All The President’s Salesmen: Senior Trump Officials Hawk Maga-friendly Products

Donald Trump has long entangled politics and business. Now, senior Trump administration officials are using their perches in government to reward companies that have embraced the MAGA movement.

Elon Musk’s account on X — the social media site he owns — oscillates from promoting his brands like SpaceX and Tesla to making pronouncements that could reshape government. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explicitly told Americans to buy shares in Musk’s Tesla. And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participated in a conversation-turned-advertisement for a fast food chain that he says is committed to his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

And then there is the president himself. Trump has meshed the White House with his own personal brand since his first term — and regularly highlights Trump-branded products like crypto ventures or Bibles that he financially benefits from. But he’s also rewarded companies of his allies with promotion, from posing with his preferred brand of beans at the Resolute Desk during his first term to his recent Tesla auto show on the White House lawn.

The Trump administration’s relentless promotion of favored businesses challenges long-held norms — and in some cases, laws — preventing the White House from turning into a sales floor, ethics experts said. Indeed, government officials are legally barred from using their positions “for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise” that could benefit themselves or any acquaintances.

“It's not unusual for an administration to hype business. ‘Buy American’ is a thing that the White House pushes — but when they're pushing an industry they push multiple companies from the industry,” said Jordan Libowitz, the vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal-leaning ethics watchdog that has repeatedly clashed with Trump. “Even if it doesn't hit the level of illegal, you do have ethics problems and you do have people asking questions that administrations try to avoid generally.”

Kennedy raised eyebrows last month when he appeared beside Fox News’ Sean Hannity at a Florida branch of the fast food franchise Steak ’n Shake, which has tried to tap into Trump’s base. The HHS secretary touted the chain’s switch from a seed-based oil — which he has long railed against despite little scientific consensus — to beef tallow frying oil as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

“Steak ‘n Shake has been great,” Kennedy told Hannity. “We’re very grateful for them for RFK’ing the french fries — they turned me into a verb!”

The chain — which could not be reached for comment — recently hosted a promotion that gave people who drive Teslas a two-for-one special on french fries.

Meanwhile, Musk, while working as a special government employee remaking vast swaths of the government, continues to actively promote and run his businesses where he has made his fortune, like SpaceX and Tesla. Trump has also supported SpaceX, attending a launch of one of its rockets two weeks after winning the November 2024 election.

The White House dismissed concerns from ethics watchdogs. “All administration officials will comply with conflict of interest requirements,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. HHS, the FBI and the Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Musk has previously dismissed any conflict of interest between his government work and businesses, saying in the Oval Office in February that DOGE’s actions are “maximally transparent” so Americans can “see am I doing something that benefits one of my companies or not. It's totally obvious."

Spokespeople for DOGE and Tesla also did not respond to a request for comment.

And some MAGA influencers who have sold products to Trump devotees have made their way into the administration. FBI Director Kash Patel, for example, notes his role as the founder of The Kash Foundation in both his biography on the FBI website and on his personal X account. The eponymous foundation still sells everything from a $55 “Fight with K$H” hoodie to a deck of “government gangster” playing cards. The deck, priced at $19.99, includes a rendition of Trump in royal robes as the "conqueror of Deep State combatants" and former President Joe Biden in a jester’s hat on the King card.

Lutnick, the Commerce secretary, has been working on another level of brand promotion.

In a guest appearance on Fox News last month, Lutnick took the opportunity to extol Musk as the “best entrepreneur, best technologist, best leader of any set of companies in America,” who “saved the astronauts,” referencing the two NASA astronauts who finally made it back home earlier in March on one of Musk’s SpaceX capsules.

But Lutnick’s flattery didn’t stop at praising the CEO’s entrepreneurial mind. The Commerce secretary went on to overtly call on American consumers to buy Tesla stock, which has taken a hit as consumers unleash their frustrations over Musk’s political involvement on his company.

“I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla,” Lutnick told Fox News viewers. “It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It will never be this cheap again.” (Telsa stocks have dropped further after Trump's tariff announcement.)

The Commerce secretary’s endorsement of Musk’s company was not just opportune in its timing for Tesla — Lutnick himself possibly stood to gain from a boost in Tesla’s business. Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, long helmed by Lutnick before his appointment to the Trump administration and now led by his two sons, recently reported holding millions in Tesla Inc. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded its rating of Tesla to “buy” the same day that Lutnick went on Fox News to encourage consumers to buy the company’s stock.

Ethics watchdogs have been sounding the alarm on Lutnick’s move to boost Tesla stock, warning that it could cross over from murky ethics to a violation of federal law.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government ethics watchdog, filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics on March 21, asking the agency to investigate whether Lutnick’s actions constituted a violation of federal ethics laws that prohibit government officials from using their positions for their own private gain.

“Secretary Lutnick’s actions violate the ethics rules that were enacted to hold public officials accountable to the American people,” CLC vice president and general counsel Kedric Payne alleged in a statement, calling on the Commerce Department and Office of Government Ethics to “hold Lutnick accountable.”

But even if Lutnick’s actions don’t rise to the level of a legal breach, they still raise the issue of ethical optics around pushing products, watchdogs say.

“The fact that it is the same company over and over again — and that company is the company behind the richest man in the world who also works in the administration — certainly raises the image of putting a finger on the scale and showing favoritism toward one company over others,” Libowitz said.