How Trump quietly got $2 billion richer in his second term

Summary

Apple News Today: “How Trump Quietly Got $2 Billion Richer in His Second Term”

Date: July 2, 2026
Host: Cecilia Lay (in for Shumita Basu)
Notable Guests: Tom Bergen (Reuters), Scott Waldman (Politico), Rep. Steve Scalise

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Overview

This episode dives into President Trump’s explosive financial growth during his second presidential term, primarily driven by cryptocurrency activities and related policy shifts. The show unpacks Trump’s disclosed earnings, the ethics and legality surrounding his business dealings, the profound impact of regulatory changes on the crypto industry, and the political and economic ramifications of these moves. Additional brief segments touch on falling gas prices, a rumored high-profile celebrity wedding, a nationwide heat wave, and sports highlights.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Enormous Financial Gains in Second Term

[00:05–05:32]

• Staggering Wealth Increase:
  Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures show at least $2.2 billion in revenue—4x his 2024 reported figure.

  • “The amount of money is just unlike anything that we’ve ever seen before in a presidency.” — Tom Bergen, Reuters [00:15]

• Crypto at the Center:
  Over half of the income comes from crypto ventures. Trump’s family direct profit is linked to policymaking and regulatory decisions that benefit their crypto businesses.

  • Trump previously called Bitcoin a scam and criticized it for competing with the dollar but reversed his stance in recent years, embracing crypto narratives.
    “It’s another currency competing against the dollar… I want the dollar to be the currency of the world.” — Steve Scalise [01:38]

• Family Business Moves & Foreign Investments:
  Trump’s family launched a major crypto firm during the 2024 campaign, earning nearly $800 million. Roughly a third came after a UAE royal bought in, soon followed by Trump granting the UAE access to specialized AI chips.

  • Creation of a meme coin generated an additional $635 million; buyers are incentivized with contests for private access to Trump.

• Regulatory Rollbacks & SEC:
  Trump’s administration withdrew SEC oversight from meme coins, reversing robust enforcement under previous administrations.

  • “President Trump has pulled back from that, which has been massively welcomed by the crypto industry, and … very helpful for the president’s own business.” — Tom Bergen [02:57]

• Policy Moves Directly Benefiting Family:
  Trump signed legislation promoting stablecoins soon after his family's firm introduced its own, and issued a high-profile pardon to Binance’s owner, a business partner.

• Supreme Court Decision:
  Trump’s ability to remove regulatory officials who oppose his crypto agenda is bolstered by a new Supreme Court ruling.

• Public Explanation & Ethical Questions:
  Trump credits “a strong stock market” for his profits and claims to not personally manage his investments, which are in a trust controlled by his sons.

  • “Everybody’s profiting…your 401k done? Up 85%. Thank you, President Trump.” — Steve Scalise quoting Trump [04:21]
  • Unlike predecessors, Trump retains direct benefit from his holdings instead of using a blind trust.

• Ethics & Legal Takeaways:
  Most legal experts and ethicists consulted agree Trump is breaking presidential precedent, but likely not the law, due to the lack of binding ethics rules for presidents.

  • “The president is behaving in a way…contrary to the intentions of the rules, without precedent.” — Tom Bergen [05:15]

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2. Gas Prices Defy Predictions

[05:32–09:45]

• War-Driven Predictions vs. Reality:
  Despite fears of an “energy apocalypse” due to the Iran conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, US gas prices have fallen before July 4th.

  • On July 1, the national average was $3.85/gal, down 50 cents from a month earlier.

• Expert Analysis:
  Scott Waldman (Politico) credits unusual global processes: US and Japan boosting exports, global reserves tapped, and China’s reduced oil imports due to decreased manufacturing and growing reliance on renewables.

  • “I think they were basing it on past trends and really we missed it for a variety of reasons.” — Scott Waldman [06:33]

• Presidential Jawboning:
  Trump attributes the drop to pressure on oil companies and public calls to lower prices. His aggressive rhetoric—sometimes via late-night social posts—may have contributed to keeping oil futures down (“jawboning”).

