Dem
47
GOP
53
One of the telltale signs of a dictatorial leader—fascist or not—is their use of their position to fill their own personal bank account. The money is right there, and there's so much of it available, and if they were the type of person to have scruples or guilt about such things, they wouldn't have pursued absolute power in the first place. Try to come up with any leader with absolute, or near-absolute, power who did not end up pilfering tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars, eventually. Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, the Shah of Iran, Francisco Franco, Saddam Hussein, the Castro brothers, Papa and Baby Doc, Pol Pot, Idi Amin—they all do it.
And so, the fact that Donald Trump has greatly enriched himself from the presidency, far beyond the book deals and speaking fees that have become characteristic for former holders of the office, just checks another box. But how much has he made, exactly? David D. Kirkpatrick, of The New Yorker decided to try to figure that out.
Before we share the numbers, it's useful to point out a few things. First, Trump is notorious for placing an astronomical value on his name as a brand. Kirkpatrick is not going to assign any meaningful value to such claims. Second, and in a similar vein, some of Trump's assets will drop precipitously in value once he leaves office (e.g., Truth Social); this must be accounted for. Third, Trump was at least somewhat cautious about profiting off the presidency in his first term. Yes, he compelled the Secret Service to rent hotel rooms from him, and he made it clear that anyone who stayed at Trump International in D.C. would be looked on with favor, but he basically did not hawk products from the Oval Office, nor did his business enter into new development deals overseas. All of that is out the window now, with the result that any guesstimate of how much grifting he will do between now and January 20, 2029, is necessarily very preliminary.
And now, the numbers:
| Grift | Notes | Est. Value |
| Gulf projects | At least five new licensing/development deals since re-taking office | $105.8 million |
| Trump Hanoi Hotel | Licensing deal; largest Trump-branded property in the world | $40 million |
| 1789 Capital | Trump family being paid to lend name to right-wing social clubs | $19.6 million |
| Licensing Total | $165.4 million | |
| Mar-A-Lago | Trump has dramatically increased membership fees since becoming president | $125 million |
| Merch | Hats, shirts, collectibles, blasphemous Bibles, etc. | $27.7 million |
| Truth Social | Trump will undoubtedly realize far less than the "paper value" of his stock | $25 million |
| Business Ventures Total | $177.7 million | |
| NFTs | "Collectible" Trump trading cards, etc. | $14.4 million |
| World Liberty Financial Tokens | Trump sons venture | $412.5 million |
| World Liberty Financial Stablecoin | Trump sons venture | $243 million |
| American Bitcoin | Trump sons agreed to license the family name to the venture | $13 million |
| Trump Media | First crypto venture from Trump himself | $1.3 billion |
| $TRUMP | President's personal meme coin | $385 million |
| Crypto Total | $2.3679 billion | |
| Campaign "expenses" | Legal and other personal costs paid by campaigns/PACs | $100 million |
| Saudi wealth management | Money paid to Jared Kushner/Ivanka Trump by Saudi investment fund | $320 million |
| The Qatari Jet | Nominally "Air Force One" for some period of time | $150 million |
| Corporate shakedowns | "Protection" money paid to the Trumps by CBS, Amazon, etc. | $91 million |
| Other Total | $661 million | |
| Overall Total | $3.372 billion |
In case you didn't already know, crypto is THE place to be for the contemporary grifter.
It has been necessary for Trump and his grifty progeny to be at least a little bit creative, because unlike the other folks listed in the opening paragraph, they haven't yet managed to directly steer billions in government funds into their own pockets. Time will tell if they try to change that. On one hand, the Trumps are doing plenty well without trying to plunder the government directly, and taking the risks that entails. On the other hand, these are people who can never, ever, ever have enough money, and they have thus far been awfully good at avoiding the criminal consequences of their actions, and may be feeling bulletproof at this point. So, it could go either way. (Z)