Donald Trump earned more than $2.2bn last year – with cryptocurrency ventures alone generating over $1bn – according to a 927-page financial disclosure released by the US Office of Government Ethics that also revealed his Scottish golf courses brought in £30m in revenue.
The disclosure, published on Tuesday, showed Trump made $1,430,390,415 from crypto-related dealings in his first year back in the White House. Of that sum, $635m came in royalties from a firm called Celebration Coins, believed to be behind the $TRUMP meme coin launched days before his second inauguration, while more than $500m flowed from World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company founded by Trump’s sons and the children of his special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
“Trump earned over $2.2bn last year, including $1.4bn from crypto, while his Scottish golf courses brought in £30m.”
The figures prompted fierce criticism from senior Democrats. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, said the disclosures proved Congress needed to act. “The crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must prevent the President, Vice President, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families from profiting off the crypto industry,” Warren said. “If it does not, it will only turbocharge Donald Trump’s brazen crypto corruption.”
Juliana Stratton, Illinois’s lieutenant governor and a Democratic Senate candidate, wrote on social media that Trump’s “infinite greed is disgusting”, adding: “Donald Trump uses the office of the president to make billions while American families struggle to afford their basic needs.” Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said the disclosures “showed exactly” how Trump played his crypto cards. “He got richer,” Newsom noted. “His crypto supporters got rug-pulled.”
The White House denied any conflict of interest, pointing out that Trump’s businesses are in a trust run by his sons. Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the president had made the US “the crypto capital of the world” and insisted: “Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged – or will ever engage – in conflicts of interest.” She added that any suggestion otherwise was “the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade.”
Trump himself brushed off questions about the disclosure on Wednesday. “You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up, everybody’s profiting,” he told reporters. “I don’t get involved in my personal [finances], we have funds that run my money. I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them.”
The president once called Bitcoin a “scam” in 2021 and a “disaster waiting to happen”, but during his 2024 campaign he vowed to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet”. One of his first executive orders after returning to office backed the “responsible growth” of the industry.
The disclosure also showed Scottish golf courses contributing £30m to Trump’s total income – a figure dwarfed by his crypto earnings but part of a broader portfolio that includes real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements. With critics demanding tighter rules on political figures’ crypto dealings, the question remains whether any legislation will prevent the president from profiting further.