As he takes on the presidency for a second term, Donald Trump brings with him a wide range of business relationships and financial entanglements — and the possibility that those associations could influence his decision-making in the White House.
Trump’s team dismisses such concerns. “President Trump divested himself of his multibillion-dollar real estate empire to run for office and cut his government salary, becoming the first president to actually lose his net worth while serving in the White House.” Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement. “Unlike most politicians, President Trump didn’t get into politics for profit — he’s fighting because he loves the people of this country and wants to make America great again.”
But questions remain. Here’s a look at the various connections and potential conflicts in Trump’s second administration.
Launched in 2021, Winning Team Publishing is headed by Donald Trump Jr. and Sergio Gore, a Trump adviser chosen by the president-elect to run the White House staff office. Gore also ran the pro-Trump Right for America super PAC.
Trump has earned at least $11.6 million in royalties over the past two years from two of his books produced by the Winning Team, according to financial disclosure statements filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
“Letters to Trump” is an anthology of correspondence from celebrities and politicians written to him over the years. “Our Journey Together” features hundreds of photos from his first presidential term with captions “handpicked” by Trump. Another coffee table book, “Save America,” features reminiscences of Trump’s presidential campaigns and tenure, as well as a lengthy reflection on his fatal shooting in July during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Campaign finance records show that Trump’s political fundraising committees paid Winning Team Publishing more than $242,000 for unspecified books and printing services.
The company also publishes headlines written by Trump’s staunchest supporters, including GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro and conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk.
Trump’s name and image are branded on a dizzying array of merchandise that he promotes and profits from through licensing deals, including Bibles, diamond-encrusted watches, sneakers and gold-colored guitars costing up to $10,000.
Thousands of copies of the “God Bless the USA” Bible that Trump is selling were printed in China, a country he has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices. As president, Trump will be able to exempt Bibles and other religious texts from the high tariffs he has threatened to impose on Chinese imports.
Trump’s endorsement of a line of guitars led to a “cease and desist” letter from Nashville-based Gibson Guitars. A company representative said in a brief statement that the design of the Trump guitars infringes on Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the body shape of the company’s iconic Les Paul model.
Judgments of more than half a billion dollars in civil lawsuits hang over Trump and will be more difficult to avoid than criminal cases brought by the federal government and subsequently abandoned after his election in November.
A New York judge earlier this year ordered Trump and his companies to pay more than $450 million after ruling that he had manipulated his net worth in financial statements to secure favorable loans. That sentence came shortly after Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation after she accused him of sexual assault. A separate jury awarded Carroll $5 million from Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.
Trump has appealed the rulings in the fraud case and one of the Carroll cases. His latest financial disclosure lists more than $101 million in liabilities stemming from the two cases.
As president, Trump cannot pardon himself for sentences imposed in civil cases unrelated to his official government duties, said Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York. And because the trials have already taken place, he will have difficulty arguing that the cases are an unnecessary burden on his time.
The constellation of high-end golf resorts that Trump owns or manages generated hundreds of millions of dollars for him in 2024 and could attract even bigger sums once he returns to the Oval Office.
Trump’s financial disclosure reported nearly $267 million in “golf-related” income, with another $161 million in combined “golf and hotel” income from his Doral Golf Club in Miami.
During his first term, Trump frequently promoted his golf courses and routinely played them with a large, taxpayer-funded crowd in tow, leading to criticism that he was using the power of the presidency to enriched. Trump pushed to host the international Group of Seven summit at the Doral estate in 2019. But he abandoned the plan amid accusations that it would violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution that prohibits presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.
The golf courses may also attract foreign officials and special interest groups who hope to gain access and curry favor by spending large sums at Trump properties.
Since the start of Trump’s first term in office, the cost to join his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, has risen to $1 million, allowing wealthy people to mix pleasure with politics and government business during his frequent visits to the club.
While Trump collects revenue from Mar-a-Lago — $111 million over the past two years — he has been accused of charging the Secret Service “exorbitant” room rates of more than $800 a night for certain agents to protect him when he traveled there and to other Trump family properties.
Who Trump meets while at Mar-a-Lago and what he discusses are largely hidden from the public. The Secret Service has no electronic systems to screen or monitor presidential visitors to the estate, according to a 2020 federal appeals court ruling.
Trump launched his social media platform, Truth Social, in early 2022 after being banned from major sites like Facebook and the platform formerly known as Twitter following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
While he has returned to both, Trump has often used Truth Social for more personal comments, leaving traffic to X and other platforms for more formal statements and pronouncements. The company hasn’t disclosed how many users it has, so it’s hard to know how wide Trump’s reach is there.
But what is clear is that Trump is the main player in Trump Media & Technology Group, which began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange in March. The president-elect has a majority stake in the company and said shortly after his general election victory that he had “NO INTENDED TO SELL” his shares, which have significantly increased Trump’s net worth and at the time were valued at about 3.5 billion dollars.
Trump has promised to make America the “crypto capital of the planet” as he returns to the White House, a promise that is likely to pay off for him personally.
In the midst of the 2024 campaign, Trump launched a new venture to market cryptocurrencies that he has promoted on the same social media accounts he used for his campaign. His two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have also posted about their new platform, called World Liberty Financial, as has his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is married to Eric and also serves as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
The new money-making venture could explode in value if Trump pushes through legislative and regulatory changes long sought by crypto advocates.
During his first term, Trump said he was not a “fan” of cryptocurrency, but he has since taken a more favorable view — from announcing in May that the campaign would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations to participating in a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, promising to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of Bitcoin using the currency currently held by the government.
Several of Trump’s cabinet nominees, including Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission pick Paul Atkins, have significant investments in cryptocurrencies.
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