Taking full advantage of his return to the White House, Donald Trump earned no less than US$2.2 billion last year (more than CA$3 billion), compared to US$622 million in 2024. Here are the details of this exceptional harvest for a sitting president.
He fills his pockets with crypto
Donald Trump earned more than US$1.4 billion (CA$2 billion) from his cryptocurrency activities. This includes US$799 million from his crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) and US$636 million from the sale of $Trump meme cryptocurrency. The WLF digital tokens and $Trump currency quickly saw their value collapse, causing most small investors who purchased them to lose money. On the other hand, the United Arab Emirates appear to have benefited from their investment in the WLF. Shortly after the transaction, Washington authorized the sale of cutting-edge chips to the Middle Eastern country, ignoring national security concerns.
Real estate on the rise
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Photo Wikipedia
Revenue from the Trump Organization’s real estate assets jumped in the first year of the billionaire’s return to power. The famous Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida provided Trump with income of US$77 million, up 54% from 2024. The president also received at least US$55 million from deals in the Middle East, Turkey and Asia to use his name for real estate projects. “Do you know why I make a profit? Because the stock market is rising, everyone is making profits,” the president defended Wednesday.
Paying pursuits
AFP
Donald Trump received US$86.5 million (US$123 million) from five lawsuits he filed against media and social networks. He received US$24.5 million from Meta Plaforms, US$22 million from YouTube, US$16 million from ABC, US$16 million from CBS and US$8 million from X (formerly Twitter). The majority of these funds will be allocated to the construction of Trump’s future presidential library in Miami.
Watches, Bibles, guitars…
Photo taken from gettrumpwatches.com
President or businessman? Donald Trump recorded revenue of US$4.7 million from the sale of watches bearing his name, including models celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence. The “Trump bibles” brought in just over US$200,000, which is less than the revenue of just over US$3 million from three books published by the president-entrepreneur. Trump sold around twenty guitars, which allowed him to pocket nearly US$36,000. Its shoes and perfumes were slightly better paying with revenues of around US$67,000.
Unprecedented in the United States
At the turn of the 2000s, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi caused a scandal by blithely mixing politics and personal financial interests. But according to several ethics experts, the numerous conflicts of interest raised by Donald Trump’s transactions have more in common with the practices of authoritarian leaders like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, or even African dictators. “There is an atmosphere within the Trump administration where ‘greed is good,’” Financial Times Howard Eissenstat, professor of history at St. Lawrence University, New York. According to him, Erdoğan is “much more cautious” than Trump.
