As Trump has done “more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House,” a Daily Wire host claims he “hasn't really enriched himself relatively all that much”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Peter Baker in The New York Times examined the “breathtaking” scope of corruption in the second Trump administration:

The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals.

From the May 28, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): And he says — he accuses Trump of just enriching himself or something, turning the government to private interest. That's what Biden did. That's not really what Trump has done. Biden was the one whose son was going around with the open bag to all the most corrupt people around the world taking bribes on behalf of the enrichment of the Biden family.

Trump hasn't done that. In as much as Trump's ventures and properties have increased in value over his time in politics, one, he had four years in the wilderness where he was forced to found a technology and media company because he was booted off of the tech and media platforms that he used to speak on.

But two, he's totally open about it. He's totally transparent about his business interests, and he has long standing decades-old business interests. And he has sacrificed a lot of that for his political service. He hasn't really enriched himself relatively all that much, certainly compared to other other guys like Joe Biden. Joe Biden entered the vice presidency with with something like $100,000 net worth. Now he's worth many, many millions of dollars. And Hunter Biden, who really should not have made any money at all, has made many, many millions of dollars, a lot of it recorded on his laptop and on video. And he's — and according to his texts and and emails, he kicked back a lot of it to the big guy, Joe Biden. So it just doesn't it doesn't play.