Cashing in on the crown: How Trump turned the presidency into a personal money machine — The Insider

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CORRUPTIONCashing in on the crown: How Trump turned the presidency into a personal money machine<br>Valery Nikolaev<br>April 23, 2026

Contents<br>1.$100 million: monetizing the family name through American Bitcoin

2.$5 billion: the World Liberty Financial crypto scam

3.$562 million: profits out of thin air from governance tokens

4.Interest “tribute” from the USD1 stablecoin, trading in pardons and export licenses

5.Global crypto octopus: from Japanese exchanges to “paid entry” to the White House

6.Loyalists in key posts

7.Total: $1.4 billion in personal profit, with complete immunity

Donald Trump is the only billionaire ever to occupy the Oval Office, and since returning to the precedency in January 2025, his family’s wealth has grown noticeably. This is not the result of traditional business practices. Instead, Trump has been actively using his presidential status for personal enrichment, and in some cases, his efforts amount to outright scams.<br>Доступно на русском

Contents<br>1.$100 million: monetizing the family name through American Bitcoin<br>2.$5 billion: the World Liberty Financial crypto scam<br>3.$562 million: profits out of thin air from governance tokens<br>4.Interest “tribute” from the USD1 stablecoin, trading in pardons and export licenses<br>5.Global crypto octopus: from Japanese exchanges to “paid entry” to the White House<br>6.Loyalists in key posts<br>7.Total: $1.4 billion in personal profit, with complete immunity

Even by the most conservative estimates, by 2025 the combined gain Donald Trump and his relatives had received as a direct result of his time in the Oval Office had reached $3.4 billion. In Trump’s case, the line between public governance and private profit is being systematically erased. Presidential appointees make business regulatory decisions that instantly inflate his family’s assets, while foreign governments effectively “buy” access to American technology and multibillion-dollar contracts by making investments in Trump’s private projects.<br>Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has already called this an unprecedented seizure of power: “The president of the United States effectively controls the regulators who are supposed to oversee his personal financial empire. The regulator that is supposed to supervise his business is taking orders from the president. Nothing like this has ever happened in American history.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren: “The regulator is not overseeing Trump’s business, but working at his direction. Nothing like this has ever happened in American history”

“The main question is how Trump circumvents the laws by transferring assets into trusts managed by his children. Experts emphasize that this is not merely an 'ethical violation,' but a deliberate use of legal loopholes. In addition, non-relative Trump protégés are now working in the White House and within the The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an independent U.S. federal agency established in 1978 to prevent conflicts of interest within the executive branch. It sets standards of conduct, trains government employees, and helps ensure compliance with ethical rules across more than 130 agencies." tabindex="0" role="button" aria-label="Office of Government Ethics">Office of Government Ethics, which makes conducting real investigations inside the executive branch all but impossible, Igor Slabykh, an expert on the U.S. legal and tax system and author of the Telegram channel USLegalNews, explained in an interview with The Insider.

$100 million: monetizing the family name through American Bitcoin

This spring, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. received a combined stake of about 13% in American Bitcoin. Their entire “contribution” consisted solely of lending out their father’s surname.<br>The company went public through a questionable The company went public through a merger with a small publicly traded company. This is done through a so-called reverse merger or a SPAC-like structure. A SPAC is a publicly listed company created for a limited period, typically two years, to merge with a private business and thereby take it public." tabindex="0" role="button" aria-label="penny stock merger">penny stock merger, allowing it to bypass the stricter and lengthier IPO process and the related scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the main regulator of America’s financial markets. As a result, Donald Jr.’s stake soared in value to $100 million.<br>It is a classic example of how the president’s sons convert their father’s status into personal capital, all while regulators appointed by Trump look the other way.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. received about 13% in American Bitcoin in exchange for the family name.

$5 billion: the World Liberty Financial crypto scam

The president’s family gained access to massive financial flows through the startup World Liberty Financial, where Trump is listed as co-founder...