After the Trump family returned to the White House, they amassed a huge fortune through various channels such as cryptocurrencies and foreign investments, with an unprecedented scale in U.S. history. The estimated total profit has reached $1.8 billion, or even higher.
(Background: New York Times: Trump Family’s “Dirtiest Ever” Crypto Fundraising Worse Than Watergate)
(Additional context: Trump signed the “Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act,” requiring the U.S. to strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations every five years)

Table of Contents

• Early Planning
• Massive Fundraising
• Overall Income and Expenses

The scale of the Trump family’s wealth accumulation is unparalleled in American history.

As the anniversary of Donald Trump’s return to the White House approaches, keeping pace with his family’s opportunistic fundraising efforts is a formidable challenge. It seems every week brings new deals or revelations. Since Trump and related private enterprises are not publicly traded, we cannot fully grasp their financial status. However, by tracking corporate disclosures, official documents, and in-depth media reports, a clear picture emerges: the Trump family’s wealth accumulation is unprecedented in U.S. history. Previously, other presidential relatives such as Donald Nixon, Billy Carter, and Hunter Biden also engaged in questionable business dealings. But in terms of scale, geographic scope, and direct connection to presidential actions—especially Trump’s efforts to make the U.S. the “cryptocurrency capital of the world”—this term of the “Trump Group” is truly historic.

Early Planning

The timeline traces back to September 2024, two months before the presidential election. At that time, Trump announced that his family would collaborate with old friends, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his family, as well as two obscure internet entrepreneurs, Zachary Fockman and Chase Herro, to establish a new cryptocurrency company—World Liberty Financial. His three sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, would all participate. Trump stated on social media: “Cryptocurrency is something we have to do. Whether we like it or not, I have to push forward.” By October, he apparently had no more reservations about promoting digital assets of questionable value to supporters. In promotional materials for the World Liberty Financial token sale, he claimed: “This is your chance to help shape the future of finance.”

According to Reuters, for every $1 raised through token sales by World Liberty Financial, the Trump family could receive 70 cents. Crypto media reported that initial demand for the token was weak but attracted a key buyer: Sun Yuchen, founder of the Tron cryptocurrency platform and a Chinese billionaire. He invested $30 million. At that time, the U.S. SEC was suing Sun Yuchen and his company for fraud and other violations, which he denied. In a tweet announcing his investment, Sun Yuchen wrote: “Tron is committed to making America great again, leading innovation. Let’s take action!”

After winning the election, Trump continued the practices from his first term: refusing to divest from his businesses, only placing them into a revocable trust. Although managed by his eldest son Eric and Donald Jr., Trump remains the actual owner of the Trump Group. Potential conflicts of interest are obvious: if policies or actions taken by the re-elected president benefit his family’s businesses, he and his family could profit financially.

Post-election, Donald Jr. further expanded his business empire—joining the venture capital fund “1789.” The fund was founded by two conservative financiers, Omid Malik and Charles Bask, along with conservative hedge fund heir Rebecca Moser. According to the New York Post, “1789” has raised substantial funds from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Early investments focused on conservative media (including companies owned by Tucker Carlson), but by the time Donald Jr. joined, the scope had expanded to consumer goods, defense, and technology sectors.

On January 17, 2025, just three days before Trump’s second inauguration, he again entered the cryptocurrency arena, launching a new Meme coin—MELANIA. Unlike World Liberty, which grants governance rights to holders, these two tokens are purely Meme coins: TRUMP is currently the most popular digital Meme coin worldwide, and this is just the beginning.

Massive Fundraising

After Trump returned to the White House, various global forces rushed to establish good relations with him, with many involving cryptocurrencies, foreign funds, or both. One of his first actions was to order departments to review regulations affecting the digital asset industry and propose “repeal or modification.” In February, the SEC, with new leadership, requested a court to suspend litigation against Sun Yuchen—by then, Sun’s holdings in World Liberty Financial had increased to $75 million.

In March, Trump hosted a cryptocurrency summit at the White House (organized by “Crypto Czar” and Silicon Valley venture capitalist David Sachs) and announced plans to establish a U.S. “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” Later that month, Eric and Donald Jr. merged their newly formed company with Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 to create American Bitcoin. The Wall Street Journal reported that the goal was to become the world’s largest Bitcoin mining company and to establish a Bitcoin reserve.

