Former Reserve Bank economist and University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers has raised alarms about the influence of money in politics, particularly focusing on US President Donald Trump’s financial activities while in office.

Speaking on Alan Kohler's That's Business podcast, Wolfers described Trump as "selling the presidency," citing the president's billion-dollar investments in cryptocurrency and other industries as mechanisms through which people effectively "buy him off."

According to Trump's latest financial statement, he earned approximately $US1.4 billion ($2 billion) from cryptocurrency during his first year back in office. Wolfers also noted that Trump's 19-year-old son, Baron Trump, is reportedly worth $US150 million.

Wolfers pointed out the scale of financial influence in politics, noting that "The Republican Party only spent 2 billion [dollars] getting Trump elected," and referencing Elon Musk's $US250 million contribution to Trump's election campaign. He remarked that Musk, with his trillion-dollar wealth, could afford to support thousands more candidates.

Expressing concern for Australia, Wolfers said, "You just want to hope that he doesn't suddenly become interested in Australia, or we want to have a set of rules in place such that [if he] were to become deeply interested in Australia, his money wouldn't be able to buy power."

Wolfers, who was born in Australia and has spent 25 years in the United States, also commented on the US economy, stating that its global exceptionalism was driven by innovation fueled by immigration—a trend he believes the country is now abandoning.

"Either that guy's a genius, or he's trading off something that I think really belongs to the American people, which is the power of the presidency," Wolfers said, underscoring the troubling implications of Trump's financial dealings.

Sources