Trump’s $2.2 billion earnings called ‘staggering grift on a scale never seen’

The US President Donald Trump’s mandatory financial disclosure is out, and it shows that he hauled in at least $2.2 billion in 2025, his first year back for his second term in the White House.

That’s a shocking $1.6 billion more than the $622 million he scraped together in 2024, back when he was just a regular civilian – albeit an ex-President.

Democracy Defenders Action labelled Trump’s soaring wealth a:

staggering grift on a scale never seen.

And, they concluded that:

President Trump’s financial disclosure reveals he is capitalizing on the presidency for personal gain on a staggering scale never seen in American history.

Trump is a grifter

The New York Times called Trump’s haul unrivaled. It said:

 President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife owned a profitable radio station. George W. Bush was on the board of an oil company while his father was in the White House. And Hunter Biden was paid by a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father was vice president.

But never before in American history has there been anything like Donald J. Trump, a president who in his first year back in office has collected about $1.4 billion in new revenues from cryptocurrency businesses that directly benefited from his actions as president, a financial disclosure report made public on Tuesday shows.

Asked about the eye-popping figure on Wednesday, Trump credited himself:

The stock market’s going up. Everybody’s profiting. Thank you President Trump.

Q: Critics say you’re profiting off the presidency

TRUMP: I’m profiting because the stock market is going up. Everybody is profiting. Thank you President Trump. pic.twitter.com/3KrZsB1yJc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026

Crypto bonanza

Bloomberg was quick to point out that the stock market wasn’t the primary engine spinning gold inside his portfolio. He had crypto to thank for that – as he made $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency and memecoin businesses last year.

Trump’s crypto windfall shows he’ll keep monetizing the Oval Office because nothing is stopping him, @TimOBrien says (via @opinion) https://t.co/hfYD0zWNYE

— Bloomberg (@business) July 2, 2026

World Liberty Financial was one of his biggest sources of income, whose co-founders are his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

And of that billion-dollar crypto haul, Trump walked away with $263 million from selling off half his stake in World Liberty Financial. The Wall Street Journal revealed back in January that the hush-hush deal was with an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal who also happens to be the brother of the country’s president.

He also made $526.8mn from selling tokens from his World Liberty Financial.

DW said:

The crypto industry has flourished under the Trump administration. Since taking office, Trump has introduced policies seen as favorable to the sector, including federal rules for stablecoins and reduced regulatory enforcement.

The president said he was making the United States the “crypto capital of the world” at the America Business Forum last year, adding that if the US didn’t do crypto properly, China would do it. 

 

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Trump cashes in, investors not so much

As Newsweek pointed out, crypto projects don’t make money like traditional investments. Creators cash in upfront through initial sales, insider allocations, and private deals, long before the token hits the public market.

Donald Trump’s crypto ventures generated billions, but a $10,000 investment in his $TRUMP meme coin on Inauguration Day would be worth just $364 today. https://t.co/q8OHr6GQu6

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 2, 2026

Trump’s family firm holds 80 percent of the $TRUMP token supply, meaning they can sell into demand whenever they choose. Meanwhile, retail investors who bought the hype are left holding the bag: a $10,000 investment in Trump’s meme coin on Inauguration Day is now worth just $364, a 96 percent loss, Newsweek reported. 

Unrivalled level of grift, indeed.

Featured image via the Canary