Donald Trump has leveraged both terms of his presidency to pocket billions of dollars, according to a bombshell report.
A lengthy investigation from The New Yorker estimates Trump and his family will have enriched themselves by more than $3.4 billion by the end of his second term, much of it from deals, transactions, and investments that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if he’d never been president.
The haul includes lucrative commercial projects in the Persian Gulf overseen by the Trump Organization, such as hotels and golf courses in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates; a luxury Boeing 747-8 gifted by the Qatari royal family; and a flood of Trump-branded merchandise and other low-grade souvenirs flogged by the president and his team.
Trump’s foray into the world of cryptocurrency and NFTS has also been extremely lucrative for the president and his family. The New Yorker estimates the president has raked in at least $320 million from his $TRUMP memecoin, in no small part due to the president encouraging investors to buy in order to be invited to a gala dinner at his members’ clubs in D.C. in May.
First lady Melania Trump’s $MELANIA memecoin has reportedly pulled in $65 million in sales and trading fees. Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, who scored a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is also said to have contributing at least $320 million to the family’s presidential profits.
A private members club in Washington D.C. set up by the president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., with an eyewatering yearly membership fee of around $500,000 is cited as a potential addition to the Trump family pot. Trump’s Jr’s work with online gun retailer GrabAGun and venture capital firm 1789 Capital, and Trump Jr. has brought in nearly $20 million.
The New Yorker dryly suggested it’s “unlikely” Trump Jr. would have landed a similar gig in venture capital if his father hadn’t been president.
Elsewhere, Trump is reported to have earned $125 million in extra profits since he first became president from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort and second home, which frequently hosts events and fundraisers for the president. This includes bumping up initiation fees from around $100,000 in 2016 to $1 million today.
In response to the report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast: “The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
Fred Wertheimer, a longtime government ethics reform advocate, told The New Yorker that when it comes to “using his public office to amass personal profits, Trump is a unicorn—no one else even comes close.”
He added that Trump’s brazen attempts to use his name for profit while in office also raised concern that the president is offering several opportunities for people to buy influence with him.
“The way he pursues every possible avenue for money gives people who provide that money a clear sense that they are going to get something in return,” Wertheimer told the New Yorker. “Almost anyone who sees what’s going on has to assume that this money is buying the President’s favor.”
