Trump for Sale Archives

On Sale Now: Asylum for Just $1,000

April 29, 2025April 29, 2025 Buck Banks

$1,000

“House Republicans are proposing to charge migrants $1,000 to claim asylum, one of a series of new or increased fees on immigrants seeking to gain legal entry into the United States that is part of their effort to curb immigration and pay for the Trump administration’s border crackdown,” the New York Times reports.

On a Roll

April 16, 2025April 22, 2025 Buck Banks

Trump’s transactional presidency is taking a toll.
It’s corrupting the United States’ national soul.
Easter is no longer a celebration
Of Jesus Christ’s resurrection,
It’s about corporations sponsoring the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Have Yourself a Trumpy Little Christmas

December 25, 2024December 25, 2024 Buck Banks

$$$

Washington Post: “It’s a little late for this year’s celebrations, but you can get a very early jump on next year and count down with the $38 Trump Advent calendar. Or trim the tree with a $95 Mar-a-Lago bauble or a $16 MAGA hat ornament, sold in nine colors. (A glass version of the hat ornament is $92.) Stuff stockings with an $86 ‘GIANT Trump Chocolate Gold Bar’ and a $22 pair of candy cane socks printed with ‘Trump.’ Prepare a holiday feast with a $14 Trump Christmas tree pot holder and $28 Trump apron featuring Santa waving an American flag. … The profits from these holiday trinkets do not benefit a political committee or a charitable cause, but the Trump Organization, the Trump family’s privately owned conglomerate of real estate, hotel and lifestyle businesses.

There Are No Cheap Tickets to Trump’s Inauguration

December 7, 2024 Buck Banks

$500,000 to $2,000,000

“If you want to rub elbows with President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration during inaugural celebrations, it’ll cost you — between half a million and $2 million, specifically,” USA Today reports.

Trump Has Sold Nearly 1 Million MAGA Hats

April 30, 2019 Buck Banks

“We’re closing in on selling our one millionth red MAGA hat. You know those are 45 bucks a piece. You do the math there really quick, it’s $45 million. So those kind of things—this president has changed the game in the way merchandise, rallies, the entire experience of being part of the political movement. He’s changed it.”

— President Trump’s re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, telling CBS News that the campaign had sold almost a million MAGA hats.

Trump’s Big Donors get Ambassadorships

April 3, 2019 Buck Banks

$350,000

An NBC News review of those who donated to the Trump inauguration “found at least 14 major contributors to its inaugural fund who were later nominees to become ambassadors, donating an average of slightly over $350,000 apiece. Though the Trump administration says the business acumen of these nominees qualifies them to represent the U.S. abroad, six of the 14 nominations have languished for months in the Republican-controlled Senate. One nomination has stalled for about two years.”

Here’s the Rub

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019 Buck Banks

At Mar-A-Lago Li Yang was a-tending
To the presidential access she was vending.
She was the yin to Trump’s yang,
Introducing Wang, Chen and Zhang,
Helping everyone achieve happy ending.

Germans Confiscate Trump-Shaped Ecstasy Pills

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 Buck Banks

5,000

German police have seized around 5,000 ecstasy tablets shaped like the head of President Trump, a haul worth tens of thousands of euros, CNN reports.

Trump’s Washington Hotel Turns an Unexpected Profit

August 11, 2017 Buck Banks

$1.97 million

“Donald Trump’s company turned a $1.97 million profit at its opulent Trump International Hotel so far in 2017, dramatically beating its expectations and giving the first hard numbers to critics who charge that Trump is profiting from his presidency,” the Washington Post reports. “The Trump Organization had projected that it would lose $2.1 million during the first four months of 2017 as it established a new hotel and convention business in the nation’s capital, according to newly released federal documents. Instead the hotel, with its namesake in the White House down the street, is already turning a hefty profit and charging more for its rooms than most or all of the city’s other hotels.”

Outgoing Ethics Chief Says U.S. a ‘Laughingstock’

July 18, 2017 Buck Banks

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility. I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”

$1,000

$$$

$500,000 to $2,000,000

“If you want to rub elbows with President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration during inaugural celebrations, it’ll cost you — between half a million and $2 million, specifically,” USA Today reports.

— President Trump’s re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, telling CBS News that the campaign had sold almost a million MAGA hats.

$350,000

5,000

German police have seized around 5,000 ecstasy tablets shaped like the head of President Trump, a haul worth tens of thousands of euros, CNN reports.

$1.97 million

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility. I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”

— Outgoing government ethics chief Walter Shaub, quoted by the New York Times.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“As is so often the case, Donald Trump’s opponents are playing into his hands. This is exactly the kind of fight that Donald Trump loves, with his opponents carrying Mexican flags past burning cars.”

— Republican pollster Whit Ayres, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

“Don’t kid yourself they know they are absolutely getting cooked politically with their terrible bill and rising prices, and they want to create a violent spectacle to feed their content machine. It’s time for the mainstream media to describe this authoritarian madness accurately.”

— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), reacting on X to President Trump sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

“The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle! And exactly 80% of people agree. This is fate.”

— Elon Musk floated a new political party on Friday after falling out with President Trump over the big, beautiful bill, The Hill reports. He followed up with a potential name for the group, “The America Party.”

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance took off like one of SpaceX’s rockets. It was supercharged and soared high. And then it blew up.”

— Associated Press

“The BBB will increase by orders of magnitude the scope, scale and speed of removing illegal and criminal aliens from the United States. For that reason alone, it’s the most essential piece of legislation currently under consideration in the entire Western World, in generations.”

— Trump aide Stephen Miller, on X, defending the Republican budget bill after Elon Musk called it a “disgusting abomination.”

Numerati

53% to 27%

As the Senate debates the GOP tax and spending bill titled One Big Beautiful Bill Act and President Donald Trump pushes for a July 4 deadline to sign it, a new Quinnipiac poll finds voters overwhelmingly oppose the legislation, 53% to 27%, with 20% not offering an opinion.

47% to 34%

A new YouGov poll finds that President Trump’s deployment of Marines to Los Angeles is deeply unpopular, with a 47 percent disapproval mark, compared with 34 percent who approve. Dispatching the National Guard isn’t much better: 45 percent disapprove and 38 percent approve.

$134 million

After persistent questioning about the cost of sending National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration raids, Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who said it would cost $134 million, the Associated Press reports.

8

Eight states, including Florida and Tennessee, have introduced or passed legislation to ban planes from emitting “chemtrails” to poison Americans or control the weather, The Guardian reports. Of course, there’s no credible evidence that this is even happening.

70%

A new KFF Health poll finds that more than 70% of Americans are worried about the impact of Medicaid cuts in the bill leading to more people uninsured and hurting hospitals.