The New Yorker is one of many prestigious properties owned by the Newhouse Family. Their wealth is estimated at about C$33 billion. So if one of the most respected journalists working for one of the family’s most respected journals offends a crook in the White House, so be it. The magazine’s owners won’t be in danger unless Trump sends ICE after them while alleging the family had immigrated illegally from Europe some years ago.

David D. Kirkpatrick writing for The New Yorker:

In August, I reported that the President and his family had made $3.4 billion by leveraging his position. After his first year back in office, the number has ballooned.

At the start of Donald Trump’s first term, he promised that he and his family would never do anything that might even be “perceived to be exploitive of office of the Presidency.” By contrast, his second term looks rapacious. He and members of his family have signed a blitz of foreign mega-deals shadowed by conflicts of interest, and they’ve launched at least five different cryptocurrency enterprises, all of which leverage Trump’s status as President to lure buyers or investors. Ethics watchdogs say that no other President has ever so nakedly exploited his position, or on such a scale. Trump recently explained to the Times why he cast aside his former restraint: “I found out that nobody cared.”

Is Trump right about the public’s nonchalance? Last summer, I tallied how much money he and his immediate family had made off his high office. My method was conservative…

AMERICAN BITCOIN REDUX

…The Trumps’ first windfall since my August tally occurred through American Bitcoin, a company that mines new bitcoin with the intent to hoard it…

The number in August: $3.4 billion
Additional profit: $100 million
New total: $3.5 billion

WORLD LIBERTY FINANCIAL, BINANCE, AND PAKISTAN

In May, World Liberty began selling a form of crypto known as a stablecoin. Unlike digital currencies such as bitcoin, which rise and fall in price, a stablecoin is supposed to hold a fixed value in dollars. Before July, when President Trump signed the first legislation regulating stablecoin, some of the best-known examples, such as TerraUSD, had turned out to be Ponzi schemes. (In December, a New York court sentenced TerraUSD’s co-founder to fifteen years in prison.) But World Liberty promised that its stablecoin, USD1, will always be worth exactly one dollar…

Last spring, a company owned by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates bought two billion dollars’ worth of USD1. The transaction raised alarms about the appearance of a payoff—because the U.A.E. was simultaneously seeking approval from the Trump Administration to acquire sensitive American artificial-intelligence technology. (President Trump soon granted that approval.)

…Binance controls how much profit the Trumps will make from the two-billion-dollar stablecoin sale…

Now that World Liberty has seen an increase of three billion dollars in the value of its stablecoin in circulation, it can reasonably expect to earn four per cent a year on that extra sum—three hundred and sixty million dollars, if that circulation holds up in the three years Trump has left in office. According to the fine print on World Liberty’s website, a company affiliated with the Trumps is entitled to about thirty-eight per cent of that interest, which would come out to about a hundred and thirty-six million dollars in additional Presidential profit.

Running total: $3.5 billion
Additional profit: $136 million
New total: $3.64 billion

FROM APPLIANCE REPAIR TO CRYPTOCURRENCY

The Trumps have also received a windfall from World Liberty through a different form of crypto that it has sold: digital “governance” tokens, which provide buyers a loosely defined right to vote on the company’s future. Unlike stablecoin, these tokens carry no promise of redemption for any fixed amount of dollars; you can sell one for a price that rises or falls like a stock. Yet, unlike a stock, these digital tokens do not entitle a buyer to any equity in World Liberty; nor to any share of its profits, raising many questions about why an investor might want to own them—other than for World Liberty’s connection to the Trumps. Some purchasers may hope that, if the Trump Administration further loosens security rules, the tokens will eventually become a form of ownership. Others may be seeking to buy influence…

For the Trumps, though, the Alt5 Sigma deal has already paid off. According to the fine print of World Liberty’s website, after deducting certain expenses, seventy-five per cent of token sales go to a company affiliated with the Trump family, and seventy-five per cent of seven hundred and fifty million dollars comes out to five hundred and sixty-two million.

Running total: $3.64 billion
Additional profit: $562 million
New total: $4.2 billion

….Trumps have made a net total of about six hundred and fifty million dollars from crypto since August. That pushes his total gain since he first sought the Presidency to more than $4 billion.

