Trump made even more money last year than you thought

Golden years: Donald Trump, 80, is making more money than ever before.

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Donald Trump, who decades ago described himself as “a kind of PT Barnum,” has finally found his most lucrative job: the presidency.

According to a, it took in $2.4 billion last year Forbes Analysis that overlaid its financial disclosure report with bond filings, securities filings and court filings to arrive at a more specific figure than the “at least $2.2 billion” that has been widely reported in recent weeks. The $2.4 billion figure, a combination of operating income and proceeds from asset sales, dwarfs the estimated $760 million Trump received in 2024. It is also 6,000 times the current US presidential salary of $400,000.

Trump seems to sense that political profiteering is not a good look. When asked about his latest windfall, he replied, “I made a lot of money before I became president,” then added, “Do you know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market is going up.”

Not really.

The number is $2.4 billion not This includes proceeds from its stock sales, most of which appear to have been reinvested in the market. Most of the year-over-year increase, $1.4 billion, comes from cryptocurrency, an industry that Trump once described as “based on thin air” but has since gleefully sold to unwitting backers, many of whom have suffered catastrophic losses on their investments.

In addition, the president also took extraordinary sums from Mar-a-Lago and its international licensing business.

The receipts

Donald Trump’s business exploded in 2025 as he capitalized on his comeback.

Trump, whose representatives did not respond to requests for comment, has not always been so reticent about profiting from politics. “It’s very possible,” he said Assets 26 years ago, “that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money from it.” In 2016, the year before he took office, Trump’s business generated an estimated $610 million. Once in power, he tried – initially with limited success – to make money from his new position.

Some parts of his business benefited (Mar-a-Lago), while others struggled (a product licensing empire that sold men’s clothing and mattresses). The impact was partially offset, and Trump’s revenue stagnated at about $650 million from 2017 to 2019. Covid caused a stir. Sales fell to around $450 million and Trump ultimately lost the presidency.

This proved to be a good thing for his business. He spent his years in exile revamping his portfolio so that it was perfectly positioned to capitalize on a political comeback. Sure, his brand was too polarized to reliably sell shirts, ties and hotel rooms to the masses. But his hardcore supporters offered a more reliable customer base willing to spend money on whatever he sold.

They bought $100 Bibles, $500 watches, and, most importantly, investments in hastily formed companies whose valuations reached multibillion-dollars, fueled by little more than faith.

This didn’t all happen at once. In 2021, the Trump Organization generated an estimated $560 million after emerging from the pandemic. In 2022, Trump sold his very famous, very unprofitable hotel in Washington, DC, setting aside about $260 million of his total $910 million for the year. In 2023, it earned an estimated $755 million.

In the last election year of 2024, Trump raised around $760 million. About $60 million of that came from sales of crypto tokens related to a new company, World Liberty Financial, that only really took off after he won the White House. About $60 million came from an international licensing company and nearly $80 million from Mar-a-Lago, both buoyed by the prospect of a second Trump term. Without these politically motivated windfalls, Trump’s profit in 2024 would have been closer to $650 million, roughly what he earned during his first term in office.

When Trump returned to the White House in 2025, crypto prices skyrocketed, largely thanks to the president’s friendly promise to treat the industry kindly. Three days before taking office, the president-elect launched a memecoin. The fine print told buyers that the offer should not be considered an investment. In any case, a lot was invested, not only in the Memecoin, but also in the World Liberty token. The memecoin ultimately earned Trump about $635 million in 2025, and World Liberty provided nearly $800 million more.

Trump’s crypto offerings have since fallen from their highs, with the memecoin down 98%, a useful reminder that his personal windfall is not due to smart policy, the president’s genius, or a rising market that is driving everything up.

Instead, it was the result of a brand campaign featuring Oval Office lighting that is now coming to its natural conclusion. In the end, bad products are just that – even if they are marketed by the President of the United States.

-With additional reporting from Andrew Balaban.