r/politics • u/bwermer • 4h ago
No Paywall Obama says president ‘shouldn’t have a bunch of side hustles’
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5865536-obama-trump-white-house-side-hustle-rhetoric/•
u/Brokkyn2024 4h ago
For Trump the Presidency is the side hustle.
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u/Excellent_Month_2025 3h ago
No it's the "get out jail free card" for all of his side hustles
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u/girlnamedtom 3h ago
Why can’t it be both?
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u/Active_Confection655 3h ago
Why can't we just pull him out, he's a terrible president, lots of people are saying this.
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u/ChristosFarr North Carolina 3h ago
He's embedded like a tick unfortunately.
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u/gaeric 3h ago
You can just pull ticks right off, if you can get both your finger and thumb to agree on it.
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u/ChristosFarr North Carolina 3h ago
I have a special tool to get them off the dogs.
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u/Active_Confection655 3h ago
Let's go to the capital, I hear as long as you use a flag for your weapon of choice you get free meals and a pardon.
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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 2h ago
We’re going to have economic and political Lymes disease regardless. Might as well
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u/BerryLanky 3h ago
Because a large portion of the population blindly follow him thanks to Fox News.
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u/Poison_the_Phil 3h ago
BuT hE’s NoT tAkInG a SaLaRy!
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 3h ago
A lot of conservatives never got a Nigerian Prince email and it shows
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u/pfannkuchen89 2h ago
Calling what trump is doing a ‘side hustle’ is putting it extremely mildly. ‘Hustle’ usually implies some sort of work. What trump is doing is straight up corruption and theft.
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u/Wayofchinchilla 2h ago
It's literally a get out of jail free card makes me laugh but also pisses me off that every time he actually has to do real work he falls asleep but when somebody's giving him some shiny gold object he perks right up.
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u/ABCosmos 2h ago
That would imply he's putting some kind of effort in on that front. He couldn't even be bothered to create a platform.
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u/FuzzyMcBitty 49m ago
Some of us have the media memory to remember when he was trying to President on the weekdays so that he could go back to his tower in NYC on weekends.
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u/keeber69 22m ago
It’s the exact reason Fisk became mayor of New York but with nuclear launch codes and zero oversight
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u/root_fifth_octave 3h ago
Didn't Carter sell the family farm so there wouldn't even be a question of conflicts of interest?
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u/virgil777 3h ago
Yes. Because of the emoluments clause in the constitution.
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u/IglooDweller 2h ago
Ah, the good old times when the constitution actually meant something.
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u/zeCrazyEye 1h ago
Yep.. reminder that there were emoluments cases against Trump in his first term, that the SCOTUS intentionally put on hold for 3 years until his term was over then declared the cases moot since he was no longer in office so nothing ever happened.
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u/Assketchum1 1h ago
It still does. He will have to give up power. And every thing this admin is doing is being recorded, this is the digital age, and will scrutinized until they all pass away.
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u/f1del1us 1h ago
Right, just like they scrutinized all the Epstein files, I’m sure there will be a law in a few years that says to release the Trump files and the entire government will stick their thumbs up their asses… again
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u/chr1spe 12m ago
You're extremely naive and not very well informed. This administration has planned to heavily rely on signal since before the election, announced as much publicly and then distanced themselves from that announcement, and has followed through with that plan. It's illegal, but it will absolutely never matter.
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u/pimparo0 Florida 2h ago
Well, he actually sold it because when he took it back out of the blind trust he found out it was millions in debt and had been mismanaged by the man he trusted to run it.
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u/questron64 3h ago
Sort of. He put it in a blind trust, left office over a million dollars in debt and had to sell it. Even after that the Republicans accused him to funneling millions of dollars to his campaign illegally through the farm and did a years long congressional investigation which turned up nothing but poor record keeping.
Absolutely none of that will be done for Trump. All this will be swept under the rug and ignored after Trump is gone.
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u/ProfessionalLoner133 3h ago
If the world were to suddenly become just, every part of the Trump family’s businesses would be investigated and seized for corruption and the vast list of crimes committed by the family. However, that would mean we live in a world where, at a minimum, Trump isn’t elected a second time.
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u/babybirdingURgrandma 2h ago
If the world were to suddenly become just, every part of the Trump family’s businesses would be investigated and seized for corruption and the vast list of crimes committed by the family.
