The Unprecedented Personal Profits of Trump’s Presidency

From the New York [music] Times, I'm. Rachel Abrams and this is the Daily. [music] To an extent never before seen. in American history, President Trump has. turned the presidency into a cash cow. for his family's businesses. [music] A. recent financial disclosure shows that. the president has made $2.2 2 billion. since he [music] retook office. But the.

Trumps are not done. And today, [music]. my colleague Eric Lipton explains the. family's next potential windfall and how. the president's position is once again. helping it happen. [music]. It's Thursday, July 9th. Eric Lipton, welcome back to the show. >> Thanks for having me. >> So, Eric, ever since President Trump.

returned to office, you have been trying. to figure out just how much he and his. family have made off of the presidency. And we recently got kind of an answer to. that question when he released this. enormous 900page financial disclosure. which outlined what he made last year. And I wonder as somebody who's been. paying such close attention to this. particular area, what was your initial. reaction seeing that topline number, $2.2 billion? I was completely startled by this.

number. I've been tracking the Trump. family for a decade now and we all knew. that with Trump back in the White House. that his family was getting into all. kinds of lucrative business ventures, but I never imagined that he would see, you know, more than $2 billion in. revenue in the first year that he's back. as president. And I was so completely. floored by it. I thought I have to talk. to some historians. >> Just to put it into context. >> Yeah. I get on the phone. I start. calling up some of the most prominent. authors of American presidential.

history. One after another, every single. one of them that I spoke with, the word. out of their mouth was unprecedented. Unprecedented. >> There's never been a president in the. history of United States that has made. this much money while in the White. House. And none of them could come up. with any parallels except looking at. other places around the world, authoritarian styled places where. there's a mixing of your job as a. government official and the wealth of. that country. >> Basically, you have to go outside of the.

United States to find anything like what. we are seeing here in this country. >> Yes. I mean there are parts of the world. where it's normal for the royal family. to both be running the government and be. enriched by the government. I think of. particularly of some of the Middle East. nations like the royal families in Saudi. Arabia or in in the United Arab Emirates. where there is no line. They are the. government and they are the the. financial beneficiaries of the. government. The same thing in Turkey.

where Erdogan has appointed members of. his family to be the finance minister. and they also own business operations or. in Russia where Putin and the various. oligarchs are all benefiting from their. access to the power. This is a tradition. that isn't seen in the United States but. Trump has put us into a whole new. category where wealth is coming into the. White House in part because of the. policy decisions that he's making. Eric, when it comes to what we learned from. Trump's fortune in particular, can you.

just tell us a little bit about where. we're learning that money is coming. from? >> Yeah. The single biggest chunk of it. comes from cryptocurrency, $1.4 billion. >> This is a sector that the Trump family. had never been in prior to 2025 that it. was only really during Trump's. re-election campaign that he came to be. kind of a a crypto enthusiast. He had. been a skeptic of crypto prior to that. And then suddenly he's back in office. and they are going gang busters to try. to make money off of crypto.

>> Right. This is the actually I think the. last time you were on the show was to. explain how all of that worked. Basically the family goes to launch. several types of cryptocurrency. A lot. of people bought that cryptocurrency. The value of those coins plummeted. But. the Trump family and this is what you. have documented in your reporting made. money anyway in large part on fees from. trading these coins. And all of that was. happening while the administration was. weighing how to regulate the. cryptocurrency industry. >> That's right. And so they were. simultaneously. making enormous loads of money while the.

president was appointing a head of the. Securities and Exchange Commission that. was setting regulations that allowed. their businesses to do, you know, some. risky practices that would not have been. possible during the prior presidency. >> Okay. So clearly huge windfall for the. Trumps crypto and you have been. reporting on how crypto might actually. just be the beginning for the Trumps. just in terms of business ventures that. they are finding to be quite lucrative. with the president in office. What else.

