During the year Trump was president, his net worth skyrocketed by $1.4 billion, jumping from $5.1 billion to $6.5 billion, with Forbes outright declaring him the richest sitting president in American history.
The money mainly came from three sources: $850 million earned from cryptocurrency, $520 million in appreciation from traditional real estate and golf courses, and the best part was that a New York court overturned a $517 million civil fine, instantly erasing his debts.
He used to be a fierce opponent of cryptocurrency, publicly calling Bitcoin a scam and nothing but hot air. It wasn't until 2022, when he launched NFT profile cards and tasted success, that he completely turned around.
Three days before his inauguration in 2025, $TRUMP went online, with the family company holding an 80% stake, and the coin price soared from $7 to $74 within 48 hours. Retail investors who bought at the peak lost $2 billion, and they made $100 million just in transaction fees.
Even more astonishingly, the top 220 holders of the coin could attend a private dinner, while the top 29 could have one-on-one VIP access at Mar-a-Lago, with summit seats determined by the amount of coins held. It's clear they are selling tickets to access power.
On the policy front, he is also fully supportive: establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve, launching a series of friendly regulations, and elevating cryptocurrency to a matter of national security. Democrats angrily criticize unprecedented conflicts of interest, while the White House claims it has been placed into a children's trust.
But this is completely different from traditional independent blind trusts. Trump has directly turned the presidency into a money-making IP strategy, which has indeed allowed him to earn nearly $10 billion in a year. But when power and money are completely intertwined, and those retail investors who bought at high prices lose everything, we must also ask: Can politics remain at least minimally clean?
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