When President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next year, he’ll do so with a more sprawling business empire and far fewer promises about how he’ll avoid conflicts of interest.
While Trump was primarily a real estate developer in his first term, he has since expanded dramatically into new industries including social media and cryptocurrency. The presidency has only further raised his profile and drawn Trump, a lifelong salesperson, to more licensing deals. He’s also grown his golf courses in Scotland while putting his name on products ranging from NFTs to Bibles to a resort in Oman.
But Trump and his team have so far provided no details about how — or if — he will separate his business interests from his work as president.
In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Trump declined to say he would divest from his new social media company.
“Well, I don’t know how I can divest. What does that mean? I’m not allowed to open it and use it? I mean, all I do is — I — I don’t openly look at the — the company,” Trump said. “I’m not even on the board of the company. I didn’t want to be on the board. I have other people, and they run it, and they run it very well, because Truth has become a very, very successful platform.”
He also said he wouldn’t accept a salary as president.
Before the interview, a spokeswoman declined to answer specific questions about how he’d avoid conflicts of interest, whether he’d continue making foreign deals or whether he’d give the government a preferential rate when the Secret Service stays at his properties.
“President Trump removed himself from his multi-billion-dollar real estate empire to run for office and forewent his government salary, becoming the first President to actually lose net worth while serving in the White House. Unlike most politicians, President Trump didn’t get into politics for profit — he’s fighting because he loves the people of this country and wants to make America great again,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, told NBC News in an email.
Yet ethics experts, government watchdogs and Democrats warn that Trump’s wide web of business dealings pose alarming conflicts of interest for his presidency. His appointees will be charged with regulating his businesses, his promised tariffs could affect his profit margins, and his dealings with foreign countries could affect deals his eponymous company seeks abroad.
It’s why American presidents have historically put their assets into blind trusts, separating their financial interests from their leadership responsibilities until they are out of office.
“The scale has changed. Previously, there was one real way you could benefit Trump and that was physically going to one of his properties and spending money there,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Now, you have the opportunity to pump millions into his stock, into crypto — and just directly write him a check.”
In his first administration, Trump promised to turn his empire over to his sons, not to engage in any new foreign deals, and to donate his presidential salary back to taxpayers. The Trump Organization — the Trump family company comprising hotels, commercial and residential real estate, and golf clubs — said it would donate the profits from foreign government bookings back to the government, and also cut the Secret Service a deal while it protected the president.
Critics argued these restrictions were too flimsy to protect against conflicts of interest and not always followed.
In his second administration, however, there are indications Trump plans to have a more involved role in his businesses than he did in his first. The president-elect plans to travel to Scotland to open a new golf course in Aberdeen next year, his son Eric Trump said two weeks after the election. Trump has also continued to promote new products — including guitars — as he builds out his forthcoming administration.
“It’s open season on the profiteering,” said Richard Painter, who served as President George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer and who has vocally criticized both Trump and President Joe Biden for alleged ethics violations.
Here’s where Trump stands to make outside income as president.
Hotels, golf clubs and real estate
Trump’s clubs and hotels raked in bookings, events and spending, boosted by lobbyists, Republican lawmakers, foreign governments and others seeking to curry favor with the then-president. According to CREW, 144 members of Congress and 150 foreign officials visited a Trump business during his administration, and 100 political events and 142 events hosted by special interest groups were hosted on his properties too.
Supporters and favor-seekers also spent heavily at his Washington, D.C., hotel and Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Spending by Republican officials and groups largely evaporated at the D.C. hotel in particular once Trump left office. Trump sold the hotel in 2022.
Trump personally directed business his way when he visited his own properties hundreds of times, according to NBC News tracking, raking in taxpayer dollars as the government footed the bill for Secret Service space to work and stay.
While Eric Trump had said the Trump properties would give the taxpayers an essentially free rate on Secret Service accommodations, the Secret Service paid as much as $1,185 a night — five times the recommended rate for Secret Service on the job — to protect the then-president. In total, documents obtained and reviewed by CREW indicate that taxpayers spent at least $1.75 million on Secret Service costs at Trump properties during his administration.
Trump’s properties will likely continue to be magnets for political spending moving forward. Mar-a-Lago, where Trump resides, was a popular destination for allies to meet with him and host fundraisers over the past four years. And since the election, Trump has hosted potential administration appointees and foreign leaders there.
Diving into cryptocurrency
Just two months before he was elected, Trump announced his family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial. The company aims to be a crypto bank where customers are encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in digital coins, though it’s currently only selling nontransferable tokens. An October launch of the coins saw sluggish sales — with just $12 million, well below the $300 million in tokens the platform said it was looking to sell.
