Americans are struggling to pay for groceries. Gas prices are hammering household budgets. Millions are working harder just to keep up.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has turned the presidency into the most lucrative grift of his life.

Trump reported more than $2.2 billion in income in 2025, including more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency and related ventures. No president in American history has turned the office into a vehicle for personal enrichment on anything approaching this scale.

And the whole family is cashing in.

For most of American history, we relied on certain basic expectations.

Presidents would leave office peacefully when their terms ended. Courts would issue orders and presidents were expected to obey them. The Justice Department was supposed to enforce the law without being used to punish a president's political enemies. Law firms were free to represent clients the government disliked. Universities enjoyed substantial independence from presidential control. Newspapers could criticize presidents without fear of government retaliation.

None of this worked perfectly. American history is filled with exceptions and abuses. But the basic principles endured.

Then came Donald Trump.

Donald Trump told Americans his immigration crackdown would target the “worst of the worst”—dangerous criminals who threatened public safety.

That was the sales pitch.

The reality has been very different. Trump's immigration dragnet has swept up tens of thousands of people with no criminal record at all. And children have been swept up too—locked in detention facilities with their families for weeks or months, where children have become sick, lost weight, regressed developmentally and suffered severe psychological trauma. One 13-year-old girl attempted suicide after allegedly being denied her prescribed antidepressants.

Since descending the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, Trump has preyed on fears and prejudices, casting immigrants as the enemy: invaders, criminals, contaminants. He has said they are “poisoning the blood of our country”—words chillingly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.