For decades, U.S. presidents have generally avoided the appearance that they were profiting from their office, even if they followed formal rules. In a report published Monday, the Associated Press says President Donald Trump and his family have taken a different approach—using the Trump Organization’s expanded business reach and cryptocurrency ventures during his second term in ways that critics say blur the line between government decisions and family profit.
The AP traces the current concerns to a combination of foreign expansion and crypto-linked financial activity. It says the Trump Organization is carrying out what it describes as rapid overseas growth, with deals that potentially involve government interests in countries that rely on U.S. technology, trade preferences and military support.
The report describes how Trump’s family real estate business expanded abroad after his election, including projects in Qatar, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. In Qatar, the AP says a Trump golf club and villa project is developed in part by a company owned by the Qatari government. In Vietnam, it says the government approved a Trump resort deal at a ceremony after reporting earlier that farmers were pushed off land for the project. In Saudi Arabia, the AP says a planned “Trump Plaza” resort on the Red Sea is being built by a Saudi real estate developer close to the ruling family.
The AP adds that those countries, while not necessarily shaping U.S. policy in ways that can be proven, did receive what they sought through access and contracting relationships. It reports that Qatar received advanced U.S. technology, Vietnam received tariff relief, and Saudi Arabia received fighter jets. It also reports that the Trump Organization received tens of millions of dollars in fees associated with the projects, while describing the question raised as whether the family’s business activities and the administration’s choices could be connected.
The AP also reports that the Trump Organization denies ethical problems and points to its own stated rules limiting business directly with foreign governments. It says the Trump Organization told the AP it has done no deals with governments so far, noting that, in the Saudi case, it described the building partner as private and said the company is “collaborating” with the Qatari business rather than entering a “partnership” that would have violated the organization’s internal pledge.
Beyond real estate, the AP report focuses on cryptocurrency-related deals and the flow of money connected to Trump family entities. It says World Liberty Financial sold nearly half of its business to a UAE government-linked company run by a member of the UAE royal family for $500 million shortly before Trump took office. The AP also says that a second UAE entity, a government fund, invested $2 billion worth of a stablecoin issued by World Liberty into the offshore cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
The AP links those crypto relationships to later U.S. actions involving technology access. It reports that shortly after the UAE investment, the Trump administration reversed a Biden-era restriction and granted the UAE access to advanced U.S. chips. It also says Binance founder Changpeng Zhao later received a pardon from Trump, despite having pleaded guilty in a case involving failure to stop criminals from using his platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism, and it reports that Zhao’s lawyer denied any connection between Binance’s business with the Trump family and the pardon.
In a statement to the AP, a lawyer for Zhao disputed any quid pro quo, writing: “Any claim of a quid pro quo by Binance or CZ, or preferential financial treatment by Binance, is a clear misstatement of the public record.” The AP reports that the White House, when asked about the pardon, said federal authorities unfairly punished Zhao in what it called “The Biden Administration’s war on crypto,” and that World Liberty dismissed conflict concerns, saying the UAE deal had no connection to the president’s chips policy.
The AP further describes World Liberty Financial as a source of income for Trump family entities through governance tokens sold to investors. It says the business raised $2 billion last year through sales of “governance tokens” that the AP reports provide voting rights in World Liberty’s business but are not equity stakes. It says that token activity translated into hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trumps through their World Liberty ownership stake and a separate side deal allowing them a cut of sales, and it identifies one major token investor as Justin Sun.
The AP reports that Sun, who is a foreign citizen and therefore would be barred under U.S. law from making political donations to U.S. politicians, spent $75 million on World Liberty tokens between Trump’s election and inauguration. It also reports that a federal lawsuit charging Sun with duping investors was paused before settling last month for a $10 million fine. The AP adds that, in the same period, Trump-branded “meme” coins with the president’s face were sold in the days before he took the oath of office, generating $320 million over the following four months, according to blockchain tracker Chainalysis.
As the AP describes those crypto ties, it also includes broader context on how conflict-of-interest concerns have followed Trump across his time in public life. The AP says the conflict question goes back a decade to when Trump first ran for office, and it reports that some government ethics experts and historians view the situation in his second term as more pressing than earlier episodes.
Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, is quoted in the AP report saying, “I don’t think there’s any line right now between policy decisions and political calculations and the interest of the Trump family.” The report also includes comments from the Trump Organization and the White House that argue conflicts of interest are not present and that Trump has no involvement in family business deals.
The AP says the White House told it that Trump acts ethically and that any suggestion to the contrary is “ill-informed or malicious.” It reports that the White House said the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that he has “no involvement” in family business deals. The report says Trump Organization spokesperson Anna Kelly told the AP, “There are no conflicts of interest,” and that, in a separate Trump Organization statement, the organization said it is “fully compliant with all applicable ethics and conflicts of interest laws” and added that “The implication that politics has enriched the Trump family is unfounded.”
Asked about those ethical questions at a crypto conference, the AP report says Donald Jr. responded, “Frankly, it’s gotten old.” The AP concludes by describing how the Trump Organization’s business momentum has continued in early months of the second year, including deals involving additional government-linked relationships and new investments seeking contracts and government grants. It also reports that the accumulation of business and investment ties is fueling debate about whether the expectations around presidential restraint are changing.