By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Donald Trump’s second stint in the White House has proven to be a gold mine — for Donald Trump. An investigation by The New Yorker has tallied more than $1 billion in personal and family gains tied directly to his two presidencies, from foreign mega-projects to luxury perks and merchandise sales that blur, if not obliterate, the lines between public office and private profit. When Trump first took office in 2017, he assured Americans he would not “destroy the company he built” but would turn daily operations over to his sons. He claimed such a handoff would avoid the appearance of exploiting the presidency. Eight years later, that promise is in shreds.
The New Yorker reports that Trump and his family have reaped massive windfalls, including Persian Gulf real estate and golf course contracts in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Dubai, and Qatar that would be inconceivable without the presidency. Jared Kushner’s private-equity firm, Affinity Partners, secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sovereign wealth fund, along with hundreds of millions more from the UAE and Qatar, generating hundreds of millions for Kushner personally. Mar-a-Lago’s revenues have quintupled since Trump entered politics, producing at least $125 million in extra profit from members willing to pay as much as $1 million to join.
Trump’s personal merchandising empire — separate from his campaign store — has brought in $27.7 million selling MAGA-style hats, koozies, and flip-flops. Donor-funded PACs have spent over $100 million covering his personal legal bills. The Emir of Qatar offered him a Boeing 747-8 as a “gift” for his use after leaving office, worth an estimated $150 million. A massive Hanoi golf and hotel complex, advanced by Vietnam’s Communist Party with “special attention” from the Trump administration, is projected to bring $40 million in licensing profits.
Major media companies — ABC, Meta, X, and CBS — have collectively paid $63 million to Trump’s presidential library foundation to settle defamation claims that legal experts described as baseless but were resolved under the weight of presidential power. Meanwhile, Trump and his family have dived into cryptocurrency, NFTs, and token sales, pocketing at least $14.4 million from licensing fees and digital currency holdings. Ethics watchdog Fred Wertheimer told The New Yorker that “when it comes to using his public office to amass personal profits, Trump is a unicorn — no one else even comes close.” The total haul stands at roughly $1.02 billion — a sum no prior occupant of the Oval Office has approached.
“We will never really know,” Robert Weissman of Public Citizen stated.
