Cashing in from the White House

Donald Trump has crossed many red lines in these nine months of his second term in office, but in few areas is his personal appropriation of political authority as evident as in connection to his and his family’s financial and business assets. He is not the first U.S. president to come from the business world, but none until now had so blurred the line between public service and private profit, a key boundary in the functioning of any democratic political system.

Since taking office for the second time on January 20, Trump has used his power so aggressively that he has weakened the system of checks and balances that are the very foundation of American democracy. He has also not hesitated to suppress dissent and deploy the entire executive branch to intimidate the press, civil society, and the opposition. His foreign policy decisions are redefining the framework for the use of force and the boundaries of international law. And he has made it clear to large corporations, tech oligarchs, and any foreigner interested in doing business in the United States that everything in the Oval Office has a price.

It’s difficult to put concrete numbers on the Trumps’ wealth accumulation during this time, as many of their businesses are not listed on the stock exchange, and the corporate structure they’ve created makes them difficult to monitor. Various investigations estimate that their wealth, estimated at around $2.3 billion at the end of 2024, may have multiplied by three or even five times in recent months. However, there is some compelling evidence. The family’s investment in the cryptocurrency market would not exist or be as lucrative without the legislative changes made by the Trump administration, which has excluded the Federal Reserve and other federal agencies from the sector, now exclusively in private hands. The Trump children are closing deals with many petromonarchies just before Trump’s official visit to the country in question, and some of those governments are being authorized to do business in the United States—such as the Abu Dhabi fund MGX’s participation in TikTok USA’s operations—after depositing billions in a crypto startup founded by the presidential family. Meanwhile, tech companies have agreed to pay millions in compensation to Trump himself to close the lawsuits filed by the president.

The worst part, however, is that such a level of monetization of public office has not triggered the kind of social and political backlash it might have elicited in other times. Donald Trump has broken down many of the boundaries of what was once considered acceptable in a president by portraying ethical concerns as partisan issues. Political polarization also leads to an erosion of oversight and accountability mechanisms, allowing the president to escape accountability to his constituents. Without effective resistance from society and independent institutions, the deterioration of some of the fundamental principles of American democracy could be irreversible.

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