His family business closed deals for high-rises in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and golf resorts in Qatar and Vietnam. It has collected more than $300 million in transaction fees from a cybercurrency offering. His wife sold her life story to Amazon for $28 million. And his eldest son launched a private club in Washington where the membership fee is $500,000. It’s called the Executive Branch.
These are among the ways that President Donald Trump has profited, directly or indirectly, since winning a second term in the White House. By one count, Trump’s private dealmaking this year has doubled his net worth.
Government ethics experts say Trump has engaged in an unprecedented monetization of the presidency. In particular, they point to the international real estate deals and his acceptance of a luxury Boeing 747 from the government of Qatar that he may be able to use after leaving office.
“Some of these transactions may turn out to be kind of just on the right side of the law,” Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told PBS. “Some of them may well end up violating the Constitution. But even where there is technical legality, where you have a senior government official getting personal benefits from people who have every reason to want to influence their policy decisions, that’s inherently corrupt.”
Trump’s aides and supporters dismiss such concerns.
“The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable to the president,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said last week. “And I think everybody – the American public – believes it is absurd to believe this president is profiting off of the presidency. This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly. And not only has he lost wealth, but he almost lost his life. He has sacrificed a lot to be here, and to suggest otherwise is, frankly, completely absurd.”
‘Play the game’
Shortly after Trump began his first term in 2017, ethics watchdogs suggested he was violating two obscure constitutional provisions, known as the Emoluments Clauses, which bar presidents from accepting gifts or other financial benefits from foreign governments.
Trump’s Washington hotel, less than a mile from the White House, was frequented by lobbyists and other representatives of foreign governments. For instance, lobbyists for Saudi Arabia spent $300,000 at the hotel over three months.
After Trump left office in 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed lawsuits alleging he had violated the Emoluments Clauses. Trump sold the hotel in 2022.
As he returned to office this year, Trump’s lawyers released an ethics statement that said his business interests would be placed in a trust managed by his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. The president would be “sequestered from and have no role in any of the day-to-day decision making” of the Trump Organization, the statement said.
In 2017, Trump had said the company would not close foreign deals while he was in office. This year, the ethics statement only pledged that the firm would not do business with foreign governments.
Already, however, the Trump Organization has closed on a deal to build a $5.5 billion Trump International Golf Club in Qatar – the country that donated the $400m jet to be used as Air Force One. One of the partners in the deal is owned by the Qatari government.
In addition, a company that reportedly has close ties to Saudi Arabia’s government is a partner in a $1 billion, 80-story Trump International Hotel and Tower to be built in Dubai.
And the government of the United Arab Emirates is investing $2 billion more in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial, through its investment fund.
These and other deals raise concerns about what those foreign governments might want from Trump.
“If foreign governments can do business deals with the United States – public officials, private business deals – they could easily corrupt our government,” Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told PBS. “And that is the danger we face today, as much as we faced it at the time of the founding of this country.”
In Qatar recently, according to The New York Times, Donald Trump Jr. said his family’s business strategy changed between his father’s first and second terms.
During the first term, Trump Jr. said, “even the deals that were totally legit, it didn’t stop the insanity.”
“So this time around, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play by the rules, but we’re not going to go so far as to stymie our business forever, lock ourselves in a proverbial padded room,’” he said. “Because it almost doesn’t matter. They’re going to hit you no matter what. So we’re just going to play the game.”
‘Kind of a fundraiser’
The thin line between the president’s public duties and his private interests came into focus on May 22, when the 200 top purchasers of his “$TRUMP” meme coin gathered for a private dinner with Trump at his country club in Virginia.
“I always put the country way ahead of the business,” Trump said at the dinner. He added that the sale of the meme coin – a cryptocurrency with little inherent value that is often based on an internet trend or character – was intended to boost the U.S. cryptocurrency industry.
“You become President of the United States,” Trump said, “and you want to see people thrive and succeed.”
World Liberty Financial, his family’s cryptocurrency business, collected more than $320 million in fees from sales of the meme coin, Reuters reported. At least half of the top purchasers apparently were from outside the United States.
“It’s kind of a fundraiser” for Trump, one purchaser, Korean cryptocurrency executive Sangrok Oh, told The New York Times. “And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.”