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All legal and fully disclosed, what a country!
" President Trump earned around $57 million from his stake in a family-backed cryptocurrency firm last year, according to a new financial disclosure form, showing the early returns on a burgeoning digital-asset empire.
Trump’s annual financial disclosure, released by the Office of Government Ethics, reveals his vast and varied income streams and holdings, covering everything from golf resorts to merchandising deals to stock investments in such companies as Apple and Berkshire Hathaway.
Trump’s total holdings were valued at roughly $1.7 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. The disclosure form provided a range of values for many assets. The Journal used the low end in its calculation, and the actual value could be significantly higher.
The $57 million from his stake in the crypto firm World Liberty Financial came from the sale of digital tokens. That provides a glimpse into Trump’s earnings from cryptocurrency ventures that were only in their infancy last year and have since expanded substantially.
In a matter of months, the Trump family has reached into nearly every corner of the crypto industry. World Liberty Financial, which was started in September, launched this year a dollar-pegged stablecoin, a digital currency meant to store cash or buy other crypto tokens. It has a 1:1 exchange ratio with a government-issued currency.
The family struck a deal in March to launch a bitcoin-mining company called American Bitcoin, raised more than $2 billion to buy bitcoin with its social-media company and launched memecoins. Last month the president hosted a dinner for the 220 biggest holders of the $TRUMP coin.
Some have argued that Trump has promoted his private businesses in unprecedented ways for a sitting president, presenting conflicts of interest. His ventures into crypto, in particular, have drawn scrutiny because the president has simultaneously moved to create a more friendly regulatory environment for the industry.
“President Trump, Vice President Vance, and senior White House staff have completed required ethics briefings and financial reporting obligations,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “The Trump Administration is committed to transparency and accessibility for the American people.”
Trump earned about $1.2 million last year in licensing fees from NFT INT LLC, the entity that handles the licensing deal for his digital trading cards, according to the financial disclosure.
Trump earned huge sums outside digital assets, according to the disclosure, including roughly $50 million from his Mar-a-Lago resort and $110 million from Trump Endeavor 12, a Miami-based golf course and resort company.
Trump earned $1.3 million in royalties from the Greenwood Bible, which sold a Trump-branded “God Bless the USA Bible” with the country-music singer Lee Greenwood. The president earned $2.5 million from Trump-branded sneakers and fragrances, another $2.8 million from watches and about $1 million from a Trump-branded guitar.
Those products aren’t made by the Trump Organization, the Trump family’s flagship real-estate firm; rather, Trump licenses his name to companies that manufacture and ship the items.
Among Trump’s traditional investments were stakes in Apple, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Exxon Mobil and Broadcom, along with investments in municipal bonds and U.S. Treasurys.
Vice President JD Vance, a champion of the crypto industry, owned between $250,001 and $500,000 of bitcoin, according to his own annual financial disclosure. He received from $50,001 to $100,000 in royalties from his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Write to Sam Goldfarb at sam.goldfarb@wsj.com, Anthony DeBarros at anthony.debarros@wsj.com and Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com
