Did President Franklin Roosevelt make any money from The New Deal?

by valentc

Like did he take money from taxes for personal gain? If so, how did he get away with it?

Swaggem

I don't think he did.

While I don't have any hard evidence of this, I like to take the historical context into account. For one reason specifically, I do not believe that FDR would have personally benefited, other than earning the nation's love and re-election, from his New Deal: the radical nature New Deal.

Dealing with the former, FDR was a radical of his time. This is not surprising as the Great Depression required new ideas to have its severity lessened. His position was a tenuous one, as the United States had been mostly led by the Republican party until FDR and the New Deal would change the pattern. So, he was essentially on thin ice, at least at the front end of his time in office, and as such would not survive something as scandalous as policies that lined his pockets in any way.

So, I don't think he did benefit from the New Deal in the way you describe. It would be too risky, and he was interested in turning the nation around. Convincing the American people that such government intervention was a big pill to begin with, and scandal would not make it any easier to swallow.

That's just something to think about. I'm open to anyone with empirical evidence, though, because of course that's more useful.