“Crypto is the future,” Trump said, touting the launch of sales.
The industry’s future could depend in large part on his presidency. Under the Biden administration, the industry has faced litigation led by the Securities and Exchange Commission that threatens to break up crypto companies, which currently act as both exchange and broker for the digital assets.
“If the SEC chair basically abandons this litigation, stands down, then that’s a huge win for the crypto exchanges,” said Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University and an expert in financial regulation and new financial technologies.
Trump’s pick to head up the SEC, Paul Atkins, is a cryptocurrency proponent, and his administration is shaping up to be a friendly one to the fintech industry.
The value of bitcoin surged in value following Trump’s election, surpassing $100,000 on Dec. 5.
“CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Together, we will Make America Great Again!” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Even the appearance that he will not go after the industry aggressively will benefit him and his crypto interest immediately,” said Kedric Payne, the senior director for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a group that has filed ethics complaints against lawmakers.
In late November, Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency proponent and the founder of crypto platform TRON, announced he would purchase $30 million in tokens from World Liberty Financial. Sun’s investment will ensure the venture profits the incoming president, whose connected LLC, DT Marks DEFI, starts seeing profits only after $30 million in sales are made by the company.
This venture creates an opportunity for unlimited profits, Allen added, unlike Trump’s physical businesses, which have physical limitations — like the number of hotel rooms — limiting profits.
Crypto allows Trump to create “assets out of thin air,” she said. “It really just sort of scales up the possibilities here.”
Media and technology interests
Half of Trump’s net worth is tied up in shares of his publicly traded media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, of which Trump owns a majority stake. The company owns his preferred social media network, Truth Social, where much of Trump’s own messaging and advertisements for his own endorsed projects are published. The stock’s price is volatile — and seems untethered to the company’s actual business, which has seen significant losses — but has nonetheless doubled year to date. And experts say the company poses a number of potential conflicts of interest.
The company is regulated by Trump’s own appointees. It, too, acknowledges the inextricable connection between the president and its fortunes.
“The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Donald J. Trump were to suffer. Adverse reactions to publicity relating to President Donald J. Trump, or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues, results of operations and its ability to maintain or generate a consumer base,” the company wrote in a regulatory filing in November.
The president has the power to fire and appoint commissioners to the Federal Communications Commission, and Trump’s new pick to run the agency has promised to “smash the censorship cartel” on social media.
The business also creates new potential avenues for people seeking to influence, benefit or exact leverage over the president-elect through the purchase of advertisements on the platform or significant shares of stock.
If a billionaire or foreign wealth fund were to buy up a ton of stock, they’d raise Trump’s net worth, Libowitz hypothesized.
“They could inflate it, but then they could also threaten to sell all of that stock at the same time, cratering the value and destroying this net worth,” he said. “Here is a new nightmare scenario that no previous president has had to deal with.”
Bibles, guitars, cologne and more
According to his financial disclosures, Trump has been making millions on licensing deals for the use of his name in branding and advertisement for a wide range of products.
Since the November election, he’s rolled out several new products: Bibles commemorating his survival of a July assassination attempt, Trump-branded or -signed guitars, and most recently a cologne.
Painter, the White House ethics lawyer for Bush, said such ventures were off-limits for previous presidents.
“We wouldn’t even let his name go on a public school in Texas — I still remember that,” Painter said of the 43rd president. “Never would we let Bush’s name be used for branding to sell anything, anywhere. Same rule in the Obama administration.”
Using a private office for public gain is specifically prohibited for federal employees, Painter said, but he was quick to note that Trump isn’t the only president ignoring this rule.
Biden’s name was used to launch the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania after he left the vice presidency, and the university gave Biden a lucrative job. The center was kept open even after he became president, earning criticism from Republicans about the donations it received from Chinese sources. Painter said he urged the Biden team to shutter the center.
While Trump pledged not to engage in any foreign business deals during his first administration, his transition team declined to say if that rule will apply to his second term.
Out of office, Trump has pursued foreign licensing deals. In 2022, for instance, Trump licensed his company’s name to an Oman hotel, just as he was announcing a third presidential bid.
According to an October 2024 report from an independent monitor appointed to oversee the Trump Organization’s financial disclosures following a civil fraud ruling, the organization had informed the monitor it was creating 25 new entities for the “purpose of either licensing products or merchandise and hotel licensing deals.”
