All The President’s Money

Few people go into public service for the money. Donald Trump looks like an exception. A new financial disclosure shows his personal income spiked during his first year back in office. The report also reveals entanglements that suggest Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself on an unprecedented scale. So let’s dive, Scrooge McDuck–style, into the swampy details.

What exactly does this report say?
The Office of Government Ethics released Trump’s annual financial disclosure Tuesday. In it, per analyses by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Trump reported raking in at least $2.2 billion in 2025—three and a half times what he reported in 2024. That figure includes about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, $575 million from real estate, and $86.5 million in settlement fees from media and tech companies Trump sued.

OK, but Trump was a wealthy guy who made a lot of money before becoming president. So how do we know he’s using the power of his office to get richer?

Tit-for-tat corruption can be difficult to prove, but more than tripling what you’re making one year into your term suggests that all is not on the level here. And Trump has absolutely done things that seem to benefit his businesses. He has propped up the crypto industry, including exempting memecoins like Trump’s own $TRUMP from Securities and Exchange Commission oversight and granting the United Arab Emirates access to advanced computer chips weeks after a royal there agreed to invest $2 billion in his family’s crypto business. (Trump earned transaction fees from trades involving $TRUMP and from sales of his digital tokens, The Times reports, making him money even as the cryptocurrencies’ value tanked.) In Trump’s first term, the Trump Organization agreed not to pursue deals with foreign companies, but Trump’s son Eric has basically admitted that the plan now is to cash in. “We can’t just sit out in perpetuity, and I won’t,” he said in 2024. The Trumps likely realize they’ll face no real consequences from a Republican-controlled Congress—or from a base that only cared about corruption when it involved Hunter Biden.

Speaking of Hunter: How does this compare to past examples of presidential corruption?
In the same way that, say, Jay Jay the Jet Plane compares with a 747. Most modern presidents sold businesses or placed them in independent trusts before taking office. Other presidents—or their families—have behaved in ethically icky ways, but on a vastly smaller scale. Harry Truman appears to have pocketed about $2.5 million (in today’s dollars) that Congress earmarked for official duties. George W. Bush got consulting fees from an oil company during his father’s vice presidency and 1988 campaign. Hunter Biden’s last name got him about $3.5 million over five years from a Ukrainian gas company. Trump, by contrast, reported making $14 million last year alone from licensing his name to two real estate projects, and his family business reportedly plans nearly two dozen similar deals elsewhere.

What has Trump said about all this?
Asked today whether the report shows him “profiting off the presidency,” Trump denied it—sort of. “You know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market’s going up. Everybody’s profiting,” he told reporters, adding, “I never speak to any of the people that run the money.” His sons Eric and Don Jr., who run his family business and manage the trust that collects his money, were standing in the background.

Read more The Supreme Court Gave Us All One Big Win This Term

That Trump news is brutal. So is the heat. But rather than fixate on that, might we suggest a few reads about all the joys available to us in this world?

We can still enjoy a cool drink: In fact, you can even feel patriotic while doing so. The cocktail was America’s first great culinary innovation, Peter Suderman explains in this delightful essay. Did you know that quite a few of the nation’s founders were boozehounds?

The Supreme Court actually did something good this week: The justices struck a huge blow in favor of privacy in the digital age, Cullen Seltzer explains.

At least someone is getting to retire early: Online influencers have now been around long enough that some of them are officially hanging it up. On today’s ICYMI podcast, Slate’s Kate Lindsay discusses what it means that some early legends in the influencer game are opting out, and how their followers are coping with the end of those parasocial relationships.

The whole world has come together for a soccer tournament: England vs. Congo today was a nail-biter (watch the highlights), while Belgium and Senegal kicked off at 4 Eastern, and the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina at 8. If you by chance had questions about Herzegovina, Slate’s Alex Kirshner has you covered. Also, check out Aymann Ismail’s piece about how one group of fans had tremendous amounts of fun even as their teams struggled for results.

Read more Trump’s State Fair Is a Crime Against Fun

And with that, you’re done! Stay cool tonight, and see you tomorrow.