NYT: Trump blurred ethical lines with ads, businesses and summits

Trump calls the Baltics “model allies,” then shuts them out of NATO talks while weighing troop cuts in Europe, opening a path to Russian sanctions relief and inviting Putin to Trump’s own golf resort.

In 2019, Trump was forced to cancel plans to hold the G7 at his own golf club amid GOP objections to self dealing. In 2026, he will hold the G20 at his own golf club and the critics have gone silent. How Trump has moved the ethical line in his second term. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

Trump's love for his Doral club "is why the deterioration of the city seems so profound in this moment. Even Trump’s cherished places are not immune from the chaos he’s unleashed." ICYMI @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social:

Trump learned that if you make corruption blatant, unapologetic, and omnipresent, no single story ever stays for long. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

“An Outrage in 2019. No Problem in 2026. Trump Has Moved the Ethical Line.” By @peterbakernyt.bsky.social Gift Article www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

“The decision to bring the leaders of the G20 nations and their considerable entourages to Trump National Doral Miami from Dec. 14 to 15 in some ways offers the most clear-cut case study of how the standards have changed, not just from other presidencies but from Mr. Trump’s own first term.”

Peter Baker @ the NYT adopts the "standard framing" which is that Trump's ethics violations have become so brazen that he's shifted the goalposts.

Not a single member of the tRump administration, nor his family, have any ethics or loyalty. They are all criminals to the bone and must be brought to justice.

No, NYT, he hasn't "moved ethical lines" we've got a comically weak Congress that has let this evil, demented and corrupt president openly steal from us and give us the finger 🖕 while doing it just bc he's getting away with it (for now) doesn't mean ethics have changed

"Just seven months ago, owner Maximo Alvarez welcomed Trump to the restaurant in Doral — home of the MAGA leader’s Trump National Doral Miami resort — with open arms, telling him, 'I just want to be loyal to you.'” The need some people have to grovel to bullies.

In 2019 Fuckface tried to host the G7 at his Doral club and backed down after the outcry. Now he's hosting the G20 there and Republicans barely blinked, because he spent seven years purging anyone who would. Self-dealing used to be a scandal. Now it's a venue.

"The unprecedented blitz of self-enrichment by Mr. Trump, his family and his friends since he returned to the White House last year has become so extensive, so profligate and so brazen that he has effectively moved the goal posts of what is considered out of bounds."

"Mr. Trump has blurred the line between personal and public interests so much that it is hardly distinguishable anymore." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

"An act that was deemed an outrage in 2019 is barely noticed in 2026.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

I personally think that well run special committees could be a great precursor. The whole administration is grifters. Expose them one at a time in very public ways. Similarly, keep passing ethics reform with teeth for the SCOTUS, even if Trump keeps vetoing it.