In spring, the Trump brothers expanded into other sectors, especially in the Persian Gulf region. In April, Saudi real estate developer Dar Global announced plans to open the Trump Hotel in Dubai and build a Trump Golf resort in neighboring Qatar—having previously collaborated with the Trump family on multiple Trump-branded projects in the Middle East. Eric Trump even attended related launch events in the Gulf.

Domestically, Donald Jr. attended the launch of another business venture: the high-end Washington club, Executive Branch. Membership fees reportedly cost up to $500,000. News reports indicated that Donald Jr. is one of the owners, along with Malik, Bask, and Steve Witkoff’s two sons, Zack and Alex (both co-founders of World Liberty Financial). CNBC reported that guests at the club’s opening included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

Cryptocurrencies and attracting foreign investors remain core strategies for the Trump family’s wealth accumulation. A detailed report by Reuters in October on their “Global Cryptocurrency ATM” showed that in May, Eric Trump attended a crypto conference in Dubai and promoted World Liberty Financial to potential investors, including Guren Bobby Zhou, a Chinese businessman arrested in the UK for suspected money laundering—Zhou denies all charges and has not been convicted. Reuters also noted that a UAE company related to Zhou purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens. Clearly, such foreign investments are not isolated: analysis by Reuters indicates that over two-thirds of WLFI tokens were bought from digital wallets possibly linked to overseas buyers.

Trump also profited from official “gifts.” The U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits federal officials, including the president, from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. In February, Trump, who had been complaining about the slow progress of the new Air Force One, visited Palm Beach International Airport to inspect a luxury Boeing 747 owned by the Qatari government. In May, a few days before traveling to Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, Trump announced on social media that the Pentagon would accept this Boeing 747 as a “free gift” from the Qatari royal family, replacing the existing “Air Force One.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated: “Accepting foreign government gifts is fully compliant with all applicable laws, and the Trump administration is committed to full transparency.”

Another less-publicized transaction benefiting the Trump family involved the Gulf countries: the UAE-controlled investment fund MGX invested $2 billion in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, using WLFI stablecoins issued by World Liberty Financial for payment. Stablecoins are said to be a safer form of cryptocurrency backed by reserves like USD, providing a way to transact without worrying about price volatility.

Unquestionably, the background of the MGX-Binance deal is suspicious. Last year, Binance founder and Chinese-Canadian crypto billionaire Zhao Changpeng (CZ) pleaded guilty to failing to implement effective anti-money laundering procedures and served four months in U.S. federal prison. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zhao was seeking a presidential pardon. That same month, World Liberty Financial announced the issuance of its own stablecoin, USD1—used in the Binance deal, which dramatically changed its market position. The WSJ noted: “This deal caused the cryptocurrency’s circulation to surge 15-fold, making it one of the largest stablecoins in the world overnight.” Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial’s account received $2 billion, which could be invested in government bonds and other assets—estimated by Bloomberg to generate $80 million annually, directly flowing into the Trump family’s businesses.

Why did Binance and MGX choose to use USD1, a relatively untested stablecoin? MGX told Forbes that the choice was because it is “managed by an independent U.S. custodian, with reserves held in an externally audited escrow account.” However, a more realistic explanation is that Zhao was seeking a pardon, and the UAE wanted to curry favor with the U.S. government, which could grant favorable policies. The New York Times’ detailed review of the deal pointed out that two weeks after its completion, the White House allowed the UAE to import hundreds of thousands of advanced computer chips previously restricted by U.S. export controls.

