Donald Trump’s use of his second presidency to grow his personal fortune has alarmed legal and ethics experts and congressional Democrats as he has reaped an “unprecedented” $2.2bn in 2025 revenues by amassing big cryptocurrency holdings, benefiting from wealthy foreign interests, expanding his Truth Social business and more, while federal oversight of his actions has waned.
Trump last year raked in at least $1.4bn from his crypto ventures according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June. Simultaneously, about one million investors in a Trump crypto scheme suffered almost $3.8bn in losses as their volatile crypto holdings tanked in value.
Monetizing his presidency further this summer, Trump’s Truth Social media business is pushing a new scheme that offers wealthy buyers special early access to his posts for a fee of $100,000 a month, which top Democrats and public interest groups say pose serious conflict of interest and corruption issues.
This is some of why at least some Americans probably wish the Iran plot succeeded
I believe part of the issue is that in addition to the regulatory system being captured, the media has been as well. Sure there are some late night shows poking fun, but major news networks are being bought up one after another.
It’s difficult to organize when half the news pretends this is normal and the other half openly celebrates this degradation of our systems. Unfortunately I fear things will get worse before they get better.