have you found just in terms of. money-making ventures that they might be. having their eyes on right now? What we've found is that the Trump's. sons are being very creative in. searching for ways to make money and all. different kinds of sectors that they're. moving into that align with the. president's agenda. And one in. particular that has really been. fascinating to deconstruct is their. enthusiasm for getting into critical. minerals. >> Right. The rare earth minerals that we. have been talking about a lot on the. show. >> Yes. metals, basically raw materials.

needed for all kinds of manufacturing in. the United States. If we don't have. access to metals, we can't build just. about anything. We're talking about. weapons. We're talking about oil. drilling equipment. We're talking about. AI, computer chips, even all kinds of. products. And we're in a bit of a bind. right now because China has dominated. this sector for several decades. And. they've been restricting the United. States access to these critical. minerals. And the United States has. figured out that it better get better.

access to these metals or else we're. going to have a serious problem with. economic growth. And both the Trump. family and the family of Commerce. Secretary Howard Lutnik, they see a. money-making opportunity. >> I want to talk a little bit about how. exactly the families are positioning. themselves to profit from this. Can we. start with the Trumps? How how is this. working exactly? Well, in order to. understand that, you really need to go. backwards several decades. >> Copper is found in the Katanga soil in.

the form of sulfide or oxide. >> During the Cold War, the United States. was deeply invested in trying to make. sure that we had access to these. critical minerals, particularly in. places like Central Africa. For a long. time though, the native tribes had mined. and smelted copper. >> where there was huge federal dollars and. even the CIA was active in making sure. that we were outmaneuvering the Soviet. Union to get access to certain mining. [music] operations. >> The underground Prince Leopold mine at. Kapushi produces more than a million.

tons of sulfide or per year which. contain 100,000 tons of copper and. 80,000 tons of zinc. But after the Cold War ended, the United. States sort of took this position that. this is dirty work. >> There's a lot of corruption and mining. We're just going to offshore this. We'll. just leave other countries to do this. work that Kumbaya, we're all friends, will trade and we can rely on our. partners to to get these metals and give. them to us so that we can build the. things we need to build here. But that.

got quite complicated when China. realized all the leverage it had over. the United States and it started to. restrict access to some of these. critical metals. And so starting with. President Biden, they began to redirect. American policy to make sure that. American mining companies had access to. these critical minerals not only United. States but at mining sites around the. world. But then. >> in a few moments I will sign a historic. executive order instituting reciprocal.

tariffs on countries throughout the. world. Reciprocal that means they. >> the Trump administration comes in and. Trump makes the situation a lot worse. because he starts a trade war that leads. China to say you know what fine we're. going to cut off your access to these. critical minerals even more aggressively. than we were doing before. Uh what the. Chinese have done is they've ordered the. entire world [music] that they have to. submit for approval and permission by. the Chinese government to export any. kinds of materials that include [music].

rare earths that have been touched, processed, mined uh by China. And so. suddenly the United States is in a jam. [music] and the answer is to pour money. into critical minerals. And so [music]. the federal government is saying here's. more than hundred billion dollar worth. of financing. [music]. who wants to go start mining. And the. Trump sons are sitting there looking for. business opportunities. And along with a. bunch of other business partners, they. decide this is a great sector to get. into. [music].

I want to make sure I understand this, Eric. I understand that there's a. problem. The United States government. needs to solve that problem by either. investing in companies that will mine or. partnering with companies that will. mine. But when you say that they're. pouring hundred billion dollars into. doing that, what do we mean exactly? >> Well, as a mining company, you need. several things. You need access to a. space where there are these metals. You. need capital to build the mine and to.

extract the metals from the ground. And. then you also need a demand for the. metals once you dig them out of the. ground. The federal government is trying. to help with all those things right now. It's helping them negotiate access to. the mines. It's helping them finance. them and it's also negotiating what they. call offtake agreements where it says if. you you know extract this many tons of a. certain metal will buy some of that. metal from you. So the federal. government is answering all of these. demands from the mining sector. So of.

