Selling the Oval Office One Cologne Bottle at a Time
Picture two scenes from this week. In one, a sitting president promotes a $249 bottle of cologne called Victory 45 47 to millions of followers on a social media platform he owns. In the other, hundreds of thousands of workers, teachers, students, and parents pour into the streets of Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and dozens of other cities under a banner that reads Workers Over Billionaires. These two pictures belong on the same page. They explain each other.
Popular Information just dropped a thorough investigation showing that since January 20, 2025, President Trump has used the presidency to promote his own businesses 110 times. That is 59 plugs on Truth Social, 30 pitches on camera, and 21 official events held at properties he owns. Six of those promotions were for his $TRUMP memecoin. One was a glowing infomercial for his golf resort in Doonbeg, delivered at a White House press conference while the Irish prime minister stood next to him. Richard Painter, the chief ethics counsel under George W. Bush, summed it up bluntly. Every president since the Civil War has divested from conflicting business interests. Trump has done the exact opposite.
For perspective, George W. Bush sold his stake in the Texas Rangers before running. Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm in a blind trust. Barack Obama parked his money in index funds and treasury bonds. The presidency, until now, was treated as a public trust. Today it functions, in too many moments, as a marketing department with a federal letterhead.
Which brings us to the May Day Strong demonstrations sweeping the country today. More than 500 organizations, 750 events, 100,000 students walking out of class, 20 school districts in North Carolina shut down because educators refused to clock in. Protesters are not asking for the moon. They want billionaires to pay their fair share. They want public schools, libraries, and hospitals funded. They want a government that works for them rather than for the names on top of the Forbes list. And the contradiction at the heart of this moment is impossible to ignore. While families pinch pennies on groceries and rent, the highest office in the land is moonlighting as a QVC channel.
This matters far beyond optics. When a president promotes a memecoin from the Resolute Desk, foreign actors and domestic donors get a road map for buying influence. When official summits like the Shield of the Americas land at Trump National Doral, we underwrite the marketing of a private resort with our tax dollars. When the platform hosting presidential announcements is also majority owned by the president, the line between policy and product placement vanishes. Every official act becomes a question of motive. Every trade decision, every executive order, every announcement of a foreign blockade carries a whiff of self interest.
The folks marching today understand something the West Wing seems to miss. We are not protesting a billionaire takeover as some abstract grievance. We are protesting the moment we live in, where the man in the Oval Office hawks fragrances while teachers fund classroom supplies out of pocket, where a $249 bottle of cologne shares a feed with the announcement of foreign policy, where the wealthy keep getting wealthier because the rules apply to everyone except them.
Loyalty Day, as Trump once called May 1, has been replaced by something more honest. Call it Receipts Day. We are showing up, walking out, and reminding Washington who actually pays the bills. The question is whether anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is paying attention. The bigger question, the one heading straight for the 2026 midterms, is what we plan to do when they keep ignoring us. Go beyond the headlines…
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