Trump’s Newest Business Deal Comes With a Familiar Twist
The Trump administration’s newly signed minerals agreement with Kazakhstan carries an all-too-predictable feature: it stands to benefit not just Trump’s own relatives but also the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump’s two oldest sons, who hold stakes in Dominari Securities, are positioned to gain from the tungsten arrangement with Kazakhstan. So is Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm helmed by Lutnick’s sons.
A New York Times investigation into the arrangement noted that the sons ended up doing business with the very partners their fathers were, at that moment, negotiating with on the government’s behalf — describing it as part of an ongoing pattern of enrichment within this administration that has little historical parallel.
That framing is worth sitting with. Why avoid the word “corruption” altogether? Perhaps the paper is wary of provoking another lawsuit from Trump, who last October revived a $15 billion defamation claim against the Times over its 2024 campaign coverage.
But the claim that this has “few precedents” doesn’t hold up. American history actually offers several: Credit Mobilier, the Whiskey Ring, Teapot Dome. Each of those scandals damaged the presidents involved and left a lasting mark on the political system — and each helped build the very safeguards that Trump’s conduct now threatens to dismantle.
Like much of Trump’s approach to institutional norms, this corruption isn’t hidden. It’s conducted openly, almost casually.
Is It Still a Scandal If Everyone Can See It?
The word “scandal” implies concealment — secrets, whispers, eventual exposure. What Trump is doing is neither concealed nor implied. It’s stated plainly, treated as ordinary business.
In the administration’s own framing, every peace negotiation, trade pact, investment deal, or mineral agreement is simply an opportunity — one that would be negotiated to funnel a portion of the proceeds to Trump, his relatives, and his inner circle. In this reading, that’s not corruption; it’s just good business sense. Why would anyone in his position decline to profit from it? This, in Trump’s telling, is the American dream in action — no different from how earlier tycoons built fortunes through timing and ruthlessness, whether in railroads or tech.
The difference is that Trump is doing this with public funds absorbing the risk. And because of how these deals are typically structured, there’s often barely any risk to begin with — his position in government lets him tilt the terms before the deal is even made. That, in practice, is his real version of “the art of the deal”: playing with a stacked deck.
None of this is secret, even if the precise sums are sometimes buried under layers of financial complexity. Trump’s required financial disclosures provide some clarity, and several tracking sites now make it possible to follow his earnings almost as they happen.
One such tracker, run by the Center for American Progress and called Trump’s Take, estimates the president has taken in over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since his term began in January 2025. Much of that has come from cryptocurrency ventures — including his own meme coin — along with other questionable sources like the Melania Trump documentary and various legal settlements that function more like payouts extracted under pressure.