course there's all these entrepreneurs. are saying there's money to be made here. and also it's sort of a patriotic cause. and so that's what the Trump sons are. getting into along with a lot of other. business people. So. >> it's basically a gold rush for lack of a. better term. It is. It's a modern-day. gold rush. >> Can you give us an example of what this. looks like just so we can understand. kind of how this plays out in practice? >> I mean, sure. One of the best examples. is in Kazakhstan. It's a former Soviet. Republic. It's in between China and. Russia. It's a nation that has an.

incredible storehouse of metals in the. ground. And there's a site there that. has an enormous supply of tungsten, which is a metal that is just so vital. to the Pentagon in particular. It is. used to build the tips of missiles. because it is so heat resistant. If you. don't have tungsten, then the missiles. that the United States is now trying to. build to replace all the missiles it. used in Iran, you can't build them. So, it's more valuable than gold in a.

certain way to the Pentagon. M. >> and Kazakhstan suddenly finds itself, you know, as a really popular player. China wants to be able to tap into that. tungsten supply. The United States wants. to get in there. And so there's a bit of. a a beauty contest going on as different. countries try to position themselves to. get access. And so. >> you say beauty contest, what do you mean. exactly? Are they pitching Kazakhstan. about who should be allowed to mine or. >> I mean it's essentially Kazakhstan is. this this date that you want to get. there's [clears throat] these two.

suitors that want to be able to match up. with Kazakhstan to get its medals. >> So, how does this competition or this. courting as you put it of Kazakhstan. actually play out? >> So, there's a key meeting in September. in New York City at the St. Regis Hotel. It's the week of the United Nations. General Assembly and the president of. Kazakhstan is in New York. Lutnik is. there and there's this elaborate room, the fountain blue room with these, you. know, chandeliers and gold leaf all over. the place. And it's in that room where. the president of Kazakhstan is meeting.

with the CEOs of some major American. corporations. Chevron's there, City Bank. is there. And then it's meeting time for. Lutnik. And he sits down and he wants to. convince the president of Kazakhstan. that this nation should give the United. States access to this tungsten mine. [music]. And part of his pitch is that there's. this one company, an American-based. Monty company, [music] very low profile. Almost no one's ever heard of it. He. wants that one company to get access to. the tungsten mine. And not only that,

but he's essentially asserting that the. United States government is [music]. tentatively prepared to put $1.6 billion. behind that company to help it build the. mine in Kazakhstan. >> So while this pitch is underway, a phone. call comes and it's President Trump and. he's trying to help close the deal. This is so important to the Trump. administration that not only is the. commerce secretary there making the. argument, but the president of the. United States is on the phone helping. close the deal. It couldn't be a higher level pitch to.

the president of Kazakhstan who it's not. every day that he gets a call from the. president of the United States. >> So, how does the meeting end? They end with a tenative agreement that. this small American mining company is. going to be able to get access to this. site in Kazakhstan to build one of the. world's largest tungsten mines. [music]. But then something very interesting. happens shortly after that meeting wraps. up. Within a matter of weeks, both. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the.

president's two oldest sons, are. investors in a group of partners that. are actually buying into the same. company that has just tenatively won the. right to build this tungsten mine in. Kazakhstan. >> So what you're saying, if I understand. you correctly, is that basically at the. end of this meeting at the St. There's no official deal, but somehow. within weeks, an investor group that. includes both of those Trump's sons ends. up with a stake in this little known.

mining company. So, if I have that. correct, Eric, help me understand how. the Trumps would have even gotten in on. this because the deal at this point is. not public yet. Correct. >> Yeah, that's right. It's not public. until the middle of October 2025. So there's really almost no public way. to get into this deal unless you have. connections or knowledge of the players. that were involved in it. >> And we've repeatedly asked the partners. involved, how did you first become aware. of this opportunity? Who told you? And.

they won't give us a straight answer. They they say, well, we have. non-disclosure agreements that we can't. say how we first learned that this deal. was even available. >> We still don't have a solid answer as to. how the Trump sons and their partners. got linked up with this deal. >> [music]. >> I mean, one of the things that Trump's. sons have repeatedly emphasized to us is. that they're passive investors in this. project. But by the end of last year, they and their partners have lined up. access to one of the most valuable. tungsten metal sites in the world.

