WASHINGTON – On his second day in workplace, President Donald Trump was requested if he would proceed promoting merchandise that benefited him personally, after gross sales of a brand new Trump “meme coin” had soared to as a lot as $20 billion in worth.
“I do not know a lot about it, apart from I launched it. I heard it was very profitable,” Trump replied. “I have never checked it. The place is it in the present day?”
“You made some huge cash, sir,” a reporter replied. “A number of billion {dollars}, it looks as if, in the final a number of days.”
“A number of billion? That is peanuts for these guys,” Trump mentioned gesturing towards a gaggle of tech billionaires on the White Home occasion.
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A fortune in cryptocurrency
Trump by no means answered whether or not he would search private revenue from the presidency – one thing historians say nearly each different president has pledged to keep away from.
Simply two of the cryptocurrency investments owned by Trump-affiliated entities have made no less than $300 million in buying and selling charges alone on gross sales of his meme coin and different digital foreign money since January, in response to ethics watchdogs, Democratic lawmakers, crypto analysts and different specialists.
Larger potential earnings lie in the Trump entities’ stake in the worth of the meme coin and their different Trump-themed crypto investments, these analysts and different specialists say.
Final week, one other of the Trump household’s crypto ventures, World Liberty Monetary, introduced that one in all its digital cash is being utilized by an Abu Dhabi funding agency for a $2 billion funding in cryptocurrency change Binance. Democratic lawmakers and crypto analysts mentioned the deal was a conflict of interest that would earn World Liberty at least $27 million per year.
In the meantime, Trump’s administration has loosened regulation of the cryptocurrency business and dismantled a Justice Division unit targeting crypto fraud.
Crypto isn’t Trump’s solely supply of funds since returning to workplace. The president earnings from actual property, his Reality Social platform and a spread of branded merchandise, specialists say.
How a lot has Trump earned in his first 100 days again in the White Home?
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“This can be very tough, if not unimaginable, to discover a quantity proper now,” mentioned Fred Wertheimer of the nonprofit accountability group Democracy 21. “And I do not suppose that is an accident.”
“The president spent a few years bragging about what number of billions of {dollars} he had, however as president it is a totally different story,” mentioned Wertheimer. “He would not disguise all his enterprise ventures, however he actually would not report on what is going on on.”
A Senate inquiry into presidential earnings
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, rating Democrat on the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, informed USA TODAY he’s launching an investigation into Trump’s earnings as president.
The cryptocurrency ventures − together with a digital meme coin celebrating Trump’s survival of a July 2024 assassination try − will probably be key to Blumenthal’s inquiry. Trump, he mentioned, “makes cash off the buying and selling as a result of the transactions generate a payment, in addition to from the rise in value for the cash that outcomes from his selling or attractive gross sales.”
Web site declares an “unforgettable Gala DINNER” with President Trump at his members-only golf membership close to Washington for the highest 220 traders in the $TRUMP meme coin. High 25 $TRUMP coin holders “will get pleasure from a Personal VIP Reception with Trump and a particular VIP tour.”.
“Whether or not it is tens of hundreds of thousands or lots of of hundreds of thousands actually is a subject for the investigation,” mentioned Blumenthal, a former Connecticut lawyer common. “However I simply can not emphasize how craven and brazen this type of stunt is. And it might be laughable, but it surely entails hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and a menace to our nationwide safety.”
Blumenthal mentioned he was particularly involved that the opaque nature of crypto transactions makes it nearly unimaginable to find out how a lot Trump is profiting – and who is perhaps looking for affect by buying the Trump cash.
President Donald Trump attends the White Home Crypto Summit in Washington, DC, March 7, 2025.
That, he mentioned, may pose a nationwide safety menace by permitting international governments to counterpoint Trump – and achieve his favor − with out public data.
