In theory, Donald Trump has reached a point in his political career where fundraising should be largely irrelevant. The president already won a second term; he cannot seek a third; and while it stands to reason that he would take steps to help allies raise money ahead of his final midterm elections cycle, he has little incentive to invest considerable amounts of time and energy into solicitations.

In practice, however, the Republican is leading a hyper-aggressive fundraising operation unlike anything Americans have ever seen. The Wall Street Journal reported:

Almost every night in the White House, President Trump calls his fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke, for an update.

Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much. He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls. 

The article, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, paints an absolutely stunning picture of an incumbent president, already dogged by allegations of systemic corruption, who is relentlessly leaning on wealthy people and individuals to write multimillion-dollar checks, including to cover the cost of projects he controls.

Some of that money will benefit Republican candidates in the coming months (Meta Platforms, for example, recently gave $10 million to a Trump-aligned political committee), but the president has also directed his fundraising operation to collect seven- and eight-figure contributions to benefit other endeavors, including his White House ballroom vanity project and his future presidential library.

The president apparently refers to O’Rourke, his fundraiser, as the “princess of darkness,” while she refers to him as “the boss” — as in, she tells prospective contributors, “The boss wants this money.”

“All told,” the article added, “the second-term president has raised more than $800 million since returning to office, according to an updated Wall Street Journal analysis.”

That tally is more of a floor than a ceiling, because the entities involved in Trump’s operation aren’t legally required to disclose the details of their fundraising.

Concerns about corruption are unavoidable. Companies know the president has directly intervened in regulatory decisions that affect their businesses, they know he’s petty and vindictive and they know he’s keeping track of who writes generous checks and who doesn’t.

For those seeking lucrative government contracts, the broader context isn’t exactly subtle.

Wall Street analyst Blair Levin told the newspaper that companies have traded notes about the so-called Trump Transaction Tax. He added, “Another way of saying it is simply that we’re replacing the free market with the market for Trump’s affections.”

There have long been countries that operated this way. The United States was never supposed to be one of them.

But the other angle to this story that stood out for me was the evolution of Trump’s approach to the issue. Plenty of conversation of late has focused on the differences between the president’s first and second terms, but remember what the electorate heard in the 2016 cycle.

At that point, millions of Americans actually believed his “drain the swamp” rhetoric and thought there was inherent value in electing an independently wealthy person who would ostensibly be immune to such financial pressures.

“I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” Trump boasted a decade ago.

Marc Short, Trump’s former director of legislative affairs, told the Journal that Trump showed little interest in fundraising during his first term.

“There definitely wasn’t a corporate shakedown like you see now,” he said, adding that the president during his first term didn’t aggressively seek money from companies with business before the government.

The current iteration of the Republican, in other words, is unrecognizable compared to the president he was and promised to be.

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From MS Now.