Something that multiple countries wanted. access to and that the president and. commerce secretary helped them secure. It's an incredibly valuable site. There's something like $80 billion worth. of tungsten sitting in the ground and. they now are in a position to exploit. that. [music]. [music]. We'll be right back. [music].

Okay. So, at this point in the story, Eric, the Trump family is invested in a. company that's got this, as you said, highly coveted deal to mine for. tungsten, this allimportant mineral for. national security and the economy. I. have kind of a basic question though, which is how risky is this whole. endeavor to the investors, including the. Trump sons? There's a good chance that the investors.

are going to make a fair amount of money. on this deal, assuming that the federal. government comes in and actually. provides the financing. And that's. because if the mine is a success, then. they'll make money off of the tungsten. that they produce. They can sell it. But. even if they don't mine a single ton of. tungsten, the mining company that the. Trump sons and their partners invested. in, that's a public company. And so they. could potentially still make a boatload. of money by just selling stock to people. who think that there's money to be made.

here. And so there's a lot of value and. a lot of money that they can make even. before the mine opens. >> Wait, so okay, so even if they do not. dig a single ton of tungsten out of the. ground, what you are saying is that. there could be a situation where the. investors, including the Trump Suns, could still make a ton of money out of. this. >> That's right. Right. I mean, that's what. investment analysts who track the mining. sector tell me is that most of the. profits in the mining sector are made. when you discover the metals and you get.

a permit to mine them. It's not the. long, you know, hard dirty work of. actually digging out of the ground. That's a low margin. The big profits are. when you make the discovery and that's. the stage that the Trump sons and their. partners are invested in right now. And. suddenly you could see that the stock. takes off and becomes much more. valuable. and then you can sell those. shares and walk away and you haven't. even dug a single ton of tungsten. >> Do we know exactly how much money the. investors and in particular the Trump.

sons could potentially make? >> We actually don't because we don't know. how big their stake is. And my. impression is they are a minority. stakeholders. They own a very small. share of the overall deal. But I mean. what the overall mining company has said. is that they think that there's as much. as $80 billion worth of tungsten in the. ground there to dig out. >> and they're only talking about a project. that's going to cost $1.6 billion to. actually do. So you know that's a big. margin assuming that they can get all. that tungsten out.

>> But the fact of the matter is that since. our story came out the stock of the. company that's associated with this mine. has actually gone down and there's. [clears throat] a lot of scrutiny right. now of this deal. There's also a. question mark as to whether or not. they're going to get the federal funds. We've heard in fact from some people. with inside the federal government, they're quite skeptical of this deal and. that their arms are being twisted by. Lutnik who wants to get it done. So, how. much profit is going to be made here? It's still a bit of an open question and. we have actually kind of disturbed this. process a little bit by bringing.

transparency to it. >> So, maybe not the sure thing it looked. like a few months ago. You mentioned. also though, Eric, that it wasn't just. the Trump family. You also mentioned. that the Lutnik family stood to benefit. How specifically are they involved in. all of this? >> So Howard Lutnik before he was commerce. secretary, he ran a company called Caner. Fitzgerald. And Caner is a an investment. bank that helps private companies raise. money. And one of the business sectors. that it works in is Critical Metals. And. so Howard Lutnik's sons have taken over.

Caner helping run the company. and they. have seen just a huge growth in the. number of critical minerals deals. because Howard Lutnik and Trump are. driving all this federal funding into. it. It's like a huge hot sector right. now because of the policy choices the. United States government has made. And. so Caner Fitzgerald has now been super. busy helping these private companies. raise money and it's making millions of. dollars in fees off of these capital. raises and that includes one of the.

partners involved in the Kazakhstan. deal. So at the same time as the Trump. sons through their partnership are. invested in the Kazakhstan deal, the. Lutnik sons are helping one of the. partners in that deal raise over $200. million. >> and getting millions of dollars as you. said in fees for it. >> That's right. So both the Trump and. Lutnik families are profiting from this. policy initiative and we have been. talking really just about one huge. project in Kazakhstan. But what we found. by looking at securities filings is that.