  • “Experts have really credited him … with talking down the market.” — Scott Waldman [08:11]

• Political Implication:
  Lower gas prices have marginally improved consumer confidence, benefiting the administration, though 60% still disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy (NPR/Marist/PBS poll).

  • “This is a country that’s actually experiencing a golden age again.” — Steve Scalise [08:47]
  • “Attitudes among voters sort of get locked.” — Scott Waldman [09:21]

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3. Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s Rumored “Royal” Wedding

[09:45–11:45]

• Media Frenzy:
  Rumors swirl about a secret Fourth of July wedding at Madison Square Garden, with major outlets staking out the site. Local authorities have confirmed road closures for a private event.

  • “This is going to be the equivalent of America’s royal wedding.” — Cecilia Lay [09:57]

• Swift’s Easter Egg Culture:
  The pop star’s history of cryptic clues and deliberate misdirection fuels speculation; industry insiders and friends offer playful hints.

• Quotes:

  • “They said absolutely no gifts. But I was thinking Travis, for some reason, likes old coins, so I might get him an old coin.” — Tom Bergen [11:23]
  • “Just have so much fun with all your friends.” — Steve Scalise [11:34]

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4. Quick Hits & Other Stories

[11:45–End]

• Heatwave Across the US:
  Dangerous heat affecting 250 million Americans, with some Midwest cities hitting 100°F-plus.

• America’s Mood at 250 Years:
  New polls suggest ambivalence: most feel the nation has strayed from its founding ideals, but two-thirds remain “very proud” to be American. The nation’s time capsule, to be buried in Philadelphia, includes artifacts from every state.

• US Men’s Soccer Makes Knockouts:
  The US advances to the World Cup last 16 after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina, but loses star Balogun to a controversial red card. Upcoming match against Belgium could mark a historic run.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The amount of money is really just unlike anything that we've ever seen before in a presidency.”
  — Tom Bergen [00:15]

• “It’s another currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world.”
  — Steve Scalise, paraphrasing Trump’s previous position [01:38]

• “President Trump has pulled back from that, which has been massively welcomed by the crypto industry, and that has been very helpful for the president's own business.”
  — Tom Bergen [02:57]

• “Everybody’s profiting ... your 401k done? Up 85%. Thank you, President Trump.”
  — Steve Scalise quoting Trump [04:21]

• “The president is behaving in a way that many ethical scholars ... say is contrary to the intentions of the rules, without precedent.”
  — Tom Bergen [05:15]

• “They were basing it on past trends and really we missed it for a variety of reasons.”
  — Scott Waldman, on economic predictions [06:33]

• “Experts have really credited him in the last few months with talking down the market...they call it jawboning.”
  — Scott Waldman [08:11]

• “This is going to be the equivalent of America’s royal wedding.”
  — Cecilia Lay [09:57]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Trump’s Financial Disclosures & Crypto Business: [00:05–05:32]
• Gas Prices & Economic Predictions: [05:32–09:45]
• Swift/Kelce Wedding Rumors: [09:45–11:45]
• Quick Stories (Heatwave, Polls, Soccer): [11:45–end]

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Summary Takeaways

This episode provides an investigative look at how Trump leveraged the powers of the presidency and the regulatory apparatus, particularly around cryptocurrency, to dramatically grow his personal and family wealth during his second term. Policy changes not only benefitted the industry at large but specifically advantaged his own businesses—prompting new questions about presidential ethics and legacy. The discussion is complemented by timely updates on energy markets, economic perceptions, and a dash of celebrity intrigue.

Transcript

[Cecilia Lay]

Good morning. Trump's financial disclosures reveal vast wealth and close ties to crypto. Reuters has been pouring over the nearly thousand pages of filings.

