You don't have to go any further than the latest New York Times' article on how Donald Trump makes money off of VIP access to his businesses and his Presidency to see how well the grift works:
Federal tax-return data for Mr. Trump and his business empire, which was disclosed by The New York Times last month, showed that even as he leveraged his image as a successful businessman to win the presidency, large swaths of his real estate holdings were under financial stress, racking up losses over the preceding decades.
But once Mr. Trump was in the White House, his family business discovered a lucrative new revenue stream: people who wanted something from the president. An investigation by The Times found over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments that patronized Mr. Trump’s properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration. Nearly a quarter of those patrons have not been previously reported.
With all of that money, prestige and political power at stake, is at any wonder why he's also been openly chivying his Attorney General to indict political opponents lately?
After all, oligarchic regimes in Central America have been doing this sort of thing for decades. Not just years. Decades. Which is why you should disbelieve any statement by Trump that his role model is any American businessman he's liable to invoke, including himself. What his real goal is something far closer to a less bloody version of Guatemala than anything else.
