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The presidency is making Trump exponentially richer

The presidency is making Trump exponentially richer


Trump gained far more after his return to office than in 2024, when he reported earning about $600 million.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

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Donald Trump added billions to his net worth in the year and a half since his return to the presidency—much of it paper wealth in the form of cryptocurrency, but plenty of it in hard cash paid to him by business partners, including the investment firm run by the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor.

In total, it appears that Trump added about $2.2 billion to his net worth in 2025—by far his most lucrative year in the presidency, and far more than in 2024, when he reported earning about $600 million.

Trump filed required personal financial disclosure forms on Tuesday evening that revealed his earnings, but there are some major caveats—most of the gained wealth is in the form of cryptocurrency or crypto-related businesses, and the crypto industry has had a steep decline since the start of this year, led by crashing Bitcoin prices.

And the forms do reveal some new details. Trump was closely involved with the launching of a Trump meme coin cryptocurrency shortly before taking office, but it wasn’t clear how much that had earned him. On his new forms, Trump disclosed earning $635 million from a company called Celebration Coins, which is believed to be behind his meme coin.

While Trump was paid for the creation of the coins and was awarded a significant number of them, the coin’s price has collapsed from a high of $44 on his inauguration day to $1.69 on Wednesday. No matter the price, Trump’s stake in the coin is all profit to him—but a recent analysis found buyers of the coin had likely lost in the neighborhood of $700 million trying to trade on $Trump coins.

There’s another $290 million in cryptowallets that appear to be associated with Trump’s other crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, but again, the price of the WLFI cryptocoin has also dropped by about 65 percent since the end of 2025. And as with the meme coin, an analysis suggests that investors in WLFI may have lost as much as $700 million.

One very real bit of wealth Trump added in 2025 was $65 million from sale of equity in World Liberty Financial, a deal that was reportedly the sale of 49 percent of the company to a firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, the brother of Mohamed bin Zayed, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Tahnoon is the UAE’s national security advisor as well as the chairman of several of the wealthy country’s investment funds.

Reaping large sums of money from overseas sources was a theme on Trump’s disclosure. In addition to the money from Sheikh Tahnoun’s fund, Trump also reported huge payments for lending his name to a slew of new Trump-branded properties around the world. And it appears he has signficantly upped his fees.

In 2014, Trump signed a deal with a Dubai-based company called DAMAC to build a golf course with his name on it—over the course of the next four years, he earned somewhere between $2 and $10 million for the deal. In 2025 alone, DAMAC paid Trump $12.5 million, including $5 million a piece, just to use his name on two new Trump properties.

And it wasn’t just DAMAC, which is owned by Emirati billionaire Husain Sajwani, who has frequently appeared at Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago and has been given special access at Trump’s inaugurations. Trump was paid more than $25.2 million by a Saudi development firm for the use of his name on properties in Dubai, Saudi Qatar, and Oman. Partners in India, Vietnam and the Phillipines added even more money to Trump’s pocket for using name there, the reports show.

While those are impressive numbers, Trump’s war in Iran, just across the Strait of Hormuz from his Oman development, has reportedly helped sink other potential deals, including one deal in Australia.

The forms also appear to show a new deal—Trump reports being paid $2 million in a non-refundable development deal by a company called Base Co. LTD. According to a report in a Korean business publication in February, the Trump Organization and a large Korean construction company signed an agreement to work together, and Eric Trump was hosted at a lavish dinner attended by top Korean politicans and business executives.

Trump also listed hundreds of investments in stocks. Many of these appear to be standard blue-chip stocks or municipal bonds that might appear in any diversified portfolio, recent stock trading disclosures show Trump has been investing in companies and then lauding the company’s products in speeches.

While the forms require Trump to disclose earnings, debts and valuations of his businesses, it doesn’t necessarily require him to report profitablity. While crypto has far surpassed Trump’s traditional busineses of hospitality and real estate in terms of importance for his wealth, it’s not necessarily clear whether his Trump properties are thriving.

What is clear is that Trump has taken some of his new cash and used it to get rid of old debts—in the last year, he has paid off mortgages on his Seven Springs golf course and his 40 Wall Street commerical building in New York City. He also paid off a personal mortgage on a house next to Mar-a-Lago, which he purchased from his sister in 2018 for $18.5 million.

That mortgage repayment actually raises another potential caveat about all of Trump’s newfound wealth—Trump loves to say everything is worth more than it is. That house he bought for $18.5 million eight years ago? This year, Trump listed it as being worth an open-ended and optimistic “over $50 million.”



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