WASHINGTON, May 25, 2026 — Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., said Sunday that President Donald Trump ran for office for three reasons — none of them having to do with governing — listing avoiding prison, retaliating against political enemies, and personal financial enrichment as Trump’s true motivations.
“Donald Trump ran for office for three reasons,” Goldman wrote on X. “1) stay out of jail 2) exact revenge on his enemies 3) line his pockets. Everything else he says is bullshit.”
The Man Making the Accusation
Goldman is not a casual observer of Trump’s legal troubles. Before entering Congress, he served as lead counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019, directing the investigation strategy and leading closed depositions and questioning of witnesses during the House Intelligence Committee’s open hearings. He also served as lead counsel for the House Impeachment Managers during the Senate trial.
Prior to that, Goldman spent a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, focusing on organized crime and white collar prosecutions — including racketeering, money laundering, securities fraud, wire fraud, and extortion cases. He represents New York’s 10th Congressional District.
Reason One: Stay Out of Jail
Goldman’s first claim — that Trump ran primarily to avoid prison — reflects a widely held Democratic argument about the timing and motivation of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Trump was under four simultaneous criminal indictments when he launched his 2024 campaign, spanning federal charges related to January 6, the classified documents case, and two state-level prosecutions in New York and Georgia.
The federal cases were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election, in keeping with longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted or prosecuted while in office. The Manhattan hush-money case — in which Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — ended in an unconditional discharge with no jail time, no fine, and no probation, ten days before his inauguration.
Goldman introduced the Prohibiting Political Prosecutions Act in February 2026 alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to enact guardrails preventing the Trump administration and future administrations from using the justice system to target political opponents — a bill Goldman framed as a response to what he called the administration’s retaliatory use of prosecutorial power.
Reason Two: Exact Revenge
Goldman’s second claim — that revenge against enemies was a core motivation — is supported by a pattern of administration actions targeting Trump’s political opponents. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal defense attorney before being elevated to the Justice Department’s top post, has approved investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, the Democratic fundraising organization ActBlue, and the civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center. Blanche also oversaw the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump himself told the Rose Garden Club Dinner on May 11 that Blanche “kept me out of jail for years” — a public acknowledgment of the personal nature of the relationship between the president and his top law enforcement official. “They impeach me, they indict me, and then when I get in office, if I say something like, ‘Well, maybe that should be looked into’ — weaponization,” Trump said at the dinner. “They are a crooked bunch.”
Reason Three: Line His Pockets
Goldman’s third claim — personal financial enrichment — lands against the backdrop of a week of intense scrutiny over Trump’s stock trading activity. Federal disclosures filed May 14 with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics show Trump made more than 3,600 individual trades in the first quarter of 2026, collectively worth between $211 million and $687 million — in companies including Nvidia, Palantir, Eli Lilly, Axon, Microsoft, Amazon, and Boeing.
Several trades coincided directly with favorable regulatory decisions by his own administration. Trump purchased Nvidia stock one week before the Commerce Department approved Nvidia chip sales to China. He bought Palantir stock while Palantir was negotiating a billion-dollar DHS contract. He bought Axon shares before ICE outlined a $220 million Taser contract. He bought Eli Lilly stock as CMS advanced a Medicare program for Lilly’s GLP-1 obesity drugs.
Trump’s crypto holdings have also drawn scrutiny. The End Crypto Corruption Act, introduced by Sen. Mark Kelly in May 2025, cited that Trump’s crypto assets account for nearly 40 percent of his wealth and that his net worth increased by $2.9 billion through crypto investments since returning to office.
Trump has been fined $200 — the third time — for disclosing tens of millions in Microsoft and Amazon trades months after the legal 45-day deadline. The White House has said his investments are managed by independent third-party advisors and that Trump plays no role in directing specific trades.
A Pattern of Democratic Criticism
Goldman’s three-point post came as Democratic criticism of Trump’s financial activity reached a new intensity. Hillary Clinton called the stock trades “textbook corruption.” Gov. Gavin Newsom called them “corruption at the highest level.” Sen. Alex Padilla called Trump “the most corrupt president in our history.” Sen. Mark Kelly accused Trump of “trading stocks in companies his administration regulates then using his platform to move markets.” Rep. Melanie Stansbury vowed the trades “will be investigated.”
Vice President JD Vance defended Trump’s trades at a White House briefing Monday, saying the president “has independent wealth advisors who manage his money” and is “not sitting on his Robinhood account buying and selling stocks.” Vance also acknowledged that “nobody should be taking proprietary information gained from public service and buying and selling stocks” — while defending the administration’s position that Trump’s trades do not constitute that practice.
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