Trump Family Businesses Launched Since Inauguration Have Raked In at Least $4B
Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.
Ventures launched by the Trump family since Donald Trump’s reelection have generated at least $4 billion in proceeds and paper wealth for the Trump family. With investments across sectors like real estate, hospitality, media, cryptocurrency and more, the Trumps are “increasingly integrating their business empire” into the wider U.S. economy, says David Uberti, who has been reporting on the family’s self-enrichment for The Wall Street Journal. The coupling of Trump’s economic and political influence is raising major questions about conflicts of interest. “You have all of these different business interests in different areas in which the government regulates,” and this “proximity to power may help along some of these deals and the valuations at which they’re made.”
We look at the Trumps’ cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial and the Trump Organization’s planned $6 billion merger with a firm hoping to build a nuclear fusion plant to power AI data centers with Uberti, who says such “very speculative, highly risky corners of financial markets” are key to the family’s investment strategy.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In The Wall Street Journal, you recently revealed that ventures launched since Trump’s reelection have generated at least $4 billion in proceeds and paper wealth for the Trump family, that figure based on company statements and security filings. In addition, you’ve reported how one of the family businesses, Trump Media & Technology, recently announced a $6 billion merger with a firm aiming to build the world’s first viable nuclear fusion plant to power AI projects and data centers, this merger particularly interesting given it was announced shortly after Trump signed an executive order to bar states and local governments from enacting their own AI regulations. If you can start off, David, on this issue of the massive Trump wealth that has been accumulated just in this first year of President Trump?
DAVID UBERTI: Right. The $4 billion figure that you mentioned, that’s in proceeds and also paper wealth that have been generated strictly by businesses that have been launched since he’s been elected. It’s potentially a conservative estimate. This is only what has been made public, either through securities filings or federal disclosures made by the president or the first family. These range from the traditional real estate, golf, hotels business, but increasingly veering to things like cryptocurrency, different types of merchandise. You mentioned the fusion deal, as well.
And what we see is that, you know, Trump was, in some cases,........
