Copyright independent
Wine and cider marketed by President Donald Trump is being sold at Coast Guard-run stores in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, inviting fresh ethics concerns about the First Family’s sprawling business interests, according to a report. Coast Guard Exchanges, which provide service members and their families with tax-free shopping, have begun stocking the president’s line of alcoholic drinks in their branches in the nation’s capital and in Centreville, Virginia, Forbes reports. The development was first revealed in an Instagram post by an anonymous whistleblower, who identified themselves as a Homeland Security employee working in counter-terrorism, and included a photograph of the bottles being displayed prominently on a promotional table at one of the exchanges. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to The Independent that the products are being sold in the stores and said in a statement: “The brave men and women of the USCG are pleased to be able to buy Trump wine and cider tax-free.” The Independent has also reached out to the White House and the Coast Guard for comment. “This is one of those things where there probably isn’t any legal issue, but there is an optics and an ethics issue,” Jordan Libowitz of the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told Forbes. “You don’t want to see the military essentially playing sides. Are they going to try to make money for other presidents? It’s a weird thing.” The wealth magazine currently estimates Trump’s net worth at $6.5 billion, noting that it has almost doubled in the year since he secured his return to the White House, largely thanks to his family’s lucrative cryptocurrency ventures. While Trump himself is a lifelong teetotaler and drinks nothing more substantial than Diet Coke, his wine business is valued at around $44 million and he is no stranger to lending his name to a wide array of gaudy lifestyle products, from steaks, golden hi-top sneakers, guitars and Bibles to luxury watches, a habit that has been remorsely satirized by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others, of late. During his first term between 2017 and 2021, Trump attorney Sherri Dillon said the president had “instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit.” As such, the Trump Organization’s online retail outlet, TrumpStore.com, largely avoided hawking merchandise explicitly tied to the presidency; however, that is no longer the case, and it now offers a complete 45-47 collection to capitalize on. Income earned from Trump’s businesses while he is in office is administered through the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, as it was in his first term. He is its sole donor and beneficiary, while his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, is its trustee. The trust owns all of the winery’s land and an LLC holding all wine-related trademarks, according to the president’s most recent financial disclosure. Forbes also noted that, despite the administration’s hardline approach to immigration and its shocking ICE raids on alleged undocumented migrant communities in Democrat-run cities, the president’s wineries applied to hire 31 short-term, temporary workers from overseas this year, according to Department of Labor records.