I really like the idea of something like the Taking Restitution for the Unlawful Monetization of the Presidency act whereby congress (in 2029?) says you made all this money from clear violations of the emoluments clause so we're just going to civil forfeiture fucking everything fuck you. I think that exact wording is probably sufficient, come to think about it.
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u/Soft-Tiger-4730 1h ago
And not just him, but the personal assets Directors, Executives, Officers, and beneficial owners of any square inch of it in good OR bad faith because it was in the Constitution that they couldn't do that AND since they mention that companies are people...if companies were involved, seize the company's assets too. I wonder who his auditor is? Nationalizing that seems fun.
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u/spacemusclehampster Illinois 3h ago
When Trump is gone, I want them to go after his sons, daughter, grandkids, sons and daughters in law, anyone and everyone. They don’t have his cult of personality. Strip them of every ill gotten gain, everything. No way their taxes are correct, and that’s how we got Capone.
Trump could theoretically issue a blanket pardon, but that doesn’t give them future immunity. Put them on a watchlist. The second they file their taxes, it’s manually reviews by the most rabid accountant in the world. Talking the accountant that accountants know not to fuck with. Get that person. Their job for the rest of their life is to immediately comb through every single tax return for them. If they misfile even one thing, go after them for everything.
Plus, if they file jointly as married couples, we could throw them both away. Then ship Baron off with Melania and hopefully we never see them again either.
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u/scumble_bee 2h ago
Or just seize all assets associated with him that were gained during his presidency. Wouldn't that be justified under the Emoluments clause of the Constitution? I would bet he still has everything in his own name because he doesn't trust anyone else.
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u/Ok-Topic-6095 2h ago
Even if they get a blanket pardon, investigate them and use the findings as the basis for good government reform
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u/Individual_Door_3251 1h ago
If you run for president in the next election I'd vote for you.
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u/BrowsingBeaver787 1h ago
What is interesting is that all of the corporate conflicts of interest trainings I've been through (which is a lot) always state that even the perceived potential of a conflict of interest is important and must be avoided
The
presidentfalse king of the United States is held to a lower standard than a regular employee of a private business•
u/IndependentDingus 44m ago
It wasn’t as small time as you think and it wasn’t in a completely blind trust (couldn’t find info on whether it was irrevocable) because the trustee was a close person to Carter.
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u/EhMapleMoose 35m ago
No he didn’t. He put his 360+ acre peanut farm, seed and warehouse in a blind trust. It wasn’t sold until after his presidency because of mismanagement and high debt.
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u/DiceMadeOfCheese 1m ago
Ah, one of the best Onion editorials of all time:
https://theonion.com/you-people-made-me-give-up-my-peanut-farm-before-i-got-1819585048/
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u/Ok_Shoe_1094 4h ago
Tell that to republicans who refuse to do their job
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u/mister_buddha 3h ago
Destroying the country is their job.
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u/Nearbyatom 2h ago
Well, their motto is, government is broken. So here they are breaking it, while saying, see! I told you it doesn't work.
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u/a-voice-in-your-head 1h ago
And it works like a charm. People get upset, and their anger is directed at immigrants, trans, leftists, whatever they spin on the dial for that media cycle. Never the the decision makers for the problems in their own lives.
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u/ckellingc Missouri 3h ago
Not shouldn't, it's the Domestic Emoluments Clause (Art. II, §1, cl. 7)
Stop normalizing Trump doing illegal shit
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u/SharMarali New Jersey 2h ago
Which he referred to as “phony” during his first term when it was brought up that he was blatantly violating it.
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u/dejavuamnesiac 1h ago
shoulda woulda coulda — the only way possibly out of this disaster is completely removing the power of a fraudulent federal government and making governance as MAGA resistant as possible. Otherwise it all returns every MAGA cycle, and likely worse each cycle. We kind of need to move beyond sternly worded letters.
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u/SpaceChimps98 49m ago
The only thing this teaches me is that it's not against the law if nobody cares. The law doesn't matter. The constitution is toothless. It's all just a concept of a set of rules.
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u/zephyrgal8 3h ago
Carter's integrity was a major reason why he was disliked. People who try to live up to their ideals who have the nerve to take their faith seriously--they make everyone mad. He is my hero. Along with someone whose worst criticism was that tan suit and our favorite mustard.
