How much does Trump make from his presidency?

In a January 11, 2017 press conference, President-elect Donald Trump first explained how he would deal with the many conflicts of interest his business empire posed for his new role. His company, Trump Trange, charged money from luxury apartments, hotel rentals, developments and club memberships around the world, and he made a deal to name him from mail order steak to getting a wealth of Quick courses. Can a citizen trust that he brings the common interest before his personal profit? How will he assure the American that payments to his business will not double as a benefit?

A reporter asked Trump whether he would release his tax returns because the president has completed it for decades. Trump said no, and then explained his unrestrained approach to such a practice. He recently learned that the president is only seen by voters and does not restrict the regulations that subordinate officials engage in private business. He called the loophole “an insignificant interest provision” as if it was the benefit of his employment contract.

To illustrate how obvious the conflict that law allows him is, Trump volunteered to participate in the transition period, where he hosted a $200 million offer “to reach an agreement in Dubai.” The proposal comes from Hussain Sajwani, an emirate real estate tycoon with close ties to the country’s rulers. Trump stressed that he “has no” have Reject it. “Nevertheless, he’s gone because he doesn’t want to “use something.” So, he goes on to say that his eldest sons Donald Jr. and Eric will manage their business every day until he leaves the office.

Trump then handed over the matter to Sheri Dillon, one of his tax attorneys, who argued that he could hardly do more than a temporary handover. Trump will not “destroy the company he built.” Since Trump’s star opened the NBC reality show “Apprentice”, the Trump Organization has mainly sold the use of his name. Much of its profits comes from developers who hang the Trump flag on buildings he doesn’t build or own, or from businesses selling shirts, mattresses or pizza under his name. Dillon explained that if Trump tries to load the entire company, buyers may overpay in order to “court the president”, or equally worrying, could devalue the highest office on the land by paying huge currencies in the name of the president. Dillon declared that Trump and his family would never do anything that could be “deemed to be exploitation in the presidency.”

It was a different era. Dillon stopped representing Trump in 2021 after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. During Trump’s second term, the president and his family knew nothing about the lawyer’s promise. During Trump’s first semester, they promised to avoid any new deals overseas. That’s outside the window. Trump has now cashed in five major deals in the Persian Gulf alone. Donald Jr. said on a recent visit to Katar that the family’s restraint during the first Trump administration did not stop her father’s critics from constantly accusing the family of “richness.” So Trump will no longer lock himself in “a well-known fill room, because it almost doesn’t matter – they’ll hit you anyway.” (A spokesman for the Trump Organization told me it hires external ethics advisers – currently, attorney and lobbyist Karina Lynch has served as a Republican Senate staffer and represents Donald.

Now, it would be impossible to imagine Trump, his wife, his children and his spouse without his presidency: a $20 billion investment in fund controlled by the Saudi Crown Prince; a luxury jet in Emir of Qatar; profit from at least five different businesses to sell cryptocurrencies; a fee for an exclusive club where cabinet officials are and appointed to the executive branch. Fred Wertheimer, president of ethics advocates, told me that “When it comes to his public office accumulating personal profits, Trump is a unicorn—no one else approaches.” However, the public shrugged to a large extent. In a recent article eraWhite House correspondent Peter Baker wrote that Trump “does more than anyone who has ever occupied the White House to make the presidency profitable.” But Baker noted that the exaggeration of the Trump family’s “money-making plan” seemed to make such a deal seem almost normal.

How much does it cost? What are the numbers? March, Forbeswell-known for the wealth of ranking billionaires, Trump’s net worth is estimated to more than double in the previous year to more than $5 billion. July, era Turn Trump’s wealth to more than 10 billion. Both estimates, however, include billions of dollars in paper profits, which would almost certainly collapse if Trump exited certain investments. (What is the social value without him?) These estimates also include any apparent exploitation of the presidency without restrictions, such as property Trump owned before entering the office, or the fees paid by a resort client who simply wants to play golf or book a hotel room.

Although the notion that Trump has given a huge sum of his presidency has become commonplace, no one can tell me how much he makes money. “We don’t know it all,” said Norm Eisen, a government ethics lawyer and voice Trump critic. Robert Weissman, co-president of left-leaning advocacy group citizens, said. “We will never really know it.” Wertheimer noted that Trump has boasted about his wealthy for decades. “He stopped talking about it,” Waterheimer said. “He is probably the greatest liar in American history.”

