Trump, the US president who is best at stock trading

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Author: Ba Jiuling, Wu Xiaobo Channel

Twice taking office, Trump has refused the $400k presidential salary, after all, he can earn $2.2 billion a year on his own.

Recently, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a 927-page annual financial disclosure document, which shows that Trump's personal income in 2025 exceeded $2.2 billion, setting a record for the highest annual income of any U.S. president in office.

What does this number mean? It exceeds McDonald's net profit in the fourth quarter of last year. If he took the statutory presidential salary of $400k, Trump would need to work without spending for 5,500 years.

In comparison, former President Obama, after leaving office, kept busy writing books, giving global speeches, and taking photos with entrepreneurs. By the end of 2025, his net worth was approaching $70 million. Biden's net worth before leaving office was about $10 million, less than a fraction of Trump's annual income.

But Trump hasn't always been so prosperous. Just in 2024, Trump's total annual income was only a little over $600 million. Before taking office, he owed New York State nearly $500 million for fraud fines and owed Carroll $88 million for sexual assault and defamation.

His tricky financial situation was resolved after Trump took office—his annual income increased 3.5 times, and his personal net worth surged from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $6.5 billion in 2026.

Source: Internet

Calculated, during his year in the White House, Trump made an average of $6.02 million per day and $250k per hour. This massive income was not just from real estate rentals. From cryptocurrencies to resorts, from brand licensing to stock investments, Trump has almost turned the "president" identity into a business.

Next, let's break down this "report card" and interpret some of Trump's "investment codes."

1 Where Does the Money Come From?

According to the Wall Street Journal's organization of the disclosure documents, among the $2.2 billion Trump earned last year, $1.4 billion came from cryptocurrencies, accounting for about 64%, and $575 million came from real estate, accounting for about 26%, together nearly 90%.

In addition, there were $86.5 million in lawsuit settlements, $68.6 million in brand licensing fees, and $79.3 million in stock investment income.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Cryptocurrency is undoubtedly the most dazzling page in Trump's "money-making bible."

Of the $1.4 billion in crypto income, $635 million came from Trump's personal memecoin—$TRUMP. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum that have payment or technological functions, most memecoins have almost no practical use, with their value coming more from celebrity effect, online hype, and investor speculation.

In January 2025, just two days before returning to the White House and at the peak of his own popularity, Trump signed an IP licensing agreement with his affiliated company to launch $TRUMP named after himself. After the token launched, it quickly gained popularity, and Trump earned over $600 million in licensing fees through related arrangements.

Trump promoting on social media $TRUMP

Beyond $TRUMP, another major cryptocurrency income for Trump came from WLFI tokens.

As the 2024 presidential election neared its end, the Trump family founded the cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and issued WLFI tokens. After purchasing WLFI tokens, investors could participate in platform governance, enjoy ecosystem benefits, and buy low and sell high on trading markets for profit. In 2025, Trump made a huge $527 million from WLFI token sales, a 9-fold increase from 2024.

Finally, Trump also sold part of World Liberty Financial's equity last year, earning an additional $263 million.

If Trump turned cryptocurrency into his most profitable new business, then real estate is Trump's old line and foundation.

In 2025, the U.S. real estate market saw sluggish transactions, with home sales hovering at 30-year lows. In a sluggish market, most of Trump's real estate projects performed mediocrely, with annual income ranges flat or lower than what Trump declared a decade ago.

However, among a series of mediocre real estate projects, two types stood out—resorts and golf courses, with annual income growing by 15%.

And the biggest increase naturally came from clubs that Trump frequented since taking office.

Mar-a-Lago is Trump's most famous resort, which he calls the "Winter White House," often hosting events there. In 2025, Mar-a-Lago's income exceeded $77 million, surging 50%, and the golf club near Mar-a-Lago saw income increase by 27%.

Trump at Mar-a-Lago Halloween party

Ordinary real estate rises and falls with the market, while these resorts and golf courses fluctuate with Trump's schedule.

2 Notable Stock Trades

Although cryptocurrency and real estate accounted for most of Trump's income last year, his every move in the stock market also did not escape the magnifying glass of the U.S. media.

In 2025, Trump declared over 22k stock trades, averaging 87 trades per trading day.

In comparison, Trump made only 517 trades during his first term, and Biden made only 13 trades throughout his entire term. It seems that Trump's investment account suddenly entered "ultra-high-frequency mode" after he returned to the White House.

