'Unlike anything we've seen': MSNBC host aghast at Trump's brazen 'scandals'

MSNBC anchor Ari Melber highlighted Tuesday afternoon the dangerous ways President Donald Trump has used his political office, campaigns, and prestige as a public figure to enrich himself and his family and circumvent basic ethics laws that safeguard the political system.

"Is there any amount of wealth you can reach where you stop hawking things with your name on it?" asked Melber, rattling off just some of Trump's most famous merchandise. "The sneakers, the watches, the Bibles, the guitars, steaks, gold phones, an educational program that was falsely sold as a university and led to tens of millions of dollars in settlements — that one actually crossed legal lines."

All told, Melber noted, "financial disclosures show that Trump has made tens of millions of dollars from these products, plus over $50 million alone in crypto, which he once derided as a scam ... until he joined them."

Most prominently, he continued, there is "the meme coin that he has opens up many questions about conflicts of interest, red flags, because Trump has used that coin, more so than the cologne or this other stuff, to bring in people to evade campaign finance rules. The meme coin investors, including foreigners who want to control policy in the United States, get special access, one guest telling one reporter they attended with the intent of influencing Trump and financial regulations. It's unlike anything we've seen in history."

"To be clear, there have been much more minor, smaller versions of scandals about self-enrichment, which only speaks to how Trump is a celebrity-style president who, of course, has been indicted, not convicted of anything except the New York case, which, remember, involved business allegations," said Melber. "But this president has obviously gotten in more trouble than others, but has ultimately gotten away with more than others and doesn't seem to have any other limitation on the idea that he should just be focused in his second term on doing this full-time job."

"Another cryptocurrency mining and holding company backed by Trump's family has raised over $200 million, again raising the question of whether they would get that money if their father wasn't president right now," said Melber. "And if not, it raises questions about ethics and conflicts of interest. Federal ethics rules already ban all of this kind of stuff for lawmakers, meaning every member of Congress, they don't constrain a president as much. But no prior president has ever tried to enrich themselves this much, this far."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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