The president made $2.2bn last year, with plenty of help from his own political decisions. This is called corruption, folksPeople in the US: share your views on Trump’s earnings in his second termIn financial disclosures released on Tuesday, Trump reported earning more than $1bn last year from his several cryptocurrency ventures.All told – including other parts of his vast holdings, such as his real estate assets – Trump made at least $2.2bn last year, as opposed to the roughly $622m his businesses raked in in 2024, before he returned to the presidency. Continue reading...
A former Texas middle school teacher was sentenced to more than three decades in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student.
An FBI supervisor scrambled to retract her praise for a departing Chicago agent after the bureau branded him disloyal to President Donald Trump, a move a former agent warned could cost her career.FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan accidentally forwarded the resignation email of Chicago Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta to her entire Detroit division, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In it, she called DePodesta someone who "will always be a part of the FBI Detroit family."The FBI's official Rapid Response account on X had already weighed in on his departure:"It's simple: Anyone who is not on board with THIS FBI under the leadership of President Trump — which has achieved the lowest murder rate ever — is free to leave," the FBI statement said.Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent once touted by Republicans as a whistleblower after his security clearance was suspended under former President Joe Biden, called out the FBI statement on X.Seraphin had asked the bureau about DePodesta's departure. The Chicago Field Office told him in writing that it was FBI policy not to comment on personnel matters — then the bureau's own social media account did exactly that."The FBI does not comment on personnel matters," Seraphin wrote on X. "Except when they do."The next morning, Runyan walked back her praise. "Yesterday, I forwarded out SAC DePodesta's email without reading it fully and understanding the full context. It was a mistake on my part, and I should have demonstrated better discretion on what I communicate," Runyan wrote, as posted by Seraphin.DePodesta's last day is Monday, July 6.Seraphin warned that under FBI Director Kash Patel, such mistakes have had "career ending consequences."
China warned two Japanese Coast Guard survey vessels to stop operating in the East China Sea in recent days, Japan’s top government spokesman said, unusual moves that highlight elevated tensions over sea border claims in the area and worsening diplomatic ties between Beijing and Tokyo.
In financial disclosures released Tuesday, Trump reported earning more than $1.4 billion last year from his several cryptocurrency ventures. All told — including other parts of his vast holdings, such as his real estate assets —Trump pulled in at least $2.2 billion last year. That compares to the roughly $622 million his enterprises raked in for all of 2024, before he returned to the presidency. In other words, it’s a fair guess that last year he made more than $1 billion off his presidency. We’re talking big money and big looting. Trump has conflicts of interest up the wazoo. For example, as a candidate in 2024, Trump embraced crypto. Then he and his family invested like mad in it — through CIC Digital — a Trump Organization affiliate that is behind his memecoin, $TRUMP. And through another Trump family-backed crypto company, World Liberty Financial, co-founded by Trump, his sons, and the family of special envoy Steve Witkoff in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign. World Liberty is now behind several prominent crypto tokens.The problem here is more than potential conflicts of interest, more than the mere appearance of conflicts of interest. The conflicts are real, blatant, outrageous. Since taking office, Trump has installed friendly regulators to oversee digital assets, and he’s pushed for landmark crypto legislation that would further free crypto from being treated as a security (in which case all sorts of disclosures would have to be made about it). It goes way beyond crypto. His investment accounts made more than 20,000 trades last year — and many appear to be timed to take maximum advantage of his public announcements that moved markets.Just one day before he announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs, for example, his investment accounts made 327 individual stock purchases, each valued as much as $250,000. It was one of the largest single-day buys disclosed in Tuesday’s financial disclosures. The following day, when Trump announced the pause, the S&P soared nearly 10 percent — one of the biggest single-day gains in the index’s history. He’s made a bundle from real estate deals that foreign governments have been eager to strike with him and his family, presumably because he’s given them — or will give them — something in return. Entities from the Persian Gulf paid around $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, more than any other foreign region identifiable in his financial disclosures.On Wednesday, he traveled to North Dakota on the maiden flight of the new Air Force One, a $400 million jet gifted to him by the Qatari royal family whose ownership will transfer to Trump when he leaves office (technically, it will go to Trump’s own presidential library foundation, but there’s nothing stopping him from using it for private purposes).This is called corruption, folks. And it’s on a massive scale. A White House spokesperson says neither Trump nor his family “has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest.”Oh please. Next we’ll be told Trump never tells a lie, either. Conflicts of interest like these make it impossible for the public to judge whether Trump is working for America or for himself when he advocates for or implements a particular policy, such as his crypto policy or his moves in the Middle East. We don’t even know for sure that Trump has disclosed all his investments. The financial disclosure made Tuesday was voluntary. Can anyone be certain Trump has come clean about all his conflicts of interest?But perhaps the most troubling thing about all this is Trump doesn’t give a shite. In his first term, when asked about conflicts of interest, he said, “the president can’t have a conflict of interest … because everything a president does in some ways is like a conflict of interest.”He’s also said Americans “don’t care at all” about his unreleased tax returns or his personal finances. In his second term, he’s even less inhibited about raking in money. “I found out that nobody cared,” Trump told The New York Times in January. Now, he has nothing to lose by making as much money as possible off his presidency. He probably figures he’s survived two impeachments so far and won’t be impeached for pesky conflicts of interest. He won’t be running for the presidency again, so he doesn’t have to worry that his conflicts of interest will be used against him in a future campaign. Why not rake in as much as he can?As to his historic legacy, Trump isn’t worried about that either. He likely believes he can create his own history. That’s what he’s tried to do for the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. That’s what his “Presidential Walk of Fame” in the White House is all about — framed portraits of all U.S.
Trump and his family earned over $1 billion last year through cryptocurrency ventures and other businesses. And, the Vatican declared that the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has entered schism.
