Overview of "How the Presidency is Making Trump Richer" (Up First / Planet Money)
This episode (NPR's Up First, featuring a Planet Money report) summarizes reporting by New Yorker reporter David Kirkpatrick on how President Trump and his family have personally profited since his 2024 reelection. Using a conservative, minimum-first approach, Kirkpatrick and Planet Money tally deals and receipts that likely would not have happened—or would not have been as lucrative—if Trump were not president. Their running total: roughly $3.8–4.0 billion in gains during the second term so far, across merch, media, hospitality, finance, crypto and other categories.
Main takeaways
- Estimated minimum gain to Trump and family in the second term: ≈ $3.8 billion (approaching $4 billion), with most of it earned in the first year of the term.
- The reporting focuses only on profits that are plausibly attributable to Trump’s presidential status (i.e., unlikely to have happened otherwise).
- Major profit sources: crypto-related deals, Trump Media/Bitcoin holdings, meme coins, Gulf and other hospitality deals, private equity/finance deals tied to family members, Truth Social/media payments and lawsuits, Mar-a-Lago membership increases, and branded merchandise.
- NPR reached out to the White House; press statements deny profiting and claim Trump “sacrificed” business opportunities, but did not dispute that money flowed to the family.
- Ethics experts called the scale of profits unprecedented for a U.S. president and noted potential conflicts where presidential policy aligns with family financial interests (notably crypto).
How the accounting was done (scope & methodology)
- Conservative/minimum approach: Kirkpatrick intentionally excluded deals likely to have happened without the presidency and omitted ordinary, preexisting business profits.
- Sources used: court records, financial disclosures, public statements, reporting (e.g., New York Times), corporate filings, and publicly available deal documents.
- Counted items are generally “cash in hand” or realizable gains (transfers, sales, equity value based on transactions/prices).
- The goal was a defensible floor, not a comprehensive upper-bound estimate; Kirkpatrick continues to update the tally as new deals surface.
Categories of profit (high-level with notable examples and estimates)
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Total (conservative minimum): ≈ $3.8 billion
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Merch and related innovations
- Trump-branded merchandise (sneakers, Bibles, guitars, hats) directed to private accounts rather than campaign funds: ≈ $27.7 million.
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Media, lawsuits, and social platform
- Truth Social-related gains: ≈ $25 million (generous estimate).
- Payments from media deals and lawsuit settlements/awards (suits against ABC, CBS, Meta, etc.): combined with Truth Social ≈ $116 million.
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Hospitality / real estate
- Mar-a-Lago: additional profits tied to presidency (initiation fees and premium pricing): ≈ $125 million.
- Trump Hotel Hanoi (Vietnam): favorable treatment and expedited approvals tied to Trump’s standing: ≈ $40 million.
- Persian Gulf hotel/management deals (Oman, Saudi, UAE, Qatar) with unusually favorable multi-decade contracts: ≈ $105.8 million.
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Finance / private equity
- Jared Kushner’s post-White House private equity raise with Saudi investment: Jared’s cut estimated ≈ $320 million.
- Don Jr.’s role in 1789 Capital and related gains: ≈ $19.6 million.
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Big-ticket crypto and token deals (largest single categories)
- NFTs (Trump and Melania-themed): ≈ $14.4 million.
- Token investments (World Liberty Financial tokens): ≈ $974.5 million.
- USD-1 stablecoin sale to UAE ( ~$2 billion purchase ): estimated profit ≈ $243 million.
- American Bitcoin (Trump sons’ 20% stake in a mining venture): ≈ $115 million.
- Trump Media / Bitcoin holdings: Trump’s ~41% stake of Trump Media’s bitcoin/cash position was valued at about $1.3 billion at press time (later recalculated nearer $1.08 billion as Bitcoin fell).
- Trump/melania meme coins (meme-coin/token sales): ≈ $385 million.
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Other notable items
- Qatari royal jet gifted to U.S. (later intended for presidential library): valued in Kirkpatrick’s accounting ≈ $150 million.
- Campaign-fund loophole enabling use of donor dollars for legal defense: reportedly produced “millions” in legal-fee coverage (exact conservative figure not centrally cited in the episode).
Legal and ethical context
- Emoluments issues: past lawsuits over the D.C. hotel and foreign gifts were raised in Trump’s first term but were never fully litigated before he left office; the D.C. hotel reportedly did not generate net gains from foreign patronage.
- Historical comparisons: While presidents and their families historically benefited from connections (ambassadorships, speaking/book deals after office, some conflicts while in office), the scale, diversity, and directness of profits tied to Trump’s presidential status are described as unprecedented by ethics experts (Fred Wertheimer).
- Policy conflicts: Observers cited concern where administration policy (e.g., toward cryptocurrency) aligns with family business interests.
Notable quotes / insights
- “Since we're going to get criticized, we might as well take the money and run.” — paraphrase of Trump family stance described in reporting.
- Kirkpatrick’s methodological claim: he focused only on deals “inconceivable” without the presidency—seeking a conservative floor rather than speculative totals.
- Ethics observer Fred Wertheimer: “It doesn't exist at the level at which President Trump is making money… It has never existed like this in our country until now.”
Limitations and caveats
- This is a conservative minimum estimate — many transactions are opaque and some valuations (especially token prices and private share prices) depend on volatile markets.
- Some numbers (e.g., Trump Media bitcoin valuation) changed as markets moved; the tally has been rising and continues to be updated.
- Kirkpatrick excluded many deals he judged would have happened regardless of the presidency; different methodological choices would yield different totals.
- Public filings and court records reveal clues but do not provide a fully transparent ledger; family interconnections and private transfers complicate precise accounting.
Why this matters
- Demonstrates how a modern presidency can be monetized by a sitting president and immediate family at scale.
- Raises questions about conflicts of interest, the adequacy of current safeguards (criminal laws, emoluments clauses, disclosure rules), and whether presidential actions or policy decisions could be influenced by family financial interests.
- Highlights new mechanisms (crypto tokens, meme coins, platform equity tied to presidential brand) that can convert presidential influence into rapid, large-scale private gains.
Suggested further reading / listening (from the episode)
- New Yorker article by David Kirkpatrick (the primary reporting underlying the tally).
- Planet Money episode (this segment) for the audio walkthrough of the accounting.
- Coverage of the specific deals referenced (New York Times reporting on Gulf deals; filings and minutes related to Kushner’s fundraising; corporate filings for Trump Media/Truth Social and crypto deals).
Produced as a concise digest of the Planet Money / Up First reporting on the topic; figures are Kirkpatrick’s conservative estimates and were still being updated at the time of the episode.