Out With Diversity— In With Diversion... And Self-Enrichment
As is becoming clearer and clearer, the second Trump administration isn’t just a continuation of his political career— it’s the most lucrative business venture of his life. Yesterday, author Dan Alexander wrote about the release of Señor T’s digital meme coin on Friday, which had sparked “a trading frenzy that led to reports that he had instantly added tens of billions of dollars to his fortune. Nonsense. Those numbers are based on theoretical prices for crypto assets that Trump cannot sell right now, which is why Forbes values them at zero, in keeping with our methodology of generally excluding unsellable assets from net worth tallies. The crypto that Trump has already offloaded, however, did bolster his fortune, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid assets to his balance sheet. How did that happen? Consider World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that, over the last few days, boosted the incoming president’s cash pile by an estimated $290 million. World Liberty Financial generates revenue by selling tokens. Its “gold paper”— a Trump-ified version of a white paper— explains that these tokens cannot currently be resold and promise no share of future profits, offering little to people who like to make money on their investments. The document indicates that the first $30 million of proceeds stay in the project, which aims to speed up finance and bring crypto to the masses. After setting aside that initial pile of cash, however, 75% apparently goes to Trump’s company, and 25% gets split between other insiders, including the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East.”
Alexander explained that the Trump family had “unveiled World Liberty Financial in August, but sales started with a dud. By Nov. 2, customers had only purchased an estimated $15 million worth of tokens— not enough to fully fund the project, let alone kick off a cut of the revenue to Trump. But a few weeks after the Nov. 5 election, a crypto entrepreneur named Justin Sun, who has been battling the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations of unregistered crypto sales and fraudulent market manipulation, announced that he dumped $30 million into the project, ensuring that Trump would walk away with some money. Sales trickled in over the ensuing weeks, reaching an estimated $94 million by this Saturday, implying a $48 million take for Trump’s entity. Then things went wild. At 9:18 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, World Liberty Financial announced that it had gotten rid of all the coins that it initially set out to sell last year, apparently raking in $300 million. An estimated $206 million of the sales came over a 29-hour stretch in the leadup to the inauguration. Trump’s cut by that point: about $200 million, according to Forbes’ calculations. He did not stop there. World Liberty Financial then revealed a new supply of tokens for sale, jacking the price for each from one-and-a-half cents to five cents. By Tuesday evening, the project had hauled in another $117 million or so, with an estimated $88 million headed to Trump’s company, bringing his total to roughly $290 million— from just one of his crypto ventures.”
But the grift hardly stops there. This, after all, is what his presidency is all about, especially Term II. His actions, from his real estate dealings to his crypto ventures, demonstrate how he uses the presidency as a personal profit engine. The phrase “rewriting the playbook for how to make money from politics” is key, epitomizing kleptocracy, where the lines between statecraft and self-enrichment dissolve. Mo Brooks, once a prominent super-conservative Republican congressman from Alabama, said yesterday that “Trump has, time and again, convinced me that he is the most dishonest elected official that I have ever— excuse me— that the public has ever had to interact with. And the paradox with Donald Trump is he seems to make dishonest statements just for the fun of it, as a challenge to see if anybody has the gumption or the wherewithal to take him to task for the dishonest statements he makes.”
In addition to World Liberty Financial, the president sells a digital meme named $TRUMP, which he announced Friday, just in time to benefit from some inaugural buzz. The $TRUMP meme doesn’t even pretend to have a financial purpose— its official site tells buyers to “celebrate our win and have fun!” while warning them that they are not purchasing an investment opportunity. The pay structure underpinning $TRUMP is murky— but potentially even more lucrative for the president than World Liberty Financial. Through a company named CIC Digital LLC, Trump teamed up with another business named Fight Fight Fight LLC and released 200 million memes, priced Wednesday morning at about $43 apiece. Purchasers appear to get some sort of digital card.
There are still lots of unknowns, including the average price at which the president and his team sold their batch of $TRUMP, as well as the ownership split between his company and Fight Fight Fight LLC, making it impossible to calculate exactly how much Trump has taken in from the bonanza. Representatives for Trump’s real estate business and crypto ventures did not respond to requests for comment. The billionaire blasted out news of the sale at 9 p.m. on Friday, and according to CoinMarketCap, $TRUMP was trading at about $7 by 11 p.m., before peaking above $70 on Sunday. If the president’s company held even 50% of the venture and sold all 200 million tokens for an average of $7, he could have landed a $700 million windfall— on top of the estimated $290 million from World Liberty Financial. (All of this is before deducting any taxes he may owe.)