There seems to be an accounting that is more thoughtful. I decided to try to measure the time Trump and his immediate family spent in the White House.

Financially speaking, the president came to Trump at a chance moment. Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, era In their book Lucky Loser, journalists who obtained some of Trump’s tax returns, by 2015, he had passed most of his huge fortune through his homemade father, a legacy today that is worth up to $5 billion today. If Trump put that money into the stock market, he might become richer. His lifestyle was also shocked. In 1990, in an agreement, in order to free the Trump Organization from bankruptcy, his lender agreed that he needed $450,000 a month to make ends meet.

He once played a large version of the “apprentice” he had been trying to project into the world once his losses were covered. In the seven years after the 2004 début, the show paid him $135.2 million. Its charming effect makes him profitable just by licensing his name and selling endorsements without having to buy or build anything. License agreements for nearly all real estate projects (from Hawaii to Israel) that he announced during this period. Licensing and recognition have earned him a risk-free profit of $103.2 million. “I don’t want to say it’s free income,” Donald Jr. later testified in a New York court. But he did allow the company’s licensing business to be “a very spectacular system.”

However, even the unexpected gains of “apprenticeship” are not always enough to put Trump into black. According to the annual report, Trump sent lenders from 2011 to 2017, during which Trump received $259 million from television and licensing contracts, but he still reported $46.8 million in cash flow because he was used to overspending real estate. The dwindling number of viewers killed the “apprentice” in 2010, and by 2015, its double gimmicky descendant “celebrity apprentice” was also sick. Trump’s licensing, endorsement and “apprenticeship” income fell to $22 million that year. Buettner and Craig noted that between 2014 and 2016, Trump sold about $220 million in stock (almost all stocks held) to cover the gradual loss of revenue. Then, on June 16, 2015, Trump launched his first presidential campaign, where he described Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists.” NBC kicked him away. Macy’s, Celta and Phillips-Van Heusen ended the endorsement deal.

The lawsuit against his presidency has added some new costs after Trump won the election. By the beginning of his second term, he owed New York State nearly $5 billion, which had sued him for fraud and filed $88 million against E. Jean Carroll, who sued him for sexual assault and defamation. (The appeal is still waiting.) In short, when he first entered the White House, he was in a narrow position even closer when he returned. Only six months later, his financial situation improved greatly.

Trump’s critics often describe his administration as an oligarch or thief rule, similarities to Vladimir Putin. However, experts tracking international corruption tell me that this is too much. Giants who trade globally, such as former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razik, go directly to their bank accounts from the state’s inventories. U.S. attorneys accused Razik of stealing about $400 million, including transferring about $70 trillion to his personal account. No one can credibly accuse Trump of simply paying back Corruption Supervision Transparency International’s executive director to IRS Gary Kalman, executive director of the U.S. branch, warned, “Just because everything is trusted, you’re unwilling to do it well.

Critics of Trump’s “oligarch” always point to his relationship with Elon Musk. Musk contributed more than $290 million to Trump and other Republicans in 2024. Trump then gave him government positions to reorder federal agencies from seemingly external. Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink businesses have been profiting from government contracts or subsidies. In March, the president performed in an effective television commercial on the White House lawn. Trump announced that he would buy the Red Tesla that was parked there, proclaiming: “It’s a great product – do whatever it can.” All of this could be incredible. However, every American political movement relies on private donations. All modern presidents have sold access to campaign funds, and all modern presidents are rewarded with political appointments (especially ambassador system).

More importantly, campaign organization laws limit how Trump uses his political war chest. Since reigning the White House, Trump has raised a record $600 million for his political actions. He could use the reserve to attack Congressional enemies, which he could direct to other campaigns. (Donald Jr. In the campaign currency game, Trump plays at the Olympia level, but he doesn’t change the rules.

Personal self-enhancing is that Trump is a true innovator, and his bonuses in this category are also difficult to quantify. In the tax returns, Trump actively minimizes the value of his assets and minimizes the extent of his losses. In a loan application, he did the opposite, blowing up his wealth and borrowing as much as he could. On financial disclosure forms he was asked to submit as a candidate or as a president, he usually only provided the business’s total revenue, not its bottom line, and thus reported tens of millions of dollars in “income” from hotels that were actually losing money.