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[link removed] [[link removed]] John,

Donald Trump is back in the White House, and he’s back with a slew of new conflicts of interest (and some throwbacks!).

Donald Trump spent the last four years taking on new business ventures and growing his already vast business empire. He added a publicly traded social media company, a mysterious cryptocurrency venture and new international developments to his portfolio.

Instead of divesting from these business interests and assuring Americans that he will put the national interest over his bottom line, the Trump organization has issued an “ethics plan” – if you can even call it that.

Not only does it fall short of divestment, but greatly *expands* the potential for corruption from Trump’s first term.

John, we’ve seen this before during Trump’s first term in office. CREW spent the first Trump presidency rigorously tracking his conflicts of interest, and we’ll track them during his second presidency too. We’ll break down our work just below, but first, support our investigative efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable for his corruption by donating to CREW today → [[link removed]]If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your tax deductible donation will go through immediately to ActBlue Charities Inc. and be disbursed to CREW within 30 days:

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During Trump’s first term, CREW tracked:

* Visits to Trump properties by federal, state, and foreign government officials,
* Visits to Trump properties by Trump himself,
* Expensive events held at Trump properties by political groups, special interests and foreign government-connected bodies,
* Countless times Trump administration officials promoted Trump properties while speaking in their official capacity,
* Valuable foreign government trademarks granted to Trump businesses, and
* A slew of other miscellaneous interactions between the Trump Organization and the Trump presidency.

John, these conflicts of interest made Trump *a lot* of money.

We’ll never know exactly how much, but we do know, according to personal financial disclosures released after he left office, Trump made more than $1.6 billion from the Trump Organization and other outside sources during his first four years as president.

CREW has chronicled the different ways that Trump profited during his presidency. Special interest groups held 137 events at Trump properties, likely paying him more than $13 million. An analysis of his tax returns shows that he made up to $160 million from international business dealings. Building on a report published by the House Oversight Committee Democrats, our investigative work showed that foreign governments likely paid him $13.6 million while he was in the White House and raised the possibility of millions more in potential payments.

Now with Trump’s new business interests, he’s created even more opportunities for those looking to curry favor with him to line his pockets during his second term. Here’s how:

In September, Trump and his sons unveiled his cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, just months after he headlined a Bitcoin conference where he promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.” While Trump did not include the crypto industry in his day-one flurry of executive orders, he did sign an executive order declaring cryptocurrency a “national priority”. Trump also recently launched a pair of meme coins that are already valued at billions of dollars.

Trump is also the majority stakeholder of Trump Media & Technology Group, a publicly traded company that owns his social media site, Truth Social. Trump is eligible to sell his shares, opening the door for foreign or domestic interests to put money in his pockets. But even if he decides to hold on to his interest in the company, wealthy investors—foreign and domestic—can buy shares of the unprofitable company.

And we saw just that happen last week, when we reported [[link removed]] that Switzerland’s central bank owns $1.8 million in Trump Media shares.

Additionally, Trump’s relationship with the Saudi government-backed LIV golf is poised to create conflicts. Since its founding in 2021, LIV has held six events at various Trump Golf clubs, and its first event of the Trump presidency will be at Trump National Doral in Miami in April. According to Forbes, LIV spent $796,000 on one tournament alone at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club in 2022.

All these new ventures on top of Trump’s existing business assets–like his hotels in the U.S. and abroad–send a clear message that Trump has no interest in attempting to avoid corruption during his second term.

In fact, he’s only opened up new, more secretive avenues to accept illegal foreign emoluments and other payments from the rich and powerful.

Over the next four years, CREW will be here, tracking all of it. Support us as we continue this work by making a donation today → [[link removed]]If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your tax deductible donation will go through immediately to ActBlue Charities Inc. and be disbursed to CREW within 30 days:

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Thanks for your support,

Robert Maguire
Vice President of Research and Data
CREW
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