[Tom Bergen]

The amount of money is really just unlike anything that we've ever seen before in a presidency.

[Cecilia Lay]

The worst case predictions over gas prices never came and now they're falling. Politico tells us why. And the US Men's soccer team end their knockout curse. But last night's win came with a sting in the tail. It's Thursday, July 2nd. I'm Cecilia Lay in for shame. The Basu. This is Apple News today. President Trump's latest financial disclosures show his wealth has skyrocketed during his second term. He earned at least $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, roughly four times what he reported in 2024.

[Tom Bergen]

The disclosures which came out on Tuesday, showed that the President had made an enormous sum, totally vast amount of money through these crypto activities.

[Cecilia Lay]

That's Reuters reporter Tom Bergen, who told us that in many cases, Trump and his family directly profited from actions the President took since returning to the White House, especially his cryptocurrency ventures, which accounted for more than half of his income last year.

[Tom Bergen]

The President himself, of course, is famous for having said that he thought that Bitcoin and other cryptos were a scam.

[Steve Scalise]

I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar. Essentially, it's a currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That's what I've always said.

[Tom Bergen]

But a couple of years ago, he changed his position on this and his sons became quite interested in crypto.

[Cecilia Lay]

Trump campaigned on being a crypto friendly administration. He and his family launched a crypto firm in the middle of his 2024 campaign. According to the disclosures, Trump generated nearly $800 million from that firm. Roughly a third of that came after a United Arab Emirates royal family member made a deal to buy a stake in the company just days before the President's inauguration. Then, shortly after that deal was signed, Trump by now the president granted the UAE access to special chips used for artificial intell. Another $635 million came from meme Coins, a type of speculative crypto token whose value depends almost entirely on what investors are willing to pay. Trump set this coin up just days before taking office. Since then, he's held annual contests where top buyers of his Meme coin can win private time with the president at his golf clubs. And one of his administration's first moves was to exclude meme coins from SEC oversight.

[Tom Bergen]

Under the Biden administration, and indeed under the first Trump administration, we saw the SEC take quite a robust approach to companies that were selling crypto tokens, and basically, they shot a number of them down. And they also levied fines on people for marketing cryptocurrencies. President Trump has pulled back from that, which has been massively welcomed by the crypto industry, and that has been very helpful for the president's own business.

[Cecilia Lay]

Trump has also supported legislation that stands to benefit his family's crypto interests. Last summer, he signed a law promoting a type of digital currency called stablecoins, just a few months after his family's firm introduced its own type of stablecoin. Trump has also used executive power to strengthen alliances with leaders in the crypto industry. He issued a pardon in October to the richest man in crypto, the owner of the company Binance, which has been a critical business partner to the Trump family. And Trump just got more power to reshape key regulatory bodies that oversee the crypto industry. The Supreme Court this week ruled that presidents can fire people at will who work for these agencies, which means Trump could potentially remove people who disagree with his crypto agenda. When reporters asked the president about his financial disclosures yesterday, he credited his crypto success to a strong stock market.

[Steve Scalise]

Everybody's profiting. If you have a. You have a 401k, how's your 401k done? It's about up 85%. Thank you, President Trump. So we're all profiting.

[Cecilia Lay]

Trump also told reporters that he doesn't speak with the people who manage his investments. Many of his assets are in a trust controlled by his sons. Unlike previous presidents who divested their holdings or placed them in blind trusts, Trump is the beneficiary of that trust, meaning he profits from the business deals his sons make. The wealth that he and his family have amassed over his second term have raised questions about possible ethics violations. In a statement, the White House spokesperson said, quote, neither the president nor his family has ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest. And Bergen told us the ethics rules and laws that apply to most federal officials do not apply to the President.

