'Infinite greed is disgusting': Trump accused of 'brazen corruption' after $2bn financial disclosure

US President Donald Trump has been accused of committing "brazen crypto corruption" after his financial disclosure revealed that his family's cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1 billion in his first year since returning to the White House. On Tuesday, the US Office of Government Ethics released a 927-page financial disclosure that revealed that the American leader was paid more than $2.2 billion last year in total.

The money was generated through Trump's handling of real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements. However, what took many by surprise was the fact that an extraordinary chunk of Trump's income was generated through World Liberty Financial, a joint venture between the Trump family and that of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

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The enterprise in question brought in more than $500 million from sales of “governance tokens”, while another firm, CIC Digital LLC, generated more than $600 million from Trump-branded meme coins, launched days before his second inauguration. The financial disclosure soon managed to garner backlash from Trump's critics, who are also key members of the Democratic Party.

Backlash that followed

Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, said the figures showed why the US Congress needed to act on the matter. “The crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must prevent the president, vice-president, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families from profiting off the crypto industry,” said Warren. “If it does not, it will only turbocharge Donald Trump’s brazen crypto corruption.”

Juliana Stratton, the Illinois lieutenant governor and a Democratic Senate candidate, took to social media to say that Trump’s “infinite greed is disgusting”, adding: “Donald Trump uses the office of the president to make billions while American families struggle to afford their basic needs.”

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom also said that these disclosures “showed exactly” how Trump played his crypto cards, noting that many investors had lost out. “He got richer,” said Newsom. “His crypto supporters got rug-pulled.” “The most corrupt president in American history,” said Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee whom, interestingly, the Trump administration has targeted aggressively with fraud investigations into the state’s social programs.

Trump attempts to defend himself

When asked about the disclosures on Wednesday, Trump brushed off the criticisms. “I made a lot of money before I became president,” he told reporters. It is pertinent to note that for the longest time, White House has maintained that Trump’s businesses are walled off from his official duties and run by his adult sons.

During his second term in office, the president and his family have invested heavily in digital money and crypto businesses, with Trump announcing at the start of last year that he wanted the US to be the “crypto capital of the world”. He also made millions last year by selling Trump-branded Bibles, trainers and other small items, in another unprecedented move for the presidency. In the Trump-branded watches category alone, the president received $ 4.7 million.

Apart from this, the American president racked up tens of millions from fees and licensing deals in a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas. Interestingly, many of those countries were negotiating tariffs, military aid and other important matters with the US.

The disclosure report also detailed payments of more than $86m to the president from five separate legal settlements with media and social media companies including ABC, CBS, YouTube, Meta and X.