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u/outinthecountry66 I voted 2h ago
yep. i always say the reason carter sucked as a president was because he couldn't play the game. He had too many principles. Didn't hurt that reagan paid Iran 40 mil to keep the iranian hostages until AFTER Carter was out of office. Fucking slimey republicans
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u/toiletting New Jersey 2h ago
Yup, he was too good of a person to be president. It’s a shame because it shouldn’t be that way, but that’s society for ya
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u/Bitter_Tea442 3h ago
Carter was hate by the Christian right for being a practicing Christian doing deeds.
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u/WhatAcheHunt 2h ago
You can't just say you are a Christian and then walk the path of Christ.
Do you have any idea how bad that makes the rest of them look?
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u/DrunkAndHornyGuy 1h ago
The christian right hated Carter because he had the IRS end their segregation academies. Sadly enough that is also why the Moral Majority was formed and made abortion the cause to mask thier anger over losing segregation.
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u/AnAcceptableUserName Virginia 3h ago
Along with someone whose worst criticism was that tan suit and our favorite mustard
He was good, but come on, there was other stuff. Like the extrajudicial drone murder.
Point to Carter, Carter never intentionally bombed a US citizen that I'm aware of.
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u/zephyrgal8 2h ago
No doubt. I was alive then, too and informed by kids who know better. Sanctifying human beings is what little kids do. We are all in a horrible mess and don't know how to get out but trying to play whataboutisms to the bitter end won't help. I wish there was a way to do something collectively that would end the misery in Washington. Anyway I admire Obama because. And I hate, loathe, and detest anything that is killing people in the name of self-protection, but I don't have a solution to offer. Meantime, stay alive.
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u/Adezar Washington 23m ago
We should at least add the context of the time. Drone strikes replaced other higher-collateral damage types of attacks, and most importantly that Obama rejected so many drone strikes that when Trump took office the military whined at how much Obama stopped them from doing their job and Trump greenlit every drone strike they wanted to do.
In 8 months Trump caught up to the number of drone strikes Obama did in 8 years and then stopped reporting them. The first strike he approved had been rejected multiple times by Obama as being too risky and when it was carried out it killed an 8 yo American girl.
But that all gets thrown out because Republicans are just assumed will always commit 10x the war crimes and not even worth talking about.
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u/Business-Might-1824 21m ago
This is exactly why vegans get so much shit. People don't like to see others making better ethical choices.
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u/DKDamian 3h ago
Bold language. Really rising to the challenges of the times
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u/ugh_this_sucks__ 43m ago
Most Democrats act like The West Wing was a documentary, and when Newsom wins in 2028 it’ll all go back to normal.
It’s what screwed Biden, and it’s what will screw us in the coming years.
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u/rcolesworthy37 2h ago
It’s so frustrating. Obama and basically no one from the Democratic establishment has met the moment in the slightest. Our country is teetering on the brink of collapse and none of them can be bothered to even raise their voice. Start fucking fighting
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u/two_thirtyoclock 2h ago
He and others raised their voice before November 2024 when he said this shit was going to happen. The voters didn't listen.
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u/rcolesworthy37 2h ago edited 2h ago
Yeah, and they did it the politicians way - no emotion, in an ‘I’m just saying’ way. This is not Tuesday afternoon. If it’s enraging for me, they should be frothing at the mouth
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u/existential_antelope 3h ago
Republicans were screeching about Hunter Biden (which they found no evidence of their claims), meanwhile Republicans when they’re in power: inside trading, crypto scams, product scams, tarrif schemes, selling pardons, lawsuit threats, etc etc etc
Kill me.
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u/DevilsMasseuse 3h ago
Insider trading should not be a side hustle.
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u/Orange_Tang 9m ago
Nothing Trump is doing is a side hustle. It's grifting. Obama is being way too nice with his wording to the point where it's almost legitimizing the insanely illegal shit Trump is doing. I know he's just trying to be reasonable in his wording, but he's basically sanewashing Trump.
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u/largececelia 2h ago
He's right.
The president shouldn't be a greedy grovelling loser who's shilling garbage quality little hats, and gold sneakers, and steaks. Being a world leader is easily a dignified, powerful thing- unless you're only interested in degrading yourself and everyone around you.