[Tom Bergen]

The president is behaving in a way that many ethical scholars that we speak to say is contrary to the intentions of the rules, without precedent. But most people that we speak to, most legal experts, are generally of the view that the president is probably not

[Cecilia Lay]

breaking the law, but he is certainly breaking precedent. Most former presidents have sold off businesses they owned or held stakes in when they took office to avoid even the perception that they might be profiting from their office. George W. Bush sold his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team, while Jimmy Carter famously put his beloved peanut farm into to a blind trust. When the war with Iran broke out, experts predicted major spikes in energy costs, and a lot of them warned that those higher prices would stick around even after the Strait of Hormuz opened up. And yet gas prices have declined steeply ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. According to AAA, on July 1, gas averaged about $3.85 a gallon and down nearly 50 cents from about a month ago.

[Scott Waldman]

The experts got this one wrong because they were just looking at the way the markets have traditionally reacted.

[Cecilia Lay]

Scott Waldman covers the White House for Politico.

[Scott Waldman]

No one knew what was going to happen when you had the Strait of Hormuth, where about 20% of the world's oil supply flowed every day closed. And I think they were basing it on past trends and really we missed it for a variety of reasons.

[Cecilia Lay]

To be clear, gas prices in the US did jump, and parts of Asia and Europe took a real hit to their economies while the Strait was shut. But the worst case predictions one analyst warned of a fuel apocalypse haven't come to pass, at least so far. Waldman told us there are a few reasons why the US And Japan increased its exports, which plugged the gap a little. Countries dipped into global reserves more than expected, and China cut their imports, helping ease the pressure on worldwide demand.

[Scott Waldman]

It has to do both with renewables and also, of course, with the state of the economy in China, where manufacturing is down, which means demand is down. The clean energy industry in China has been ramping up for years. Since they don't produce a lot of oil, they're preparing for a scenario exactly like this for a long time.

[Cecilia Lay]

President Trump is claiming victory for the falling gas prices while demanding oil companies to lower them. Even more threatening probes into price gouging from the Oval Office last week.

[Steve Scalise]

We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump and we're higher than that and we are doing a big investigation on it. Yeah, they're not reducing the prices commensurate with what what's happening.

[Cecilia Lay]

Waldman says that Trump's rhetoric, often in the form of late night social media posts, might have played a big role in keeping the price of oil futures down.

[Scott Waldman]

Experts have really credited him in the last few months with talking down the market successionally. They call it jawboning the market, even if people said that seems questionable, that sort of claim the market really bought into it. And oil futures, the paper markets, never really jumped in the way that folks thought they would.

[Cecilia Lay]

Looking ahead to November, falling gas prices appear to be easing some concerns over the economy with the consumer confidence index ticking up more than half a point in June. That's welcome news for Republicans who've been bracing for attacks on affordability. Here's House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

[Steve Scalise]

This is a country that's actually experiencing a golden age again. Gas prices are down 50 cents from where they were just a few weeks ago and continuing to go down. Affordability is back again and Democrats are upset about that because they wanted it as a talking point for November.

[Cecilia Lay]

But time may be running out, politically speaking. 60% disapprove of President Trump's handling of the economy in a recent NPR Marist PBS poll. And Scott says that voters minds are made up now when it comes to the economy months before ballots are cast.

[Scott Waldman]

This is sort of the cutoff point according to Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican pollster, where he says prices today, prices into next month are going to be way more influential than a price spike or price drop in September or October because attitudes among voters sort of gets locked do.

[Cecilia Lay]

Is Midtown Manhattan about to host the wedding of the year? No one knows for sure exactly how or when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are getting married, but the rumor mill has been intense with news networks camped outside Madison Square Garden all week. It's all about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's rumored wedding this July 4th weekend. Look at these trucks right here. They are unloading all sorts of massive items off of these trucks and into the loading dock. This is going to be the equivalent of America's royal wedding. The New York Times and CNN have talked to insiders confirming several days of celebration centered around New York's 20,000 capacity arena. The reporting stops short of confirming it's a wedding exactly. But the New York Post cites an NYPD memo confirming closed roads and extra patrols for a private two day event. And others have slipped into using the W word, notably New York City Mayor Zoharan Mamdani. We know it coincides with July 4, America 250 Taylor Swift's wedding, all happening at the same time. Swift has a long history of throwing big parties on July 4, so fans have speculated that it makes sense. The Times reports that some of Kelsey's friends have booked hotels nearby too. The 49ers George Kittle disclosed to Extra TV that the big day is at least close enough that Swift and Kelce have offered some guidance for guests.