A White Home spokesperson denied that, saying the president didn’t have a battle of curiosity as a result of his belongings are managed by his kids. A spokesman for World Liberty Monetary, a Trump family-controlled crypto agency, informed USA TODAY the corporate was “not concerned in politics in any way.”
Sneakers, Bibles – and digital foreign money
Much more than throughout his first time period, Trump has upended the customs restraining a commander-in-chief’s capacity to revenue from the workplace.
Barbara Kenerson wears her ‘Trump Sneakers’ whereas gathering with different supporters of Donald Trump Palmetto, Florida, October 27, 2024.
Moreover the meme coin and different crypto, Trump and his enterprise associates have promoted dozens of branded items, together with Trump sneakers and Trump-autographed Bibles.
Trump has additionally gone all-in on digital artworks known as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, promoting “Trump Bitcoin Digital Trading Cards,” together with greater than 100 new collectibles launched in January 2025, according to Cryptopolitan and different crypto business trackers.
An ‘intimate personal dinner’ for Trump crypto traders
On April 23, one of many many personal firms affiliated with Trump and his household upped the ante by providing current and new patrons of the $TRUMP meme coin “probably the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world.”
A meme coin is a kind of crypto asset impressed by web memes, characters or tendencies “for which the promoter seeks to draw an enthusiastic on-line group to buy the meme coin and have interaction in its buying and selling,” in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“On this regard, meme cash are akin to collectibles,” the SEC says. “Meme cash additionally sometimes have restricted or no use or performance.”
The $TRUMP coin is marketed as a celebration of Trump’s defiant response to a July 13, 2024, assassination try at a marketing campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
“Along with his fist in the air and the long-lasting battle cry FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT, President Trump confirmed the world what a LEADER is product of,” an outline says, calling a picture from that day “probably the most memorable meme of the century.”
The $TRUMP meme coin is marketed as “the one Official Trump Meme, by President Donald J. Trump.”
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed government order on cryptocurrencies, in the Oval Workplace of the White Home, in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photograph
The fine print, although, cautions that the coin is “supposed to operate as an expression of help for, and engagement with, the beliefs and beliefs embodied by the image $TRUMP,” and is “not supposed to be, or to be the topic of, an funding alternative, funding contract, or safety of any kind.”
The disclaimer says CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump Group, and an organization known as Combat Combat Combat LLC collectively personal 80% of the $TRUMP meme coin.
The announcement from the official web site for the $TRUMP meme coin mentioned the highest 220 traders would win an “intimate private dinner” with the president on Might 22 at his northern Virginia golf membership.
Trump ‘meme coin’ worth surged after invitation
The highest 25 traders in the Trump meme coin had been promised “an ultra-VIP expertise that features a personal reception with the president and a guided White Home tour.”
The $TRUMP meme coin surged as much as 80%, including greater than $100 million to its worth, in response to Finance Magnates and other crypto-trackers.
Crypto evaluation agency Chainalysis discovered that Trump and enterprise entities linked to him made greater than $1.3 million in buying and selling charges in the times after the dinner and tour had been introduced, including to the greater than $320 million in fees and earnings that they had already taken in, Chainalysis spokesman Jorah Huntington informed USA TODAY.
“This is without doubt one of the most blatant and appalling cases of promoting entry to the presidency I’ve ever seen,” mentioned Donald Sherman, government director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
No remark, ‘no battle of curiosity’
The White Home and the Trump Group didn’t reply to an inventory of questions looking for remark about Trump’s meme coin and different investments.
Neither did lawyer William Burck, who was employed in January to bolster the Trump Group’s moral requirements however was fired just lately after it emerged he was additionally representing Harvard College in the school’s legal clash with the Trump administration.
White Home spokesperson Anna Kelly informed USA TODAY: “The President’s belongings are in a belief managed by his kids. There are not any conflicts of curiosity.”
An illustration of the $TRUMP meme coin.
