US Politics
Trump sees his net worth jump by more than $1BN since returning to office
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President Trump now has a net worth of about $6.5 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion over the previous year, according to Forbes, as the Republican’s crypto and hospitality businesses continue to mint cash.
He now ranks 645th among the world’s 3,428 billionaires, the magazine found, a 55-place jump up from his spot in 2025.
The president’s crypto businesses have been the core driver of this gain in wealth, Forbes found.
He reportedly earned an estimated $550 million from the sale of crypto tokens through World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm he co-founded with current Trump administration Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a company that is now overseen by their sons.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and estate in Florida, sometimes called the “Winter White House,” has only increased its status as a place for political and business leaders to rub shoulders with administration figures, and Forbes estimates it is now worth $560 million.
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Legal wins have also helped Trump bump up his net worth.
Last year, an appeals court tossed a more than $515 million penalty that Trump and his associates owed in a New York fraud case, while scores of media outlets and tech companies reached multi-million dollar settlements with Trump as he returned to power.
Trump, who frequently branded political opponents like the Bidens and the Clintons as corrupt, has turned the White House into a personal money machine, according to his detractors.
“He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests,” The New York Times editorial board wrote in a January investigation, which similarly found Trump had made about $1.4 billion since taking office.
Critics point to a variety of conduct they say raises red flags about corruption, including corporate millions funding his ballroom project, industry figures having wide influence over U.S. policy, such as Elon Musk’s DOGE crusade, and Trump’s refusal to put his businesses in a blind trust, as all other modern presidents have. Trump’s inauguration raised more money than any other in U.S. history, and $1 million donations from companies with business before the government became the industry standard.
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The White House insists the president keeps his businesses separate from his day job, though the two have often appeared to blend in significant ways.
Four days before Trump’s inauguration, a firm backed by an Abu Dhabi royal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, signed a secret deal to buy nearly half of World Liberty Financial, and another company run by the sheikh later used $2 billion in a currency issued by World Liberty to make one of its investments.
As The New York Times reported, at the same time the $2 billion World Liberty deal was being negotiated, the UAE was working to secure an agreement with the Trump administration, announced in November, to access thousands of top-line AI chips. A Tahnoon lieutenant was reportedly working to get one of the Abu Dhabi executive’s firms the American chips from the U.S. and advising the Trump crypto firm at the same time.
(The companies involved and the administration insist the two deals were unrelated and high ethical standards were maintained by all parties.)
Outside of the president’s own financial affairs, his administration has also faced scrutiny of its use of taxpayer funds, including a $172 million purchase of luxury jets for the Department of Homeland Security, and the reported millions the administration spent on new vehicles with Trump-inspired paint jobs for immigration officers that now reportedly sit unused because agents don’t want to advertise their activities so publicly during missions.
Meanwhile, Kai Trump, the president’s granddaughter, has a burgeoning career as an influencer and has faced criticism for using the White House to promote a sportswear line and filming a recent “tone deaf” vlog about taking her Secret Service detail to the ultra-high-end Los Angeles grocery store Erewhon.
