Up First Sunday Story: "How the Presidency is Making Trump Richer"
NPR, February 8, 2026 | Host: Ayesha Rascoe | With Mary Childs, Sarah Gonzalez, David Kirkpatrick, Fred Wertheimer
Episode Overview
In this Sunday Story episode, NPR’s Ayesha Roscoe teams up with Planet Money hosts Mary Childs and Sarah Gonzalez to investigate the unprecedented personal enrichment of Donald Trump and his family during his second presidential term. Reporter David Kirkpatrick of The New Yorker details his financial accounting of the Trump family’s presidency-linked wealth, estimating their profits at nearly $4 billion in just a year. The episode breaks down how this fortune was amassed, the innovative methods used, and how this compares historically and internationally.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
The Trump Family’s Shift in Business Approach
- First vs Second Term
- In Trump’s first term, the family voluntarily stopped overseas deals for optics.
- For the second term, “That’s gone, that’s out the window. This term, they’ve done deals all over the place overseas.” (David Kirkpatrick, 01:23)
- Motivation: Since criticism was unavoidable no matter what, the family “might as well take the money and run.” (David Kirkpatrick, 01:45)
Methodology of Financial Accounting
- David Kirkpatrick explains he only counted profits directly tied to Trump’s presidency—deals inconceivable without him in office, excluding regular business income.
- Used a combination of public disclosures, lawsuits, and extrapolation—“I’d say I’m 100% if your target is to be conservative…this is a minimum.” (Kirkpatrick, 09:09)
The Estimated Total: $4 Billion
- Trump and his family’s presidency-related profits approach $4 billion, nearly all acquired in the past year (03:04).
Notable Revenue Sources: How the Money Was Made
1. Merchandise and Campaign Innovation (11:04–12:20)
- Trump-branded merchandise—sneakers, Bibles, guitars—sold outside campaign structures, resulting in $27.7 million in personal profits.
- Legal defense funded via a “loophole” converting campaign funds, totaling $100 million in value.
“Hats off, that’s a real innovation.” — David Kirkpatrick [12:17]
- Total (Merch+Legal Loophole): $127.7 million
2. Social Media & Media Lawsuits
- Truth Social (Trump’s social platform): estimated $25 million in value directly due to his presidency (13:00).
- Media deals, including lawsuits against major networks and a Melania biopic: $91 million.
“All of which were deemed to be frivolous…fair to call those payments that he would not have received were he not the sitting president.” — David Kirkpatrick [13:37]
- Total (Truth Social+Media): $116 million
3. Luxury Jet Gift (13:57–14:23)
- Qatar gifted a royal jet to the US government, earmarked for Trump’s Presidential Library—valued at $150 million.
4. Hospitality: Real Estate & Hotels, Domestically and Abroad
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Mar-a-Lago: Only increased profits counted; hike in initiation fee after re-election ($125 million gain).
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Trump Hotel in Vietnam: Preferential government treatment, $40 million gain.
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Persian Gulf Deals: Explosive growth in deals in Oman, Saudi UAE, Qatar, newly linked to presidency ($105.8 million).
“Would those deals have happened if he weren’t the president? No, of course they wouldn’t have.” — David Kirkpatrick [16:39]
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Combined Hospitality Gains: $271 million
5. Finance Deals (17:59–19:37)
- Jared Kushner’s Private Equity Firm: $2 billion Saudi investment despite zero relevant experience ($320 million gain).
- Don Jr. Investment Partner: Position in 1789 Capital; $19.6 million.
6. Crypto & Digital Assets (19:59–24:15)
- NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens): Trump and Melania-themed, $14.4 million.
- Token Investments (World Liberty Financial): $974.5 million.
- Stablecoin USD1: UAE government’s $2 billion buy, $243 million profit.
- Trump sons’ Bitcoin Mining (“American Bitcoin”): $115 million.