Kelly was referring to an announcement in January by the Trump Group that Trump would hand over each day administration of his multi-billion-dollar actual property, resort, golf, media and licensing portfolio to his kids when he entered the White Home.
However Trump’s present association is much more open to abuse than throughout his first time period, when international locations like Saudi Arabia paid his firms hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, in response to USA TODAY interviews and studies by congressional Democrats and watchdog teams.
A Hong Kong cryptocurrency firm makes use of the picture of President Donald Trump in an commercial on March 12, 2025. Trump calls himself the primary “Crypto President.”
Traditionally, presidents have pledged to not enrich themselves whereas in workplace to make sure confidence that coverage selections are made for the nation’s good – not private achieve.
“That’s not the case,” mentioned Danielle Brian, president of the Washington-based Challenge On Authorities Oversight. “President Trump has made it clear he’ll make as a lot cash as he can whereas he is president as a result of he is president – and he is unabashed about it.”
President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at Leesburg Government Airport on his strategy to Trump Nationwide Golf Membership on April 24, 2025 in Leesburg, Virginia, for a personal dinner with 220 prime traders in $TRUMP, a cryptocurrency launched three days earlier than taking workplace.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a former federal prosecutor, is one in all a number of Senate Democrats who’ve known as for the Workplace of Authorities Ethics to analyze Trump’s crypto ventures, together with whether or not his institution of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March improperly helped his personal investments.
“Donald Trump’s making a ton of cash, and the one losers listed here are the American folks,” Schiff said in a video posted on X.
Crypto empire growth
For Trump, who calls himself the primary “Crypto President,” the $TRUMP meme coin is only one piece of a bigger empire that additionally features a meme coin for first girl Melania Trump that originally was valued in the billions of {dollars}.
In a separate enterprise, the Trump household in January quietly took management of World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm that has raised $550 million from the sale of its own digital currency, $WLFI. Reuters reported in March that the Trumps received the lion’s share of these funds aided by phrases that business specialists say favor firm insiders.
The Trumps now have a declare on 75% of World Liberty Monetary’s web revenues from token gross sales, 60% from operations − and about $400 million in transaction charges, in accordance to the company’s website and Reuters.
Ethics considerations: ‘Hyperbole at its best’
David Wachsman, a spokesman for World Liberty Monetary, informed USA TODAY he couldn’t touch upon how a lot cash Trump and his household have constituted of the enterprise.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 07: U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent and U.S. President Donald Trump look on throughout The White Home Digital Property Summit in the State Eating Room of the White Home on March 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump held the summit to listen to from crypto leaders on how his administration has invested in digital belongings. (Photograph by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photographs)
He mentioned allegations of battle of curiosity or corruption had been “hyperbole at its highest and best, and utterly flawed and utterly false.” Wachsman described World Liberty as a “non-political group. We’re not concerned in politics in any way.”
Trump’s private stake in the agency, whose motto is “Impressed by Donald J. Trump,” is unknown.
An investor’s reprieve
In his name for an investigation, Schiff cited the case of Justin Solar, a Hong Kong crypto entrepreneur who pumped $75 million into World Liberty Monetary.
Solar had confronted a civil fraud case by federal securities regulators that concerned celebrities together with Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and the rapper Soulja Boy.
Justin Solar, founding father of Tron, speaks throughout an press convention in Hong Kong, China April 3, 2025. Solar has invested in the $TRUMP meme coin.
“Properly, it will not shock you to study that the fraud case in opposition to Justin Solar has now been put on hold by the Trump administration,” Schiff mentioned in his video. “The American folks merely can not know now with this administration whether or not it’s performing on behalf of the American folks or on behalf of Donald Trump’s monetary pursuits.”
A lawyer for Solar, William Charron, didn’t reply to a name and electronic mail looking for remark.
As of Might 1, Solar − with an estimated funding of $14 million − topped the $TRUMP meme coin website’s leaderboard of traders eligible for the personal dinner with Trump.