there are 14 companies that are in a. position to get federal financial. assistance or have permits pending. before the Commerce Department that also. have financial linkages to either the. Trump Sons or the Lutnik Suns. And these. 14 companies are lined up to get as much. as $8.9 billion from the federal. government to help them build mining. operations in spots around the world. And so simultaneously you have the dads. setting policy that benefits these. companies and the sons in business.

making money off of these same. companies. It's just a kind of an. arrangement that we've never seen before. in this scale in American history. >> Wow. Okay. What have the Trumps and the. Lutnics said in response to all of your. reporting? >> Mostly we've heard from the Trump family. and they feel like their coverage has. been unfair and that they are simply. passive investors in this deal. We got a. statement from Don Jr. spokesman. Don is. a lifelong businessman and investor who. tends to invest in companies that align. with his America first worldview. He.

does not interface with anyone in the. federal government on behalf of any. company that he invests in. And Caner's. comment to us is that yes, they do help. these companies raise private dollars to. get into the mining space, but they're. not involved at all in the negotiations. over getting federal assistance. So they. don't touch what Howard Lutnik is doing, but yes, they're helping some of these. same companies raise private capital. >> Okay, I understand that the optics of. this do not look great. And if you're a.

person who cares about conflict of. interest, you will not like what you. were hearing in this episode. But you. explained, Eric, all the reasons why the. United States needs critical minerals, why it needs tungsten. So beyond this. looking bad, is there an actual harm. here besides that? >> I mean, this is an important American. priority and it is good that the Trump. administration now and that the Biden. administration before it were focused on. finding a way to get access to these. metals that are essential to the US.

economy. But there's a lot of risk. involved as well because you've got to. pick the right partners that you're. putting money into to pursue these. medals. And you know, are these. companies really capable of producing. the vital ingredients for American. manufacturing or are these simply. entrepreneurs that see an opportunity to. make money and that don't actually have. the experience or the willingness to. pursue it for the years that it's going. to take to be successful miners. And I. mean with this, these are vital to the.

future of the United States and our. competitiveness, our military defense. and we're betting enormous amounts of. tax dollars in backing these companies. Huge risk, I mean, for the taxpayers, for every single person in the United. States. So, it's really important that. the outcomes here are determined by. who's the most capable of actually. successfully mining these sites and not. simply who's the closest to the. president or who stands to profit the. most. Eric, we started this conversation. with you explaining that it was hard to.

find parallels for the president in. other leaders and you had to go to as. far as Turkey and Russia. I wonder. though if there's any way to put the. sons into context, >> right? I mean, when I spoke to the. presidential historians, I asked them to. give me examples that, you know, any. kind of comparison and anything they. came up with seemed trivial. I mean, they cited, for example, George W. Bush, who was on the board of an oil company. when his dad, George Herbert Walker. Bush, was president. Or Billy Carter,

the brother of Jimmy Carter, endorsed a. beer called Billy Beer when his brother. was president of the United States. Or. Hunter Biden, who when his dad was vice. president, was working as a consultant. and board member to a Ukrainian gas. company and also as a consultant to some. Chinese companies. Brought incredible. scrutiny. But we're talking the dollar. amounts were trivial compared to what. the Trump sons are now seeing here. >> You know, Eric, I am reminded of. something that President Trump said to.

our White House team in an Oval Office. interview earlier this year. >> In your first term, your family agreed. not to conduct business abroad. Now it's. doing so all over the world. Why the. reversal? >> Well, because I got no credit in the. first term. I. >> He basically said that he didn't get any. credit in his first term for avoiding. conflicts of interest, which by the way, he didn't avoid them, but that's what he. said. His point though was basically the. gloves are off on the second term. Like. I didn't get credit for what I thought I. deserve credit for. So I'm not even. going to try anymore. >> I didn't do deals. I could have done so.