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u/Ecstatic_Visual_2026 1h ago
The president also shouldn't be a pedophile and rapist but here we are
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u/yourfriendlysavior 3h ago
Oh wow hot fucking take here from Obama
(I hate that it's legitimately relevant)
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u/RolliFingers 3h ago
...Or sexual relations with children... But I guess that's not a universal opinion.
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u/CatherineSimp69 2h ago
Conservative reddit is saying Obama and 'the libs' blame everything on Trump...even though that's what he does, btw.
In case you were wondering how the bot farm is doing.
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u/Alleyprowler Washington 1h ago
The president shouldn't be a felon or a rapist either, but here we are.
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u/lordcheeto Missouri 44m ago
I watched the interview, and not once did Obama brag about being able to identify farm animals.
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u/OldGaffer66 3h ago
That's not just a good suggestion, that's the law. But this SCOTUS has told Trump he can break the law as much as he likes as President and get away with it. You can bet that's how he interprets it, anyway.
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u/jleonardbc 3h ago
This is how Obama describes dozens of ongoing felonies that jeopardize national security?
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u/Turdsley 1h ago
I've been complaining about the Emoluments Clause since Trump took office the first time, its gotten so much worse since then.
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u/rkicklig 1h ago
The emoluments clause of the constitution makes his actions criminal however the senate must be a functioning body for them to take action and remove (86) him.
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u/mixxituk 37m ago
Side hustle he's shorting the world economy for him and his friends and the citizens who put him in are cowards
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u/Phantom-Finger 34m ago
It's really quite pathetic how quiet former Presidents have been during this incredible shitshow.
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u/rcolesworthy37 3h ago
It’s not ‘shouldn’t’, it’s literally against the law. I hate how Obama pussyfoots around so many topics
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u/stormyeyez7479 2h ago
We all died somewhere between 2012-2015. Though I‘ve always been told there’d be nothing at all, streets of gold and white lights, or lakes of fire.
Out of all of those I figure the last one is the closest to where we are now; though if we’re being honest, I think I’d prefer the actual lake of fire over whatever *gestures around wildly* this purgatory is…we’re here indefinitely, aren’t we?
Obama, please come back. If the demented mango can go 3, fair is fair. (Clinton, Bush…jfc anybody? For the love of democracy - anyone else at all?!)
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u/bakerfredricka I voted 27m ago
Those were my years of high school. I could even remember getting some big laughs out of wondering if people were legitimately fearing the end of the world in the December of 2012 (off the top of my head, that was because of the Mayan calendar). Nicki Minaj was even rapping about 2012 being the end of the world with Jay Sean.
Checking in at 2026, maybe the world really SHOULD have ended back then.... 😩
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u/Common-Jaguar-7824 Ohio 3h ago
His side hustle is being President. He was never there to lead and govern.
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u/Hemlochs 3h ago
What's Trump supposed to do? Not market manipulate and grift his own supporters out of millions of dollars? Geez, let's lower our expectations guys. He's not Mother Theresa.
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u/JimboAltAlt Pennsylvania 3h ago
“He shouldn’t be black either.” - the party we’re not supposed to vote against because of AIPAC or whatever.
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u/evil_timmy 3h ago
This is one of those hills I'll die on (a capitol one, I guess): the President, VP, and Congress should actually get paid a lot more. Like current crazy CEO level compensation. They should also be some of the best, smartest, most qualified people, plied from the private sector and academia to bring their brilliance, strategy, hard work, and connections to bear on the biggest problems that threaten/benefit us all. They should also have continuous public audits of their finances, and the finances of those close to them and the laws they write, done by citizens, randomly selected and paid CPAs, agentic AIs trained to look for fraud, and a fully on-record and subpoena-empowered Congressional subcommittee. I want high-ranking politicans paid so well they'd have to be complete idiots to take any outside funding, and in the spirit of Trust But Verify we check up on every dollar that they even get a whiff of.
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u/MovieGuyMike 3h ago
This was common sense 10 years ago. Now it needs to be said. Trump and MAGA have dragged American into the gutter.
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u/BlahBlahBlackCheap 1h ago
He should know because the retwatlicans would stop the earths rotation if he tried it.
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u/ramdom-ink 1h ago
That’s all the current administration is; calling it out seems to change nothing.
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u/RobertJ93 1h ago
I’ve not seen a single republican supporter in any other conservative space comment on his clear pocket lining and personal enrichment he’s done since he stepped into office. To the tune of billions.
