Motive: Trump valued the docs not FOR $. He valued them as intrinsic wealth - MORE than $.

[WheelWalker]

There are many wealthy individuals in the world, many far wealthier than he. The accumulation of $ would never make him unique... or even the wealthiest individual. Possession of classified documents to show to others put him in an exclusive class. Perhaps he took and worked so hard to retain those documents because he coveted them, intrinsically, as much or more than coveted money.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Nah. It's about the money.

[Phoenix61]

2. Like a little kid with a signed Babe Ruth baseball card. nt

[Claustrum]

3. It doesn't have to be exclusively one or the other. It can be both.

He had many many boxes of documents. Some like the Kim love letter is for show. Some other could be sold for money.

[WheelWalker]

5. I agree. Not an exclusive motive. The docs have extrinsic value as well which never escaped him.

[leftieNanner]

4. His entire miserable life

He has wanted to be in the In Crowd.

He wanted to be accepted in Manhattan - being a loser from Queens. (No bad mouthing the fine folks of Queens here!) Never happened.

He thought being a TV "star" would do it. Nope.

He definitely thought being "President" would make him cool. It only made him an indicted felon.

I think you make a good point here.

But I think he also thought he could cash some of these goodies for $$$$.

[WheelWalker]

6. Agree completely. See my reply above.

[prodigitalson]

7. and money

he's a big big fan of the money

[WheelWalker]

9. Never make people stand in line to take their money.

[moondust]

8. $18 million?

"You know they ended up paying Nixon $18 million for what he had.” - TFG

[usonian]

10. Said the stock broker: Your stocks and funds are worth nothing

until they're sold.

To a republican. Absolutely NOTHING matters but money.
Everything else, only if it adds to the cash.

Old joke (from leaky memory)

Banker walks up to the priest after the collection baskets are passed around.
Father, I'm a banker. It's not safe for you to store all that money, so let me take it off your hands and write you a check for the amount.
He does this every week of the year. It's great.
At the end of the year, he claims all the checks as charitable donations on his tax return.

To a republican. Absolutely NOTHING matters but money.

[Irish_Dem]

11. Trump most certainly had multiple motives.

Greed, extortion, blackmail, revenge, bragging rights.