If they get rich by selling books and speeches I have no problem with that, and am surprised by the number that do. People might not like that, but it isn't corruption.

If, on the other hand, a president makes his presidency about doing favours for the rich and powerful then he won't have to write books and speeches afterwards.

I have a problem with that. It shows moral corruption. It's not corruption in the legal sense but outlines the issue of why the pardons do not make sense.

ex-POTUS is still an influential individual and is just profiting after the binds of the position are lifted.

I think it would be a pretty nice decree to disallow the president to become extremely wealthy X years after presidency. Let the influence slowly fade and let's see if POTUS as an individual, after being elected to do public good, can produce some value outside of benefiting from being elected.

Honestly most former presidents do “good work” in this sense. The power is gone so now there’s less outside influence. This law seems arbitrary and has no purpose, there’s like 4-5 former presidents alive at a time? This “problem” is at the bottom of my list of problems that need solving.

Well, if a law was put I'd definitely include all of the public servants in executive positions, which includes congress, mayors and alike. It's going to be a much different crop of people wanting to work for the public, because eventually, now, they all become "consultants" for companies dealing with the public sectors, and enrich themselves.

Have you heard of Jimmy Carter?

Would this be an example of the exception proving the rule?

It still seems like an accident of history that Americans sent Jimmy Carter to the highest office in the land. For as much as they claim to want a regular Joe/Joe-ette as President (the mirage of the unpretentious 'I can have a beer with him' candidate) they seem to vote for people that are the polar opposite.

Truman is an even better example

Before they passed a presidential pension bill Truman was basically broke, living of his army pension

He was already a billionaire before he got elected. What I find particularly disgusting is how lifelong politicians with relatively meager (compared with the private sector) salaries can become so wealthy while in office. But yes the revolving door is a thing and it should be addressed. Yellen earned over 7 mil in speaking fees in the last two years. It is impossible that that will not have any influence over her decisions when she's back at the Fed.

Pretty much every major figure in the Fed (and minor figures too) has come straight from from Goldman or JPMorgan or some other major bank. It's called a 'revolving door' for a reason.

There's no evidence, besides self reporting to tabloids and magazines, Trump ever came close to being a billionaire.

The argument that "all Presidents have imperfect morals" is obvious and uninteresting. The quality of "moral character" varies tremendously among people.

Should have worded is as "lack in moral character"

He was very clear about this goal even before his campaign in 2016.

In 2000 Donald Trump told Fortune magazine, “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

Thankfully, he end up being the first presidential candidate bankrupted by the position. The dude's primary asset, his brand, is not completely toxic and can no longer be used to prop up his other failed ventures. And the only bankers wiling to finance him will the the predatory ones, who will all extract every penny left then leave him with nothing.

I’m not so sure about that. With his crazy following if he creates his own online presence, à la infowars, he can make a lot of money.

That kind of remains to be seen there's a lot of people out there that are still very on board with Trump, it may not be a luxury lifestyle brand much going forward but it'll almost definitely still be a brand.

>And the only bankers wiling to finance him will the the predatory ones, who will all extract every penny left then leave him with nothing.

Oh boy, are you going to be in for a nasty surprise. Trump is going to get more powerful after this mess, but it will likely tear the GOP apart. And don't kid yourself that the Democrats love the idea of having him as an enemy if he ever runs again. Most of what you're watching is political theatre.

He seems, as an outsider (UK), to be fomenting racial divisions - around the World - just so he can play at being a big cheese. His motivation appears to be purely money, but he and those who voted for him don't appear to have a problem with the cost of that being democracy and racial unity.

If he stays out of prison then the message is 'USA's political establishment endorses white power, and oligarchy' and given many nations rely on USA having at least a little morality as the greatest military superpower on Earth ...

USA seemingly can't be trusted to keep even a semblance of Rule of Law, any country lead by those who don't themselves pretend towards megalomania has to find this problematic. Your (USA's) democracy is very broken.

>He seems, as an outsider (UK), to be fomenting racial divisions - around the World - just so he can play at being a big cheese. His motivation appears to be purely money, but he and those who voted for him don't appear to have a problem with the cost of that being democracy and racial unity.

No offense, but this seems like a narrative straight out of the left-wing playbook. Fomenting racial divisions around the World? Seems a bit of a stretch.

As far as the motivation being "purely money", I'd say his presidency cost him a bunch of scrilla, though I bet he earns it back in the long run. Is that any different than, say, Bill Clinton, who has made millions of dollars doing speeches around the world after his presidency? I'm not sure.

>USA seemingly can't be trusted to keep even a semblance of Rule of Law

Turn off the TV. The US is still great. Again, what you are watching is mostly theatre.

>If he stays out of prison then the message is 'USA's political establishment endorses white power, and oligarchy'

Wait, you say the US can't be trusted to keep the law, but then say that Trump needs to go to prison? For what crime?

Honestly, I get the impression that he's easily outflanked by smart people. And that something about his personality drives people to take advantage of him. That impression comes from his apparent business incompetence. He is capable of screwing up "sure things" such as casinos and hotels. Best I can tell, he ends up getting a raw deal, then proceeds to make the shit roll down hill by screwing over people down stream of him (i.e., not paying contractors).

He's clearly a capable actor. He pretends, rather convincingly, to be this amazing, confident, shrewd businessman. And I think a lot of people idolize him because he embodies what they think of when they think of a smart, successful business person. But I think real smart, successful business people spend two minutes with him, and paint him as a rube.

>And I think a lot of people idolize him because he embodies what they think of when they think of a smart, successful business person. But I think real smart, successful business people spend two minutes with him, and paint him as a rube.

I agree, but, uh, everyone with half-a-brain knew that this about Donald Trump long before he was elected president. He's been playing this character for 40 years.

> is [now] completely toxic and can no longer be used to prop up his other failed ventures

You are underestimating something. I remember how Bush was literally Hitler and Cheney was an impossibly evil name.

But now Bush is a lovable cook, Biden admin was taking with Dick Cheney about foreign affairs and Liz Cheney was just celebrated by the left/media for dumping on Trump.

Trump brand won’t be what it was, but it’s something different now. I think the political left did themselves a great disservice by not giving in to election fraud investigations, when people were asking for signature matching, observer access, proving compliance with Article2, scanned ballot uploads, whatever else was reasonable and we should expect our election system to provide without question. Even the most rabid TrumpHater5000 should have supported that because it would have proved he was wrong. Now in some people’s eyes we will never truly know. For practically half the country Biden has an asterix by his name. That doesn’t seem like a great start and it didn’t actually tarnish Trump Brand except to the people who hated him already including the establishment GOP. His approval among supporters is not lower since Jan 6th, as difficult as it may be to understand.

If there’s anything that Trump is actually good at, other than carnival barking, it’s shielding assets and wealth from bankruptcy, and remaining rich after “insolvency”. Don’t expect him to show up homeless on Venice Beach any time soon.