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We are witnessing self-dealing, grift, and foreign influence peddling at a scale never before seen in this country. Trump is the most corrupt president in American history, and it’s not even close.
Let’s jump into how Trump exploits the White House as an asset on the Trump family balance sheet, how he profits from industries he oversees, and how his decisions are tainted by conflicts of interest.
Trump’s self-dealing in his second term makes his first term grifts look like child’s play.
According to Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien, Trump has earned more money in the first year and a half of his second term than in the previous 60 years of his life.
Pubic financial disclosure forms and analysis from The New York Times show Trump’s 2025 income at a staggering $2.24 billion. This includes $1.44 billion from Trump family crypto projects, which is an industry Trump has pushed friendly policies for.
Trump’s family crypto firm World Liberty Financial has netted Trump $799 million, as the firm has taken on big deals, including an Abu Dhabi-backed entity that used $2 billion in World Liberty Financial's "USD1" stablecoin to fund an investment in Binance. There’s also the $TRUMP memecoin, which Trump has earned $636 million and sold dinner access to him in exchange for purchases. And of course, there’s $125 million in foreign golf and real estate earnings.
Analysis from New Yorker investigative reporter David Kirkpatrick found his total profiteering from the presidency in both terms to be a total of $4 billion. That analysis was published in January of this year. It’s likely ballooned since then.
There is more grift to come, with new $10 billion Trump real estate projects set to launch in Saudi Arabia. In the United Arab Emirates, the Trump family has a new $1 billion Trump International Hotel & Tower being developed in Dubai. The UAE tower is being built by the same Saudi-backed development firm, Dar Global. Not to mention the Qatari plane gifted to Trump.
These transactions are important because all decisions have to be analyzed through the lens of conflicts of interest.
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Trump’s ventures have created an unprecedented opportunity for foreign-influence peddling and pay-to-play access to the presidency. Trump is indicating to the world that US policy is up for sale to the highest bidder.
Trump has given pardons to people who have financially benefited his family businesses, like the Binance founder who boosted his family stablecoin. Trump has pushed friendly regulations to industries he’s invested in. And he’s also made foreign policy decisions that benefit companies he’s directly invested in and demonstrated a pattern of making fake Iran Deal announcements that enable what appears to be large-scale insider trading. I talked about this on MS NOW:
Trump’s stock portfolio includes defense contractors like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin while waging a war that requires the US to purchase more from defense contractors. He owns NVIDIA while greenlighting NVIDIA chip sales to China. He’s made Truth Social posts after suspiciously timed oil trades.
Now, Trump is selling early access to his market-moving Truth Social posts, which to me looks like direct pay-to-play insider trading.
This is all a stunning level of corruption that deserves scrutiny and accountability.
What happens when the president monetizes every facet of his office? What does the presidency become when a con man uses it as a vehicle for his self-enrichment? All while unilaterally raising prices on Americans. It becomes a kleptocracy.
Trump is the personification of the K-shaped economy.
If Democrats win, we will surely see countless investigations into these grifts. The American people have an opportunity in these midterms to do what the Republican Party has refused to do: hold him accountable.
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