[Steve Scalise]

They said absolutely no gifts. But I was thinking Travis for some

[Tom Bergen]

reason likes old coins, so I might get him an old coin.

[Cecilia Lay]

Oh, I love that. That's really personal.

[Tom Bergen]

Sounds expensive too.

[Cecilia Lay]

I like that. I like that. Would you like to give them a wedding wish? Oh, a wedding wish.

[Steve Scalise]

Just have so much fun with all your friends.

[Cecilia Lay]

But some speculated this was all to throw people off the scent, or that it could be a decoy. All of the guesswork and theories are perfectly on brand for Swift, who spent her career sending fans searching high and low for Easter eggs about her songs and projects. In early albums, she would hide messages in the liner notes of her CDs. Her music videos have hidden clues about the titles of her upcoming records. And on her Record Breaking Heiress tour, she wore outfits that teased her. The Atlantic writes that Swift, over her career, has become a master of the thrill of the chase. Sometimes her clues lead nowhere. Other times they turn out to be true. But even if this weekend comes and goes with no wedding, Swifties will almost certainly keep looking for the next hint. Here are a few other stories we're following today. The heat wave that struck much of the Midwest is heading east in time for the July 4th holiday weekend. The heat index that is what the temperature feels like to the body, hit the triple figures in several areas earlier this week 106 in Chicago, 103 in Cleveland and 113 in Southern Illinois. Some 250 million people live in areas that are expected to experience some level of dangerous heat today, according to the weather service. Cities including Washington, D.C. new York City, Philadelphia and Boston could see temperatures climb into the low hundreds. It's expected to cool down at least a little bit by Saturday. And as the country heads into the holiday weekend marking America's 250th anniversary, two new polls offer snapshots of how Americans are feeling about the nation's legacy. A PBS News NPR Marist poll found most believe the country has drifted from its founding principles. Even so, nearly two thirds said they're very proud to be American. Meanwhile, a CBS poll showed that about 47% think the country's best days are in its past, though 43% also feel that the country has lived up to the ideals it was founded on. Those views are just a snapshot in time. Another 250 years from now, people may feel very differently. That's when America's time capsule is set to be opened. The 900 pound steel cylinder was officially sealed last month and will be buried in Philadelphia on Saturday. Some of the peculiar contents added by states include a whalebone from Maine, a single diamond from Arkansas and from Arizona, a stainless steel coin nano etched with the entire Declaration of Independence. And finally, the men's soccer team has made it to the World Cup's last 16 after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 20 last night in Santa Clara, California. It's a rare win at this level for the U.S. before yesterday, 11 World cup appearances had delivered only one knockout stage victory, but last night's win came at a price. Valoran Balogun has been a star of the tournament and scored the opening goal, but he was controversially sent off for catching an opposition player's leg in a collision, meaning he'll miss the next match. It didn't stop the celebrations, though. Head coach Maurizio Pochettino joined thousands in a rendition of what's become the team's tournament anthem. Their next game comes Monday in Seattle against Belgium, and if they win that, they'll head to the quarterfinals. The last time they made it that far was 2002. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next, Vox reports on how attitudes about generosity have shifted from the hopeful days of 2014's Ice Bucket Challenge to a more cynical view of giving. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Narrated to find that story. And before we let you go, just a heads up. Our team will be off Friday and Monday for the holiday weekend, but we'll be back with the news on Tuesday.