Americans are waking up to Trump’s money grabbing. They won’t forgive him

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Jimmy Carter famously put his peanut farm in a blind trust when he won the US presidency. That’s how important he thought it was to avoid any potential conflict of interest in his decision-making – Carter wanted to make sure he had no vested interests whatsoever.

Times have changed. Donald Trump was already a billionaire when he returned to the Oval Office in January 2025, but his net worth has more than doubled in less than 18 months. Forbes estimated his wealth at $2.3 billion in 2024, and today estimates it at more than $6.1 billion.

Trump isn’t the only member of his family, or The Trump Organisation, to get richer either. His son, and executive vice president, Eric’s wealth is now estimated at $400 million, more than 10 times its value during the last presidential election. Another executive vice president Don Jr’s wealth has reportedly increased sixfold, to around $300 million. Even Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son and 19-year-old college student, still has a net worth estimated at around $150 million.

The Trump family has not exactly shied away from mixing business and politics. Much of the Trump family money is thanks to cryptocurrency holdings – and the Trump White House has been more than happy to relax regulations on the industry. Moreover, President Trump posts many of his political announcements on Truth Social, the social network estimated to be worth $1.2bn that he owns.

Trump has also appeared to facilitate meetings for his sons while on official overseas visits. When Donald Trump travelled to Indonesia, its president was caught on a hot mic asking Trump if he could set up a meeting with his son Eric to talk business, to which Trump said he would arrange a call. Jared Kushner – his son-in-law, who became a billionaire in his own right last year – was an unofficial envoy for negotiations in the Middle East, while he was also trying to raise funds for his firm with governments in the region.

There are no shortage of ways in which Trump’s presidency has directly or indirectly benefitted his family’s wealth. The Pentagon has signed a multi-million dollar contract for drones from a company whose chief strategy advisor is Eric Trump, for example. And that is before the endless parade of Trump merchandise which can of course be bought online from the official retail website of The Trump Organisation or at their flagship store in New York.

None of this is normal. Presidents usually have little to no business dealings whatsoever during their term, nor encourage their family to – so that when they sign a trade deal, or introduce tariffs, or decide whether or not to introduce new regulations, everyone can be confident they are acting in what they believe to be the nation’s best interest.

The business dealings of President Trump and his family have faced much criticism in the US – with accusations of corruption and profiting from the presidency. The White House insists Trump has done nothing that violates any US laws, nor has he broken any ethics rules that apply to the presidency.

On its own, the Trump family’s business dealings and vast increase in personal wealth might not be a problem for the president. Americans are intensely relaxed about their politicians getting, or being, filthy rich – the American Dream is, after all, the hope that the same thing will happen for them. Trump was elected in large part because Americans thought that a rich and successful businessman could do for the country what he had done for himself.

Trump’s personal wealth has increased 165 per cent during his presidency. To say he has not delivered in the same way for the people who voted for him would be the understatement of the century. Americans hired Trump to grow the economy and cut inflation. He is managing the opposite.

Prices are going up faster than wages, meaning that Americans who rely on a wage to make their living are still poorer now than they were when Trump left office in 2021 – on average, in real terms, Americans are earning 1.2 per cent less per hour in 2026 than they did then. To many Trump voters, this isn’t some abstract concern – the cost of petrol at the pump has skyrocketed thanks to the invasion of Iran, and food prices will soon do the same.

Trump’s second presidency is working out brilliantly for the Trump family, and for almost no one else, and voters are waking up to that reality. Once they’ve noticed, winning them back will be all but impossible, even for Teflon Don.