During his second term, Trump's trade operations surged

But more striking than the number of trades was the timing of Trump's trades—according to the Wall Street Journal's review, Trump's account had multiple instances of intensive trading around major policy announcements.

For example, in April last year, Trump announced "Liberation Day" tariffs on global trading partners, causing global stock markets to violently shake. Subsequently, his investment account made hundreds of stock trades over several days. A few days later, Trump suddenly posted on social media saying "now is a good time to buy," and soon after, he announced a delay in imposing tariffs on most countries, and U.S. stocks rebounded sharply.

Another example: from late August to early October last year, Trump's account bought at least $82 million worth of corporate bonds and municipal bonds, covering multiple industries, many of which clearly benefited from U.S. policy adjustments.

Facing external doubts, the White House explained that these trades were executed by the professional investment team of Trump's trust account, not by Trump himself. Two days ago, Trump also told reporters that he never asks about the fund manager's operations, and the reason for his substantial gains was simply because the stock market kept hitting new highs—"Everyone is making money. I can make money because my principal is substantial and I have a lot of cash on hand."

But Trump apparently overlooked one thing.

After Watergate, to minimize the connection between public power and personal wealth, past U.S. presidents usually sold assets that could be affected by policy or placed assets under an independent blind trust managed by a third party, where they could neither intervene nor know the specific holdings.

Although Trump also set up a trust, it is not managed by an independent third party but by family members, so it has always been accompanied by controversy over conflicts of interest.

3 The Best at Monetizing "Presidential Influence"

After reading the 927-page financial disclosure document, the most discussed topic is not how much money Trump made, but how Trump almost turned the president identity into a business and maximized the conversion of presidential influence into commercial benefits.

Some complain that the White House is an office for other presidents but a brand operation center for Trump.

The most typical example is cryptocurrency.

During his first term, Trump criticized cryptocurrencies as "based on thin air" and a scam. By his second term, Trump made a 180-degree turn, not only introducing a series of crypto-friendly policies, publicly stating "let America become the crypto capital," but also hosting the largest $TRUMP holders at the White House.

Trump at a cryptocurrency legislation signing ceremony

Moreover, not only Trump himself wants to make money, but his entire family is not to be outdone. After World Liberty Financial was founded, Trump served as "Chief Crypto Advocate," his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric as "Web3 Ambassadors," and his youngest son Barron was titled "DeFi Visionary." Within 48 hours of $TRUMP's launch, First Lady Melania also launched her own memecoin $MELANIA.

Reuters recently estimated that since Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the Trump family has profited at least $2.3 billion from cryptocurrency-related projects.

Real estate follows a similar logic.

According to reports, the earliest membership fee for the Mar-a-Lago club was about $20k, but after the 2016 election, the fee kept rising, from $100k, $200k, to the current $700k, $1M... The astronomical membership spots are widely advertised as "opportunities for face-to-face interaction with Trump" and widely criticized as a disguised sale of political connections.

The Mar-a-Lago club's introduction page says it allows entry into the "Trump World" system

In 2025, when Trump visited Scotland, he specifically attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for his newly opened golf course. Although criticized for using a presidential trip to promote private industry, Trump probably didn't care, since the project brought him over $400k in income last year.

In stocks, Trump also spared no effort to endorse the stocks he bought.

The Financial Times pointed out that Trump's buying seems to mechanically follow market indices, but in fact, he holds a large number of company stocks that are heavily influenced by public policy.

For example, Trump bought up to $67 million worth of Nvidia stock, and since taking office, Trump has mentioned Nvidia at least 31 times in public and 19 times on social media.

The timing of Trump's Nvidia stock purchases and sales

compared with his mentions of Nvidia in public and on social media

This series of Trump's money-making moves seems like a public experiment on the boundaries of modern political commercialization. Whether it's business innovation or conflict of interest, U.S. public opinion is already fiercely debating.

For supporters, it's the legend of a successful businessman; for critics, it means the presidency is becoming a continuously monetizable commercial asset.

Former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, Fox, said that every president after Watergate managed their finances as if dealing with conflicts of interest, but Trump completely ignores these norms. He has proven more than anyone that it's time for further ethical reforms.

The Trump Group responded that this nearly thousand-page financial disclosure report precisely proves that the president has conducted the most comprehensive and transparent financial disclosure in history.

Ultimately, whether the $2.2 billion is legally earned money may need to be decided by U.S. law. But the debate triggered by the $2.2 billion—about how far public power and private business should be kept apart—is likely far from over.