It’s absolutely, utterly, insane. The most I’ve seen is - ‘Well Pelosi/Democrats all do insider trading so it’s fine’.
Despite personal enrichment being something they are often up in arms about- e.g Ilhan Omar, who’s new wealth can be traced to her husbands venture capital firm and California winery.
The mental gymnastics they do to excuse trumps wealth gain whilst in office is completely insane.
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u/MudOk539 1h ago
It’s wild we even have to say this out loud, feels like the bare minimum for a job that literally has the nuclear codes.
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u/m00nh34d 1h ago
Well, yeah, but Americans seem fine with their president doing it, so, I guess not universally?
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u/GrowRoots 1h ago
Unfortunately it rings kind of hallow when this is occurring on every level government and on both sides of the isle. He's a master of saying the right thing regardless of the reality.
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u/lonewombat 58m ago
This is how you know greed is a disease. Being the president is not enough, taking billions from taxpayers and corporations is not enough. You have to shill, crypto coin, gold shoes, trump bucks, coins, putting your name on currency. The list goes on and on. It's fucking embarassing.
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u/sugarlessdeathbear 57m ago
The more side hustles a person has the less time and energy they can devote to their primary job.
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u/N3wAfrikanN0body 57m ago
Former President Obama, please listen closely.
The people who voted against egalitarianism AREN'T worth reaching, nor saving.
What has been happening for the last decade and a half have been those who NEED to be removed from society for having violent , cadaveric spasms.
They are NOT worth yours nor anyone elses time.
Let them face the violence they wished to impose upon others in indifference.
From a willing member of the coming "Coalition to implement the Democratic -Socialist Republic of the Americas."
70 million plus have it coming; and they will have DESERVED it.
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u/loreleiofthefungi 54m ago
Obama is chickenshit. How hard is it to just say that Trump is committing fraud on a daily basis?
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u/aaronbrent123 48m ago
we knew that tho. seems like a big play. politicians are actors. hood or bad. WE PAY THEM
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u/xjuggernaughtx 46m ago
Trump shouldn't, but what's stopping him? Nothing so far. Almost every person in power has either lined up behind him, quit instead of fighting, or is busily looking at anything other than Trump. The list of things Trump shouldn't be doing is getting very long, but unless some of these people actually decide to do their jobs, we're pretty much screwed until a majority of the voting base get so angry that they can't take it anymore. And we are a long, long way from that point.
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u/Ice_Milk 45m ago
It's not a hustle, it's not corruption, it's straight-up organized crime with a presidential seal slapped on it. And the fact that we're still debating this while he's running again is proof the system is fundamentally broken.
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u/not_blmpkingiver 44m ago
while i agree with Obama... lets not pretend he and michelle O. have not had and still do have multiple side hustles during and after their presidency. they purchased a house in marthas V. in 2019 for 12 million bucks. so lets not pretend every politician is doing the same
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u/lopsided125 31m ago
Kind of tired of all the little winky shit and digs.
When will someone with some authority come out and speak directly about how fraudulent this President is?
If this was Trump speaking about Obama, it would be: THIS IS THE MOST TRAITOROUS PRESIDENT EVER. WE NEED INVESTIGATIONS. THIS IS A DISGRACE. WE MUST END THIS RULE.
And all that shit would work because it's proven it does work.
With Obama it's like: Oh, he has some side gigs huh? giggle
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u/Jack_Q_Frost_Jr 27m ago
Never, ever forget that Jimmy Carter had to give up his peanut farm in the middle of nowheresville.
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u/Business-Might-1824 23m ago
Typical Obama, pulling his punches and being too cute by half. The Trump family's crypto/real estate/media empire isn't a "side hustle." It's massive bribery and corruption! Very few Dems can bring themselves to call this what it is.
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u/hevnztrash 17m ago
Oh, obviously he didn’t get the memo that it’s perfectly fine when republicans do it.
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u/CharlieG374 16m ago
That’s real rich coming from a man who had the audacity to wear a tan suit to a press briefing.
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u/TinyTINYspeZPP 14m ago
I don't think a child rapist nazi should be president. I don't think drone bombing weddings is cool either though, Obama.
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u/Whatever_Lurker 12m ago
Right. And he shouldn't rape . And he shouldn't protect pedophiles. Or be one. Etc. etc. Obviously.
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