- Trump Media as Bitcoin Holding Company: Sold shares at inflated value; Trump’s stake worth $1.08–$1.3 billion.
- Trump Meme Coin (“Dollar Trump”): $385 million.
“Calling it USD1 and reminding everybody that’s associated with the president…is a good way to build faith and credibility…that makes sense to me. That’s really what they’re up to.”—David Kirkpatrick [21:36]
7. Running Total
- By the end, the estimated tally—across merch, social media, hospitality, finance, crypto—was $3.8 billion, nearing $4 billion as of production date.
Legal and Historical Perspective
Emoluments and Ethics
- The US Constitution’s emoluments clauses were meant to prevent presidential self-enrichment and foreign influence—largely ineffective in this scenario.
- Early worries over the D.C. hotel appear “quaint” compared to current scale (“people were so strung out about those overpriced martinis…and really, that’s nothing.” — Sarah Gonzalez, 10:01).
Historical Precedent (27:20–33:25)
- Fred Wertheimer (Democracy 21): “It doesn’t exist at the level of which President Trump is making money.” [28:07]
- Previous comparable US instances (Lyndon Johnson’s media holdings, Warren G. Harding’s newspaper) are “nothing” in scale or explicitness.
- Relatives of presidents have profited (e.g., Hunter Biden), but “anywhere near the amount of money that President Trump’s sons are making.” [28:58]
- Fred: “Trump has made billions…in cryptocurrency. At the same time, he is controlling the policy of the United States on cryptocurrency. And his policies are totally favorable to cryptocurrency.” [32:03]
Global Comparison
- Only foreign examples of this scale: authoritarian regimes (“A leading example of this is Mr. Putin”—Fred Wertheimer, 32:45), with estimated personal enrichment in the tens of billions.
Conclusion & Memorable Moments
- Impact: Trump’s enrichment while president is unprecedented in US history.
- Scale and Sophistication: The blending of hospitality, digital assets, and campaign loopholes was cited as both innovative and troubling.
- David Kirkpatrick continues to monitor and update the tally; profits continue to climb even after the report’s publication.
- The systematic nature and scale set a new, alarming precedent for presidential self-enrichment.
Key Quotes & Timestamps
- “Effectively they’ve just said, since we’re going to get criticized, we might as well take the money and run.” — David Kirkpatrick (01:45)
- “Almost $4 billion. That…is how much Trump and his family have made by this point in his second term. Almost all of it made this past year.” — Ayesha Roscoe (03:06)
- “Merch is the most surprising to me. Crypto is the biggest in its many forms. And then…the Gulf real estate is the other one…most striking.” — David Kirkpatrick (11:04)
- “Trump is the first…to make so much money explicitly off of the White House for himself and his family. Money that actually goes into his own pocket…” — David Kirkpatrick (05:57)
- “It doesn’t exist at the level of which President Trump is making money.” — Fred Wertheimer (28:07)
- “A leading example of this is Mr. Putin.” — Fred Wertheimer (32:45)
- “It just has never existed like this in our country until now.” — Fred Wertheimer (33:40)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:50–01:45: Trump family business policy shift from 1st to 2nd term
- 03:04–03:20: Kirkpatrick reveals nearly $4B figure
- 10:00–10:25: Emoluments and D.C. hotel, first-term profits "quaint"
- 11:04–12:20: Merch innovation and personal profit
- 13:00–13:57: Social media, media lawsuits, Melania deal
- 14:23–15:09: Hospitality, Mar-a-Lago, fee hikes
- 16:13–17:34: Persian Gulf deals, their extraordinary scale
- 17:59–19:37: Finance deals—Kushner and Don Jr.
- 19:59–24:15: Crypto, token investments, meme coins, Trump Media
- 27:20–33:40: Context with Fred Wertheimer: US and global history, ethics
This summary provides full context and clarity for listeners and readers about how Donald Trump’s second term has transformed his and his family’s financial fortunes—and why this level of personal presidential profit is historically unprecedented in the United States.