Back in February, Donald Trump Jr. flew to India where, in between shilling $1.5 million condos and holding intimate chats for a very reasonable $38,000 booking fee, he told the world how tough the presidency has been on the spawn of Donald Trump. During an interview with an Indian television station, POTUS’s eldest son explained that narratives about the Trump family taking advantage of their father’s new gig are totally off the mark, because they ignore the many sacrifices the family has had to make. When the haters and losers talk about the Trump Organization “profiteering from the presidency and all this nonsense,” Donny groused, they fail to mention “the opportunity cost of the deals that we were not able to do.” That, Junior said, is “sort of a shame. Because we put on all these impositions on ourselves and essentially got no credit for actually doing that . . . for doing the right thing.”

Take, for instance, the saga of the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama. After The Apprentice host declared his candidacy for president, and embarked on one of the most hateful campaigns in modern U.S. history, many people with ties to the real-estate developer decided they wanted nothing to do with him. But for the unfortunate collection of condominiums and hotels whose buildings bore the dreaded t-word in enormous gold letters, which had basically become the equivalent of hanging a giant banner from an 18th-floor window proclaiming, We love racist blowhards of debatable mental stability and questionable moral conduct, severing relations was easier said than done. While a few condos were able to rid themselves of the Trump name, thanks to the fact that their licensing deal with the Trump Organization had expired, others, such as the Panama hotel, were not so lucky, despite arguing that the shiny lettering was costing them serious business. (“It’s a financial bloodbath,” one businessman who owns three units at the Panama hotel told the Washington Post in January. “There is definitely a stigma on the name,” added a realtor. “There [are] a lot of unhappy owners.”) Finally, after a heated back and forth between the hotel’s majority owner, Orestes Fintiklis, and the Trump Organization, which culminated in a standoff that involving the barricading of offices, the cutting of power, and a protest song, police stormed the lobby and evicted the Trump Organization staff. On March 27, an arbitrator ruled that while the org should not have been ousted while arbitration was ongoing, he would not reinstate management. And hey, that must have been really tough on Donny and Eric, who took over day-to-day operation of the company after daddy got a new job. But at least they didn’t do anything shady in the process, raising questions about the overlap between the company in which Trump retains a financial stake, and the presidency. Except, of course, that’s exactly what they did.

According to a new report from the Associated Press, days before the arbitrator made his decision, Britton & Iglesias, the law firm representing the Trump Organization in the matter, sent a letter to Panama President Juan Carlos Varela, “URGENTLY request[ing his] influence in relation to a commercial dispute involving Trump Hotel aired before Panama’s judiciary.” It also warned that there might be consequences for Panama if Varela failed to do so. What might those consequences be, and would they be along the lines of the U.S. coincidentally supporting a blockade of Qatar after the nation refused to cough up financing for Jared Kushner’s family’s doomed Midtown tower? Unclear! What is clear, however, is that the letter sure looks like the Trump Organization was trying to use the influence of the White House to get its way in a private, commercial matter. “President Trump and the family Trump Organization are using the presidency of the United States improperly for their personal business,” Roberto Eisenmann, the founder of Panama paper La Prensa, said Monday. “It is something somewhat embarrassing to see a president of the United States in that situation.” According to the A.P., the letter was copied to the presidents of the Panama Supreme Court, Panamanian Cabinet officials, and the National Assembly, among others. In a statement, Panama’s Foreign Secretary Isabel de Saint Malo said that the letter, which she also received, “urges Panama’s executive branch to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch.”

All of which, of course, is business as usual for the people surrounding Donald J. Trump, whose Cabinet is involved in an ongoing battle to determine which of its members is the most corrupt, whose son-in-law’s family business is receiving loans worth more than half a billion dollars following key meetings in the White House that all parties maintain are totally legit, and whose favorite-daughter’s business is being conveniently spared from the trade war he says farmers may be hurt by, but will emerge from “stronger.” If everyone else is getting a piece, why shouldn’t sentient concussions Donny and Eric?