Summer is usually a slow season for business, but this year was different for the Trump family. In July, under government initiative, Congress passed the GENIUS Act, establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins—though some remain concerned that integrating cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial system could pose risks. That same month, Trump’s media and tech companies announced they had purchased about $2 billion worth of Bitcoin and related securities, emulating MicroStrategy, founded by Michael Saylor, transforming from a social media company into a “Bitcoin treasury.” After the announcement, the company’s stock surged—having already fallen sharply since the start of the year. In August, the Trump family engaged in financial maneuvers involving World Liberty Financial: investing in a small publicly traded company, which then issued $750 million in stock to buy WLFI tokens. A Wall Street Journal article noted: “This kind of circular transaction, where both buyer and seller are the same entity and the transaction involves its own products, is more common in crypto than in traditional finance.” In early September, some WLFI tokens began trading on crypto exchanges; two days later, Eric and Donald Jr.’s American Bitcoin went public on NASDAQ, with its stock price immediately rising. Bloomberg reported that these operations earned the Trump family “about $1.3 billion.”

In fall, related transactions and controversies continued. In October, Trump pardoned Zhao Changpeng, sparking public outrage, but he claimed not to know the crypto entrepreneur and added that the pardon was “at the request of many honest people.” In November, Democratic staff on the House Judiciary Committee released a report stating that Trump “used his office to make himself a cryptocurrency billionaire, providing broad protections for fraudsters, scammers, and other cybercriminals—who paid millions of dollars in ‘tribute’ to the president and his family.” In response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated: “The president and his family have never, and will never, be involved in conflicts of interest. The government, through executive actions and support for the GENIUS Act, is promoting innovation and economic opportunities, fulfilling the promise to ‘make America the world’s cryptocurrency capital.’”

Overall Income and Expenses

There are various estimates regarding the total wealth accumulated by the Trump family. Reuters estimates that in the first half of this year, the family profited about $800 million from cryptocurrency sales; the Financial Times states that over the 12 months ending October 2025, their total fundraising exceeded $1 billion. Including non-cryptocurrency income (licensing agreements, gifts, special media deals, legal settlements, etc.), the think tank “Center for American Progress,” closely linked to the Democratic Party, estimates that since Trump’s re-election, the family’s “total profit” has reached $1.8 billion. Looking longer-term, my colleague David Kirkpatrick estimates that from 2016 to now, Trump has profited $3.4 billion from business related to his presidential role.

It should be noted that these figures refer to cash income and do not include the appreciation of Trump and his family’s book wealth—especially the value increase from holdings in World Liberty Financial and other crypto companies. In September, after WLFI tokens began trading on exchanges, some estimates indicated that the family’s paper wealth in cryptocurrencies had reached $5 billion or more.

However, over the past few months, nearly all crypto assets (including those related to the Trump family) have plummeted in value: TRUMP Meme coin down about 80%, MELANIA Meme coin plummeted 98.5%; Trump media and tech company stocks (which, from a financial perspective, are now essentially Bitcoin acquisition tools) have fallen nearly 70% since early this year, and nearly 40% since their large-scale crypto holdings. World Liberty Financial, being a private company, has no publicly traded stock, but its WLFI token has lost over one-third of its value since early September; American Bitcoin, associated with Eric Trump, has fallen over 75% in the same period.

For the Trump family and their business partners, this market crash is a painful consequence of their “all-in on crypto” strategy. Their future largely depends on the performance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But even after recent declines, the Trump family’s digital assets still have a paper value of billions of dollars; even if the crypto market crashes tomorrow, they still hold cash income accumulated since Trump’s return to the White House—and further fundraising remains possible.

Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that the Pentagon’s “Strategic Capital Office,” established in 2022 by the Biden administration to fund the development of new technologies with national security applications, provided a $620 million loan to Vulcan Earth, a rare earth startup linked to Donald Jr. The company recently received investment from the “1789” fund (with Donald Jr. as a partner). A spokesperson for Donald Jr. told the Financial Times that he did not participate in the deal with the government; Pentagon and Commerce Department officials, as well as Vulcan Earth’s CEO, also stated the same.

Nevertheless, this loan has raised questions. The Financial Times reported: “This year, at least four companies in the ‘1789’ fund’s portfolio received contracts from the Trump administration, totaling $735 million.” From one perspective, this may indicate that the “1789” fund adopted a savvy business strategy—aligning its investments with the Pentagon’s new priorities under Trump; but from another, it appears to be another round of wealth accumulation for the Trump family. When public affairs and private interests are so intertwined, the truth becomes difficult to discern.

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