Seems more like a loyalty test to me.

It's absolutely that.

In his speech about it at the UN: "Let's see if I have any power. Maybe I do, and maybe I don't. We're gonna find out pretty soon".

It's a "kiss the ring" / fealty thing.

I have always been surprised by the pettiness and vulgarity of corruption. Sometimes Trump tries to steal $10,000,000,000 from the IRS, but sometimes he hawks branded Bibles for $59.99. I don't understand why someone with more money than he could spend in a dozen lifetimes regularly humiliates himself for a few grand.

The answer might be that he’s actually far less successful than he claims.

That’s the reason why he won’t let anyone see his tax returns.

He shutdown his court case against the BBC rather than open the books to the lawyers.

This is a bloke that failed at running casinos. A business where suckers just hand you their money. And he failed.

He just “ain’t right good” at business but has the ego of The Big Lebowski.

Completely agree about his business ventures and entire career. But his presidential grifts, and those of his family, do look highly effective and successful. Compared to those, a domain name pump-and-dump seems outright pathetically inefficient.

Once you have a certain amount of money it’s a sickness to just want more.

It doesn’t matter if it’s $10B or $59, more is more