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Trump, His Money, and the World

Donald Trump’s growing wealth while in office could have an impact on anti-corruption efforts around the world.

Listen · 12:44 min

I’m the host of The World.

July 23, 2026

This summer, we learned that Donald Trump made at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House. That’s a crazy amount of money. No other American president or leader of a liberal democracy has even come close to becoming so rich while in office.

And it comes with an unprecedented number of potential conflicts of interest, not just at home but also abroad, in countries with a much worse track record for good governance than the United States. Today, I write about how Trump’s global moneymaking enterprises risk empowering autocrats and seeding corruption around the world.

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President Trump’s annual financial disclosure form gave my colleagues who scrutinize his finances a lot to work with.

I spoke with my colleague Eric Lipton, who covers the Trump family’s business operations. Throw a dart at the map, he suggested, and chances are it will land somewhere the American president or his family have business interests. As Eric has documented, Trump’s holding company last year collected at least $125 million in direct payments from foreign sources in countries including Britain, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Oman, the Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half of the Trump family’s main cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial. Four months later, the Trump administration agreed to give the Emiratis access to sophisticated computer chips powering artificial intelligence.

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