Globe-spanning offers
In current months, the corporate has branched into different ventures.
On Might 1, one in all Trump’s World Liberty co-founders, Zach Witkoff, introduced that its “USD1 stablecoin” is getting used because the “official stablecoin” by an Abu Dhabi agency for a $2 billion funding in Binance, the world’s largest crypto change. (A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose worth is pegged to a different asset – just like the U.S. greenback.)
Trump Organisation government vice-president Eric Trump, a son of President Donald Trump, seems with World Liberty Monetary co-founder Zach Witkoff and cryptocurrency investor Justin Solar on the Token 2049 convention in Dubai on Might 1, 2025.
“We’re excited” by the brand new deal, mentioned Witkoff, the son of Trump’s chief diplomatic envoy, shut good friend and billionaire developer Steve Witkoff.
The entire worth of the USD1 coin reached about $2.1 billion on April 30, in response to CoinMarketCap knowledge, making it one of many world’s fastest-growing stablecoins, Reuters reported, including that “the id of its main holders, nonetheless, stays unclear.”
World Liberty is now additionally in enterprise with Justin Solar, Witkoff mentioned. Solar appeared with Witkoff and Eric Trump at a Might 1 crypto convention in Dubai.
Skilled golf and the Saudis
As a result of his White Home monetary disclosure kind is not due on the Office of Government Ethics until mid-May, there is no such thing as a strategy to know the way a lot Trump has earned from varied sources, Brian, Wertheimer and others mentioned.
Overseas governments spent millions at Trump’s hotels and golf courses throughout his first time period, in response to CREW, with Trump companies incomes as much as $160 million from international states.
CEO of Saudi Golf Majed Al Surour hugs Donald Trump in the course of the Professional-Am match earlier than the LIV Golf sequence at Trump Nationwide Doral, Oct 27, 2022.
“However there, no less than you bought to remain in a resort room. What’s the factor of worth whenever you put $5 million into these Trump meme cash, apart from that you’re placing cash in the president’s pocket?” requested Rick Claypool of Public Citizen.
Trump has offered his Washington resort. However he nonetheless earnings from international spending on his golf properties. Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf tour has held seven tournaments at Trump programs, at the same time as Trump pressures the extra established PGA Tour to merge with LIV − a transfer benefiting the Saudis.
A element view of LIV Golf brand throughout Day Three of LIV Golf Miami at Trump Nationwide Doral Miami on April 06, 2025 in Doral, Florida.
The PGA Tour turned down LIV’s newest multibillion-dollar provide in early April.
“However hopefully we will get the 2 excursions to merge,” Trump informed reporters on Air Pressure One. “You’ve got the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. And I feel having them merge can be a fantastic factor.”
The Reality social community brand is seen on a smartphone in entrance of a show of U.S. President Donald Trump in this image illustration taken February 21, 2022.
The worth of Trump’s stake in his Reality Social platform has increased sharply throughout his presidency, regardless of the corporate’s reported losses. On April 2, it filed papers with securities regulators that might permit Trump’s belief to promote about $2.3 billion worth of its stock.
Promoting entry to Trump’s interior circle
Final month, amid White Home Correspondents’ Dinner festivities, Donald Trump Jr. co-hosted a launch get together for his “The Government Department,” a personal membership costing greater than $500,000 to hitch.
Politico, quoting folks conversant in the enterprise, mentioned its aim was to “cater to the enterprise and tech moguls who’re looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration.”
In April, Donald Trump Jr. launched “The Government Department,” a $500,000-membership personal membership. Politico reported its aim was to “cater to the enterprise and tech moguls who want to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration.”
On April 30, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., brought oversized charts to the Senate floor to denounce what he known as Trump’s “100 Days of Corruption.”
“The Trump crypto coin,” Murphy mentioned, was “the largest scandal in the historical past of the American presidency.”
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Trump meme coin rakes in millions in crypto profits