many deals. >> I didn't do because I found out that. nobody cared. >> and nobody even cares. And it's that. last part that I am really interested in. the who cares part of this. And I wonder. Eric how you would answer that. I've. heard the same thing from Eric Trump. directly is the outrage that the. investigations that happened even after. they from their perspective, you know, went to some extent to try to limit the. conflicts of interest during the first. term and this time they're just.

unrestrained. Any opportunity that they. want to pursue to make money, they're. pursuing aggressively any place in the. world. >> So why do we care? You know, why are we. spending the time digging into this? because it's disturbing to the American. tradition where we are not a country. where there's a mixing of the financial. interest of the government officials and. the financial benefit that comes from. their actions. Both Democratic and. Republican administrations throughout. American history, there have been. efforts to separate the financial. interest of the first family from the.

actions that the president is taking. And we aren't seeing that here. Eric, I. understand the why people should care. argument that you're making, but I do. wonder if you think people actually do. care, just especially as we look toward. the midterms. There are just so many. issues on voters minds and I just wonder. if something like this is really going. to register in any significant way. >> Um, it's a bit of an open question. I.

think that the the true Trump devoted. voter sees this guy as someone who's. always made money and they celebrate his. money-making. But then there are others. who look at how much money the Trump. family has brought in, $2.2 billion that. Trump has in his financial report from. 2025 and they're just they're startled. by that. And at the same time. particularly that there are almost a. million people who came in behind Trump. at his urging and bought into one of his.

cryptocurrency coins and they lost. almost $4 billion on that bet following. Trump's lead. So that's a lot of. pissed-off investors honestly many of. whom are Trump followers. I've also heard from some industry. executives from the energy sector who. are saying, you know, they're they're. wondering whether or not they should. partner with the Trumps in new business. ventures because they don't want to end. up being subpoenaed if the Democrats. take the House or the Senate and we. could have two years worth of oversight.

hearings trying to dig into all [music]. these deals and was there any. malfeasants. So to some extent the. midterms will be an answer to this. question of [music] do people really. care? [music]. >> Eric Lipton, thank you so much. >> Thank you Rachel for having me. >> We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. >> Hey everyone, it's Graham Platner here. >> On Wednesday [music] night, Graham. Platner, the Democratic nominee for. Senate in Maine and a one-time star of. the progressive movement, suspended. [music] his campaign. >> We believe that for the movement to. continue, [music] it can't be me. And. for that reason, we are suspending.

campaign operations. >> Platner had faced intense pressure in. recent days [music] to step aside after. a woman had accused him of rape. >> This is incredibly difficult because I. know that some will think it's an. admission of guilt, and it most. certainly is not. >> His departure upends one of the year's. most important Senate races, and it. creates [music] enormous uncertainty. But his party's outlook in Maine, where. Democrats believe that defeating Senator. Susan Collins, a Republican, is crucial. to their efforts to reclaim a Senate. majority. The Maine Democratic Party.

will hold a convention to choose a new. nominee by July 27th. [music] And the United States launched a. fresh round of strikes against Iran on. Wednesday, just [music] hours after. President Trump cast out on the. ceasefire between both countries. >> To me, I think it's over. I don't want. to deal with them anymore. They're scum. [music]. >> Washington and Tyrron had each accused. each other of violating the terms of the. already fragile agreement reached in.

part so that transit could resume in the. Straight of Hormuz. >> As far as I'm concerned, it's [music]. just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars. >> Shipping traffic in the straight has. once more come to a halt, driving oil. [music] prices to their highest levels. in 2 weeks. Today's [music] episode was produced by. Adrien Hurst, Eric Cropky, and Diana. Win. It was edited by Annie [music]. Moff, Rachel Quester, MJ Davis Lynn, and. Michael Benwis, and contains [music].

music by Alicia BYU, Dan Powell, Rowan. Misto, and Diane Wong. And our theme. music is by Wonderly. This episode was. engineered by Alyssa Moxley. [music]. >> [music]. >> That's it for the daily. I'm Rachel. Abrams. See you tomorrow. [music].