July 28, 2019

Trump’s Recent Attack on French Wine Represents Yet Another Conflict of Interest

The President has skin in the game.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

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On Friday, Donald Trump threatened to retaliate against a new French law that taxes American technology companies, and though he didn’t explicitly say how he’d strike back, a tweet suggests he might target the country’s wine industry.

Trump famously doesn’t drink alcohol, so his opinion might not carry that much weight, but he does have a reason to like American wine better—he produces it. In 2011, Trump purchased a Virginia vineyard out of foreclosure and reopened it as Trump Winery. Trump has made various claims about the business, including that it is the largest winery on the East Coast, which is not true. According to Politifact, it is the third-largest winery in Virginia, producing about 36,000 cases of wine a year.

The winery is overseen by his adult son, Eric, however, Trump continues to own the property outright himself. According to his most recent personal financial disclosure, which covers 2018, he made between $200,000 and $2 million renting the land back to Eric, and about $1.1 million in revenue related to the hotel and restaurant that operates at the vineyard. 

So, while wine is not a huge part of Trump’s business, it’s another example of how his own business interests are entwined with his presidency. In fact, in August of 2017, at the same press conference at which Trump notoriously declared there were “very fine people” on both sides of the neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, he attempted to soothe the uproar by assuring the public he’s familiar with the area—and plugging the business.

“I mean, I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that’s been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own—I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States that’s in Charlottesville,” Trump told reporters. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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