It’s something of a crowning achievement for Trump, who spent the last four years rewriting the playbook for how to make money from politics. He did what previous former presidents did— sold books and gave speeches—but he also leveraged his following in new ways, going public with the Trump Media and Technology Group, which created a Twitter knockoff that did not attract many users but nonetheless managed to excite investors. Shares of that venture soared as soon as they hit the market, adding billions of dollars to Trump’s net worth. He struggled to convert that equity into cash, though. Even after a lockup expired, Trump sold zero shares, perhaps concerned that doing so would tank the stock price and erase billions from his net worth.
His crypto ventures are the antidote, offering liquidity at the outset— regardless of whether the values eventually collapse. Trump says he plans to release another 800 million $TRUMP memes over the course of his second term.
Cash is critical to the president. Before the crypto mania, he had an estimated $413 million on his balance sheet, alongside more than $500 million of legal liabilities. While he appeals the cases that created those liabilities— two libel suits and a fraud case— interest continues to accrue, pushing Trump’s potential payout closer to $600 million. Such numbers might have worried him in the past. Two days after reclaiming the White House, however, his second term is already proving more lucrative than any in American history— eliminating all cause for concern.
As we’ve seen before, his kleptocratic regime thrives on diversion. Every new scandal, incendiary comment, or headline-grabbing stunt serves the overall purpose: to distract the public from the slow and steady dismantling of the ethical guardrails that underpin democratic governance— and to line his pockets. The outrageous becomes the ordinary, the shocking becomes the mundane, and behind the chaos, Trump operates a sprawling network of financial schemes designed to funnel vast sums of money into his coffers. His crypto ventures are just the latest chapter in a presidency that treats public service as a tool for private enrichment.
Kleptocracy in its purest form is the weaponization of government to benefit a select few, and Trump has perfected this model with uniquely American flair. Unlike traditional kleptocrats who quietly siphon off public funds, Trump’s grift is brazen and highly visible. He has monetized the presidency itself, turning his political brand into a revenue stream. From inflated hotel bills paid by foreign governments to overpriced merchandise hawked to his base, every aspect of his public life is a commercial transaction. And as with his crypto ventures, the details of these schemes are murky, designed to evade transparency and accountability.
What makes Trump’s kleptocracy particularly dangerous is its corrosive effect on institutions meant to act as checks on power. By filling key government positions with loyalists and enablers, Trump has ensured that oversight is nonexistent and whistleblowers face retribution. Figures like Steve Witkoff— whose family reaps financial rewards from Trump’s crypto operations while he serves in a key government role— are not anomalies; they are features of a system designed to prioritize personal loyalty over public service. Ethics rules, once considered sacrosanct, have been rewritten or ignored entirely, creating a governance model that exists to serve Trump and his allies.
This erosion of institutional integrity would not be possible without the complicity of Republican elected officials. While tiny handful have remained silent out of fear of alienating Trump’s base, many are active participants in his kleptocratic project. They enable his grift by blocking investigations, dismantling ethics rules, and parroting his attacks on the media and watchdog groups that attempt to hold him accountable. Their motivations are clear: Trump’s power within the Republican Party is absolute, and crossing him risks career suicide. But their complicity also reveals a deeper truth: many Republican officials are willing to prioritize personal gain and political expediency over the health of the republic. Trump’s kleptocracy has not just captured the presidency— it has subsumed an entire political party.
In many ways, the complicity of Trump’s base is the linchpin of his kleptocratic regime. Millions of ordinary Americans have been convinced that Trump is their champion, even as his actions betray their trust. The working-class supporters who buy $TRUMP tokens or rally behind his brand are not just being exploited— they are being enlisted as unwitting participants in the very system that enriches him. Trump’s genius lies in his ability to disguise self-interest as populism, persuading his followers that they are part of a movement rather than a mark in a con and the consequences of this kleptocracy extend far beyond his personal fortune. It sets a dangerous precedent for the future of American democracy, where public office becomes a pathway to private wealth. Trump’s presidency— thanks to the most corrupt Supreme Court in history— has normalized corruption to such an extent that it risks becoming a permanent feature of the political landscape. If left unchecked, it will embolden future leaders—Republican or otherwise—to view the presidency not as a public trust but as a blank check for self-enrichment.