wealth has Soared Since He Returned to Office,” Trump has “continued to stay involved in his companies while also entering into new ventures that have soared in value.”
Just prior to his second inauguration, Trump “made multiple crypto-currency plays” worth over a billion dollars since he was inaugurated. Then he signed the federal law that the cryptocurrency industry had been lobbying for. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote, “The Trumps’ crypto peddling is especially ill-advised because the Administration will regulate crypto products and practices.”
According to Bennett, the upcoming merger of Trump’s social media company with TAE Technologies will bail out the president and his family from their $401 million loss in 2024. And it will put the president and his family in competition with other energy firms that the Trump administration regulates.
As a result of Trump’s licensing deals, he has “received millions of dollars in income last year from selling Bibles, watches, guitars, books and fragrances.” They have been far more successful than his pre-presidency hustles for water, steaks and college degrees.
Nixon made his share of mistakes, but there are no signs that he was an actual crook. When he was finally boxed in and ordered by the courts to turn over the secret White House recordings that he knew would end his presidency, he actually followed the rule of law and complied. Even to someone who was raised by a family of left-leaning unionists in the 1950s, Nixon is looking better every day.
