A Democracy Drive Thread
Roughly doubling his net worth in office, promoting his properties on the public dime, pocketing foreign gifts before favorable decisions, and trademarking his name.
Trump returned to office without divesting from his businesses, placing them in a trust run by his children while continuing to benefit financially — and over the following year his net worth roughly doubled. This thread tracks how the presidency and the president’s personal finances intertwined, in chronological order with sources: the property promotion, the foreign gifts, the settlement money, and the wealth. His crypto ventures and the family’s separate deals are tracked in The Crypto Cash-In and How the Family Cashed In.
October 17, 2022
On the ground
One night the Washington hotel billed two rooms at $895 each while renting more than 100 others for less, one for $150. The Trump Organization said it charged at cost or less.
October 18, 2024
On the ground
Records showed agents paid $600 to $1,185 a night against a $201 per diem, often more than other guests paid.
January 20, 2025
Breaking with modern norms, Trump did not sell his business holdings or use a blind trust. His assets were placed in a trust managed by his children — the arrangement ethics experts had criticized in his first term — leaving him able to benefit personally from ventures the White House said his sons merely ran.
May 13, 2025
On a Gulf tour Trump touted some $2 trillion in investment pledges from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE — even as the Trump Organization had just announced new real-estate and golf deals across those same countries that he continues to profit from, and the administration accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar (see The Corruption).
July 16, 2025
On the ground
After presenting the trophy at the July 13, 2025 final in New Jersey, Trump stayed on stage while Chelsea’s players lifted it. He later told DAZN that FIFA officials said, “We’re never going to pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office, we’re making a new one.” The trophy turned up in White House photos of meetings with world leaders. FIFA says three versions exist: the original at its headquarters in Zurich, Chelsea’s replica, and the one Trump keeps.
“You can have it forever in the Oval Office, we’re making a new one.”
July 29, 2025
Trump capped a five-day visit to Scotland — costing taxpayers an estimated $10 million — by cutting the ribbon on a new golf course bearing his name, using the presidential trip to raise his private property’s profile while folding in some official meetings.
August 23, 2025
Trump paved over the Rose Garden lawn into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio, signed executive orders from his Florida club, and broke ground on a 90,000-square-foot ballroom modeled on Mar-a-Lago’s — blurring the line between the public residence and his brand.
September 1, 2025
Companies that settled lawsuits with Trump — Paramount ($16M), Meta ($25M), X (~$10M) and ABC ($15M) — directed at least $63 million toward his presidential library. The original fund was then quietly dissolved in Florida with no public accounting of where the money went, prompting demands for answers from lawmakers.
September 15, 2025
Forbes put Trump’s fortune at roughly $7.3 billion, up from about $3.9 billion a year earlier; Bloomberg estimated his wealth had risen roughly 2.7-fold, nearing $10 billion. Crypto alone was estimated to have added some $2 billion. Analysts noted the enrichment was happening “in plain sight.”
September 26, 2025
On the ground
Kai Trump, who has millions of social-media followers, posted a series of photos and videos taken at the White House to promote sweatshirts sold on her website in late September 2025. On Sept. 26 she left the White House with her grandfather and flew with him on Air Force One to the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
October 31, 2025
On the ground
Guests at the Oct. 31, 2025 party included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump. The same day, federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered the administration to use $5.25 billion in contingency funds to keep SNAP running during the shutdown. Sen. Chris Murphy wrote that Trump was “illegally refusing to pay food stamp benefits … while he throws a ridiculously over the top Gatsby party.” The White House said Democrats were “full of it.”
November 4, 2025
Swiss executives presented Trump with a personalized $130,000 gold bar stamped “45/47” and a Rolex desk clock; days later the U.S. cut Swiss tariffs from 39% to 15%. Swiss lawmakers filed a criminal complaint over the gifts, and Sen. Ron Wyden demanded answers on whether they violated rules on gifts to public officials.
November 18, 2025
In his own words
Hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office, Trump says of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi that “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman” and “things happen,” and insists the prince “knew nothing about it.”
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
February 17, 2026
The Trump Organization filed for exclusive trademark rights to use the president’s name on airports — “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” — and dozens of related items, from shuttle buses to flight suits. The company said the family would receive no royalties from any airport renaming.