Donald Trump

Time -  After returning to office, Donald Trump’s net worth jumped to $7.3 billion, up from $3.9 billion in 2024, according to a tally that Forbes published in September. In mid-December, Trump Media and Technology Group announced a planned merger with TAE Technologies, a company working to develop nuclear fusion technology. That merger was the latest move to raise questions about Trump and conflicts of interests, given that his Administration oversees the regulation of the nuclear industry.

Most modern Presidents before Trump put their assets into blind trusts or broadly diversified funds in order to avoid concerns from the public about the White House favoring policy decisions that would benefit a President financially. Trump didn’t do that for his first term, and hasn’t done that for his second. Since his inauguration a year ago, he’s continued to stay involved in his companies while also entering into new ventures that have soared in value.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in May that Trump was abiding by all applicable conflict-of-interest laws. "I think everybody, the American public, believe it's absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,"

Critics argue that Trump has created the impression that he might be willing to make decisions as President that benefit himself and his family over the country. Wealthy individuals and sovereign wealth funds are able to invest in stocks and crypto currencies that could increase the President’s wealth and those same investors could launch a fire sale that could reduce their value. “That is a new pressure point on an American President that we’ve not previously seen, and a reason why Presidents divest from their assets to not have even the appearance of being able to be gotten to through their finances,” says Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning nonprofit that tracks the influence of money in government.