Running total: $4.2 billion
Fluctuation in bitcoin value: -$150 million
Over-all gain from crypto: $646 million
New total: $4.05 billion

NUCLEAR FUSION, BANK SHAKEDOWNS, AND A MALDIVES RESORT

The Trumps have also continued to cash in on the Presidency in other ways—often while engaging in stark conflicts of interest. But it is premature to quantify those profits…

After squeezing tens of millions of dollars out of several major media companies last year to settle legally tenuous lawsuits, President Trump this month filed a new suit—against JPMorgan Chase. He is demanding five billion dollars, alleging that the bank acted out of political bias when it closed his accounts after the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Last year, the Trump Organization filed a smaller suit making similar allegations against Capital One. Both banks have called the claims meritless. But, like the media companies, both banks are regulated by his Administration, creating an incentive to settle.

In real estate, the Trumps continue to profit from a partnership with Dar Al Arkan, a major Saudi developer with a history of close ties to the royal family. On November 17th, the Trump Organization announced an agreement to license its name to Dar Al Arkan for a planned Trump International Hotel Maldives, which is to include about eighty “ultra-luxury beach and overwater villas.” Emanuel Schreiner, the chief executive of RVS Hospitality, a consulting company, told me that the demand for privacy in the luxury market often drives the rental rates for such villas in the archipelago above ten thousand dollars a night during the peak season, and the Trump Organization’s fees might range from two to ten per cent of revenue—a hefty sum, although the specifics remain to be seen. The Trump Organization added that it planned to finance the project by selling digital tokens that would allow buyers to participate in the profits—an idea that would appear to violate U.S. securities laws.

The next day, Trump welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s ruler, to the White House. It was the prince’s first visit since his agents killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi—the Saudi dissident, Washington Post columnist, and Virginia resident—inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in 2018. At a press conference, an American journalist asked about the murder. Trump berated the questioner for daring to “embarrass our guest.” As the prince stared down at his hands, Trump, contradicting U.S. intelligence agencies, declared that bin Salman “knew nothing about it.” The President deprecated Khashoggi as someone “a lot of people didn’t like.” Trump also announced that he intended to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, that he intended to approve export licenses to sell advanced computer chips for artificial intelligence to the kingdom, and that the U.S. had even taken a step toward providing nuclear technology.

More Saudi deals followed. Earlier this month, the Trump Organization said that it was licensing its name to Dar Al Arkan for a new golf club, a luxury hotel, and a number of mansions in Diriyah, near Riyadh. The Trump Organization also sold the use of the President’s name for a Trump Plaza development in Jeddah which will include townhouses, condos, office space, retail stores, a Trump Grill, an artisanal bakery, and a health club (featuring a cigar bar). Ziad El Chaar, the chief executive of Dar Al Arkan’s international arm, DarGlobal, told Reuters that the two Trump projects would have a combined value of ten billion dollars. Extrapolating from the President’s disclosures about similar deals, the Trumps stand to make tens of millions from each of these projects.

Before the 2024 election, Donald, Jr., who has little business experience outside of the family’s real-estate holdings, sat on the board of directors of only one company: Trump Media & Technology Group, where his father was chairman. Since the election, however, about half a dozen other companies have rushed to enlist him as an adviser or director. Some are startups at which his compensation has not been made public, such as BlinkRx, an online pharmaceutical retailer. He is also an adviser to two competing prediction markets, Polymarket and Kalshi. (He has invested in Polymarket, but the company has said that it does not pay him any additional compensation.)

At other companies he has joined, Donald, Jr., already appears to be making millions. GrabAGun, an online weapons retailer, gave him stock that is currently worth nearly a million dollars, if he still holds it. (At the time of my calculations in August, the stock was worth about two million, and he has been under no obligation to disclose any sale.) A penny-stock brokerage called Dominari Securities granted Donald, Jr., and Eric shares with a current market value of more than six million dollars. PublicSquare, an online marketplace often described as “anti-woke,” gave Donald, Jr., shares with a current value of about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars. A company called Mixed Martial Arts Group Limited named him a strategic adviser and paid him options with a current value of about $1.3 million. Unusual Machines, a startup drone manufacturer, named Donald, Jr., to its advisory board shortly after the 2024 Presidential election; factoring in a steep discount on a private placement of shares, the company gave him stock with a total current value of more than five million dollars…

if you’re someone who can trade your family name for an interest in a business, you still come out ahead—no matter how it fares. For the President and his family, the money-making shows no sign of slowing.

THE NEW NUMBER: $4.05 billion ♦

Read the entire article at The New Yorker and take advantage of their 1-year subscription offer. It will cost a little more than one fancy cup of coffee each month. — N.F.