Trump’s $2 billion income sits ‘unprecedented’ among US presidents

In the modern era, which began with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency in 1933, many presidents had relatives who sought to profit from their ties to the White House.

Jimmy Carter’s brother was promoting a beer brand. During

Joe Biden served as vice president, his son Hunter Biden earned money from a Ukrainian energy company.

But those past examples pale in comparison to the profits Trump and his family business have made since returning to office, historians said.

“That’s the biggest difference between Trump and his family and other presidents,” said Perry, the presidential historian.

“Making money hand in hand in the office is not illegal, but it is unethical. Most [past] Presidents didn’t want to do that.”

Before Trump began his first term in 2017, he handed over control of the family business, the Trump Organization, to his adult sons. But the move broke with precedent from past presidents because Trump did not tie up his business interests in traditional blind trusts or give up his real estate holdings and other investments.

Trump took similar steps before his second term.

The Trump Organization said before his second inauguration that he would not interfere in the day-to-day affairs of the company during his term as president.

Eric Trump has said the Trump Organization will follow “robust ethical standards” during the president’s second term.

Still, Trump has made a number of moves in the White House that have benefited his own business as well as businesses linked to other senior administration officials.

Last July, Trump signed legislation supporting stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency, just four months after World Liberty Financial launched its own digital currency initiative. According to the financial disclosure report, the company earned Trump at least $500 million in 2025.

Last October, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency company Binance.

The move comes as Trump has praised the crypto industry, which he has described in the past as a “disaster waiting to happen”, in his first months back in office.

Trump’s family business and some of his close associates have profited in other sectors beyond cryptocurrency since his return to the White House.

Last year, Trump struck a deal with the president of Kazakhstan that gave an American company access to a major critical mineral project in the country, the New York Times reported.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr later purchased a minority stake in a company involved in the mining project. Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm run by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s sons, also worked on the deal.

Trump on Wednesday attributed his profits in office to stock market gains and claimed he was not involved in his family’s business dealings.

“I don’t interfere in my personal affairs [finances]Trump told reporters: “I made a lot of money before I became president, and they’re depositing my money and I’m not talking to them.”

Ethics watchdogs have argued that Trump’s profits from cryptocurrency, in particular, are problematic.

“Of course it’s a conflict of interest,” Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer at the White House under George W. Bush, told the BBC.

“It’s very, very disturbing for the American people to see their president make so much money.”