Dem
47
GOP
53
The disclosure that Donald Trump made billions of dollars (largely in crypto) last year is giving the Democrats an increasingly clear campaign message for the midterms: Trump is corrupt and stealing your money and doesn't care a whit that you can barely afford food. The two parts, his corruption and your financial stress, fit together well. People are going to connect the dots and assume that if Trump weren't so corrupt, they wouldn't be feeling so much pain. That is not strictly true in the sense that even if Trump were not in the crypto business, food prices wouldn't be lower. But it is also true that Trump's entire focus is on raking it in for himself instead of devoting every last hour to working on getting prices down. He could do things to help lower prices—for example, making it easier to import cheap food from Mexico, but he is not interested. When pressed for details, Democrats could point this out.
Connecting Trump's corruption to people's pain is a good story for the midterms. But if Democrats capture either or both chambers of Congress in November, it will be a free-for-all next year. His 927-page financial disclosure (PDF) is a roadmap for Democrats to follow. It itemizes every financial venture Trump was engaged in during 2025. The subpoenas will fly if Democrats get the power to issue them. Private and public depositions will abound. The biggest targets are the people around Trump, including family and cronies. They have no immunity from being called to testify. They can plead the Fifth Amendment, but in the court of public opinion, that makes someone look guilty. If a representative asks someone: "Did you ever discuss a business deal with the leader of the U.A.E., Qatar, or any other country in the Middle East?" an answer of "Fifth" is a much weaker answer than "No."
World Liberty Financial, a project of the Trump and Witkoff families, has been a magnet for foreign investors. It probably has an accountant who could be asked under oath about who the investors and clients are and whether there are any potential conflicts of interest.
An investigation by the NYT has turned up the tidbit that Trump's sons and those of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick have ties to at least 14 companies seeking almost $9 billion in government funding for deals supposedly involving rare earth minerals. Talk about conflict of interest. The sons aren't going to get immunity (unless one is prepared to rat on the others), but them saying "Fifth Amendment" a few hundred times during a hearing is not going to look great. Democrats will be able to use footage of that in 2028 to show how corrupt the Republicans are.
First son-in-law Jared Kushner has raised billions from Middle East governments he is negotiating with on matters of war and peace. What could possibly be wrong here? Would Kushner be willing to be recorded pleading the Fifth Amendment over and over and over? How would that look in Democratic ads about the "Trump crime family" in 2028? Although it is unlikely a Trump will be on the ballot in 2028, "They're all a bunch of crooks" could become a powerful campaign slogan for the Democrats. Donald Trump kept talking about the "Biden crime family" based on Hunter Biden's lying on a government form when he bought a handgun and engaged in some moderate-level tax shenanigans. Miles of footage of Trump family members squirming under oath projects a much more powerful image.
Another area the Democrats are going to be interested in is the 21,000 securities trades Trump made while in office, some of them with curious timing. Could there be a pattern in which stock was bought, then some official announcement was made driving a stock just bought skyward, then a sale? Were there many purchases and sales in close proximity where the sale made a big profit just a few hours later? Computers are pretty good at detecting this kind of stuff. By way of contrast, Joe Biden made 13 trades during his entire presidency.
In short, the disclosure form is a veritable gold mine of areas for the House Oversight Committee to pursue if ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) becomes chairman in January. Garcia is very aggressive and detests Trump. It could be quite a show. If Garcia is smart, he is already prepping for future investigations. His Long Beach-based district is D+18, so he doesn't have to spend a lot of time campaigning. Besides, his staff can start digging and planning now. (V)