The millions of Americans struggling to cope with the cost of living in recent months, watching as the price of everything from groceries and petrol to healthcare soars, have been painfully aware that not all their compatriots are sufferi
ng.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, the powerful investigative arm of the House of Representatives, have kept a running tracker notching up every cent of the billions of dollars with which they claim Donald Trump and his family have enriched themselves through 'digital grift schemes… collecting profits through digital wallets and granting pardons to the highest bidders'.
As of Wednesday, these alleged ill-gotten gains were calculated to stand at nearly $4.5 billion (£3.3billion).
And as the Democrats sensationally recaptured both the House and Senate, the committee's incoming chairman, Robert Garcia, had a blunt warning for the humiliated President.
'LAWYER UP,' he advised.
In the run-up to Tuesday's seismic midterm elections, corruption came near the top of voters' concerns in several polls.
Trump's alleged self-enrichment – along with that of his family and his cronies – is something the Democrats have made clear they want to investigate forensically.
Only last week, Garcia vowed: 'On DAY ONE we are going to take on the most corrupt family ever to occupy the White House.'
Trump's alleged self-enrichment – along with that of his family and his cronies – is something the Democrats have made clear they want to investigate forensically, writes Tom Leonard
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, poised to be the Speaker of the House, promised to 'hold the crooks accountable'
As the Democrats sensationally recaptured both the House and Senate, the committee's incoming chairman, Robert Garcia (pictured last year), had a blunt warning for the President: 'LAWYER UP'
Criminal charges are potentially on the table, with Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House Speaker-elect, promising to 'hold the crooks accountable'.
Those investigations may well lead to the impeachment (the process whereby public officials are removed from office for 'high crimes and misdemeanours') of Trump's staffers and possibly the President himself.
The President, of course, faced two impeachment attempts during his first administration, but these went nowhere because the Republicans held the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to secure a conviction.
Now, however, the Democrats will run the show – and Trump himself reportedly predicted he'd be impeached in a pre-election meeting with House Republicans, although he says he would consider presumptive pardons for himself and aides.
So what exactly are the Democrats going to investigate?
The Trump family's vast profits from the cryptocurrency industry; his administration's continued refusal to reveal everything the federal government has on the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein; its pardoning of wealthy criminals and Maga loyalists; alleged corrupt business dealings of Middle East envoys Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law) and Steve Witkoff; and even Trump's lavish Washington building projects – all these and more have been identified by Democrats as areas to pursue.
They also want to investigate myriad aspects of Trump's regime which they hate but which don't necessarily touch on corruption, including immigration enforcement, the conduct of the Iran war and trade tariffs.
The Trump family recently acknowledged that a weekend 'wedding party' for the President's son, Donald Jr (pictured), was partly funded by a Russian oligarch with reportedly close ties to the Kremlin
Trump's opponents have been pressing for months for answers on these and other concerns – but, until now, the targets of their enquiries have ignored them as the Republicans controlled Congress.
Now, however, the Democrats can not only draw on greater manpower to investigate alleged offences but they can subpoena documents and force people to testify.
New questions emerge by the day. The Trump family recently acknowledged, for instance, that a weekend 'wedding party' for the President's son, Donald Jr, was partly funded by a Russian oligarch, reportedly with close ties to the Kremlin.
'What's shocking to me is not only that this administration, cabinet officials and even the President and his family have been corrupt and self-dealing, but they've been so brazen and open about it,' Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said on Wednesday.
Many clearly agree although the White House has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
During his first term, Trump was criticised when it emerged that foreign governments, US officials and others involved with his administration were spending millions of dollars, including American-taxpayer money, on meals and rooms in hotels owned by the Trump Organization.
Opponents now claim that was nothing compared with the profiteering that has gone on since his re-election in 2024. Although the Trump Organization promised to pause foreign deals during his first term, this time round it lined up a string of multi-million-dollar projects across the world.
This mixing of public office with private benefits is meant to be curtailed by the US Constitution's 'emoluments' clause, which states that Congress must approve any gift from a 'king, prince or foreign state' to an elected US official, including the President.
Trump has been causing particular alarm over his encouragement of the cryptocurrency industry. Wealthy crypto investors poured money into his election campaign and a grateful Trump pledged to slash regulations and make the US the 'crypto capital of the world'.
Within days of his inauguration, he controversially pardoned Ross Ulbricht, a jailed cyber-crime pioneer who set up a marketplace on the 'dark web' (inaccessible from typical browsers).
The President also launched his own cryptocurrency, the $TRUMP 'meme coin', which earned him several billion dollars on paper. The coin has since collapsed in value, ruining several investors, as has the First Lady's '$MELANIA' coin.
Trump and his sons – Donald Jr, Eric and Barron – were also heavily involved in a crypto business, World Liberty Financial, launched four months before he took office.
The Democrats want to review a reported deal – allegedly agreed just four days before the inauguration – in which a member of the ruling royal family of Abu Dhabi in the UAE secretly bought a 49 percent stake in World Liberty Financial for around $500million – of which nearly half allegedly went to the families of Trump and Steve Witkoff.
Months later, the Trump administration approved $1.4billion (£1billion) in arms sales and the sale of 35,000 advanced AI chips to the UAE, despite national security concerns, say Democrats.
The White House and World Liberty denied any link between the investment and the chip sale. Witkoff has denied any wrongdoing.
In June, Trump's official financial disclosures revealed he had more than $2.2billion (£1.6billion) income last year, including $1.4billion from the crypto business. He insisted there was 'nothing illegal' about this income but Democrats wanted to investigate it
Trump's opponents further want to discuss the circumstances in which another wealthy Middle Eastern petrostate, Qatar, came to donate a $400million (£295million) Boeing 747-8 to his administration to serve as Air Force One.
As for Jared Kushner, married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, Democrats have been demanding since 2023 to know quite how he manages to avoid a conflict of interest between his dual roles as an informal foreign policy adviser to Trump and being the head of a private equity firm that conducts business with foreign governments. They are also keen to explore how and why Kushner's firm took $2billion (£1.5billion) investment from Saudia Arabia's sovereign wealth fund soon after Trump left the White House in 2021.
Democrats are also demanding to know how a clutch of defence and tech firms backed by Donald Jr and Eric Trump have won billions of dollars in federal government deals.
Finally, before taking office, Trump had promised to release, uncensored, all the millions of government files that were connected to his longtime paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.
In the event, millions of pages and emails were withheld or heavily redacted. Both Republicans and Democrats have been trying to subpoena witnesses from the administration to explain why so much remains missing.
So many questions – and two more years as a lame-duck President to answer them. Trump may have to put off his cherished tarting-up of the White House – and get his lawyers on the phone.
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