Donald Trump’s second tenure in the White House has also been lucrative for his business interests and family, according to a new investigation by The New Yorker. The report estimates that Trump and his family have benefited by more than $1 billion from ventures and deals connected to his time in office.
When Trump first entered the presidency in 2017, he pledged to separate his political role from the Trump Organization, turning daily operations over to his sons. The magazine’s investigation, however, suggests that promise eroded over time, with foreign contracts, memberships, and merchandise sales tied closely to his political influence.
According to the report, Trump family gains include golf course and real estate projects in the Persian Gulf valued in the hundreds of millions, a $2 billion Saudi investment into Jared Kushner’s private-equity firm, and a five-fold increase in Mar-a-Lago membership revenues since Trump’s entry into politics.
The article also cites $27.7 million from personal merchandise sales, more than $100 million in donor-funded PAC money used to pay legal bills, and licensing profits from a Vietnam golf and hotel complex. Other reported benefits include a $150 million private jet offered by the Emir of Qatar, cryptocurrency and NFT ventures worth more than $14 million, and media settlements totaling $63 million.
Ethics experts quoted in the piece described Trump’s financial entanglements as without precedent. Fred Wertheimer, a longtime government watchdog, said: “When it comes to using public office to amass personal profits, Trump is a unicorn—no one else even comes close.”
The total value of the reported gains stands at more than $1 billion.
