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Trump family earned $1 billion as ethics concerns mount over crypto

Trump family earned $1 billion as ethics concerns mount over crypto

A 927-page financial disclosure shows Trump and his family earned over $1 billion in 2024, with more than $600 million from $TRUMP meme coin sales.

While American workers face a cooling housing market and a decade of trade uncertainty following the USMCA stalemate, President Donald Trump and his family reported more than $1 billion in income last year — more than $600 million of it from a meme coin bearing his name, according to NPR's coverage of a 927-page financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics. On May 22, 2025, Trump hosted a private dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia exclusively for top investors in $TRUMP, the cryptocurrency. 🔹 What happened: The financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics details income across multiple streams: World Liberty Financial, co-founded by Trump family members, generated more than $500 million; $TRUMP meme coin sales produced more than $600 million; media settlements added more than $50 million; and branded products including Bibles, sneakers, and watches contributed additional millions. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly rejected any conflict-of-interest framing and credited Trump with positioning the U.S. as "the crypto capital of the world." 🔹 Why it matters: Former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, speaking on NPR's Morning Edition, stated that federal conflict-of-interest laws would bar any other executive branch official from engaging in equivalent financial activities. Painter said Trump "stands alone" in holding financial interests of this scale while serving as president. For ordinary retail investors who bought $TRUMP tokens — drawn in part by the president's public profile — the question of who captures the upside and who absorbs the downside risk in a presidentially branded asset is one that regulators have not answered. The White House maintains that independent external managers handle Trump's investments without direct presidential involvement. 📌 EPM Take: The dinner on May 22, 2025, is the detail that reframes everything else: a sitting president hosting top investors of his own cryptocurrency at a property he owns is not an abstract ethics question — it is a specific, documented event. Painter's point is precise: other executive branch officials are legally prohibited from arrangements like this. The president is not, by statute. That legal gap is not an accident of poor drafting; it reflects an assumption — now visibly tested — that presidents would voluntarily use blind trusts to avoid exactly this scenario. EPM has tracked the Micron-Trump fund deal and the USMCA stalemate. Each data point adds to a picture of economic policy and personal financial exposure occupying the same space with no institutional wall between them. ✍️ EPM Editorial Desk | erickprometeomedia.com
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