Reducing Oversight
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was set up to fight money laundering and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) used this law to collect data on shell companies. Recently, FinCEN ended this registry that Congress set up (over Trump’s veto) to make shell companies identify their owners, but they also destroyed all the data it has already collected.
Soon after taking office, Trump fired 17 Inspectors General, plus officials from Federal Reserve, Product Safety Comm, FTC, NLRB, among others. These moves weakened oversight and reduced potential action against administration for activities that were against the regulations these federal departments are charged to uphold or that are illegal.
Cryptocurrency
A Memecoin is a token with no intrinsic value except as that assigned by buyers; similar to a collector’s item. Trump’s memecoin is named “$TRUMP”. In April 2025, buyers were told that the 220 people who bought the most $TRUMP memecoins could attend a special dinner put on by Trump, with the top 25 getting a private VIP White House tour.
According to The New York Times, certain buyers in interviews and statements said they “bought the coins or entered the dinner contest with the intention of securing an action by Mr. Trump to affect United States policy”
Trump also makes a profit from the fees collected with each sale. So far it’s estimated Trump has made $148M on sale of memecoins. But in addition to these fees, Trump also collects royalties off the $TRUMP tokens which, in 2025, totaled $635M.
Crypto Tokens – World Liberty Financial (WLF) is Trump-founded company that sells digital currency called USD1 and another called WLF1. A profit for WLF is generated with the sale of either crypto token. So far this has amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump family.
Entities (people, foreign governments, companies, etc) wishing to curry favor with the President can purchase these tokens.
- UAE (which includes Abu Dhabi) acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500M. Abu Dhabi invested $2B in crypto exchange Binance using WL stablecoin USD1.
- Aug 2026 – The Commerce Department is easing export controls on the United Arab Emirates and says it will “favorably review” semiconductor and server applications involving state-backed investment firm MGX, owned by UAE (from CNBC)
Accepting gifts from foreign governments in return for favors
Trump accepted a Boeing 747 from the Qatari government. While no formal reciprocation was made, Qatar can look forward to deepening economic and strategic ties encompassing defense contracts, investment pledges and projected economic activities. Regarding Trump’s new plane:
- This gift to the President will encompass a huge waste of money for taxpayers, given that two AF1 planes are nearing completion. But Trump wanted to use this luxury jet and have it available for transfer to his presidential library after his term is over. The cost to retrofit for AF1 has been estimated at $1B, since it was made a ‘rush job’ so that Trump could use it while still in office. The administration has stonewalled congressional requests for info, according to Oregon Sens Merkley and Wyden
In May, 2025, the ruling family of UAE invested $2B in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial. In November 2025, the Commerce Dept authorized Nvidia chip exports enabling the UAE to purchase tens of thousands of chips under strict security guidelines. In July 2026, these guidelines were updated to grant license-free access to these Nvidia chips, despite concerns that these advanced chips could be shared with China.
According to a statement by Sen Elizabeth Warren “….President Trump made a whopping $263 million windfall related to this deal, part of the $1.4 billion he raked in from his crypto ventures last year alone.
“Pay to Play”
Donors and friends of the president get contracts
The following people or companies donated to Trump’s inauguration, ballroom or political campaign.
- GEO Group, (an ICE contractor) received a $1.2B contract after donating to Trump’s inauguration committee and super PACs
- More than half of the corporate donors to Trump’s ballroom have been awarded new or increased government contracts worth more than $50B, according to Public Citizen
- Barnard Construction received over $5.6B in contracts to build the border wall. Company executives and affiliates contributed over $2M to the Trump campaign, (source: Newsweek).
- Apple Computer was exempt from Trump’s tariffs on semiconductors after CEO Tim Cook donated $1M to Trump’s inauguration and presented him with a glass disc on a 24-karat gold stand.
- After Switzerland presented Trump with a personalized gold bar worth $130,000 and a Rolex desk clock, Trump lowered the country’s tariffs from 39% to 15%.
- NEW! – The SEC is planning to revoke Rule 206(4)-5 under the Investment Advisers Act which makes it illegal for investment companies to advise government clients for two years after making a political contribution to specific officials and candidates. Eliminating this law, known as the “pay-to-play” rule, would make it easier to bribe public officials.
Trump issues pardons or dismisses legal action after being paid
The following people or companies donated to Trump’s inauguration fund, political committees or fund raisers
- SEC paused fraud case against Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire who bought $75M in crypto tokens from Trump’s World Liberty Financial (WLF)
- Seventeen federal enforcement actions and investigations against companies that donated to Trump’s inauguration have been halted or dismissed
- Utah billionaire Trevor Milton was granted a full pardon for his $700M securities and wire fraud convictions
- Paul Walczak was ordered to pay $4.4M for stealing employees’ tax payments before Trump pardoned him (New York Times).
- “Across both of his terms, Mr. Trump has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors, and others convicted in fraud cases”, according to the New York Times.
- DoJ dropped $4M fine (use of toxic disinfectant) against the GEO Group
- Cases against 17 corporations facing federal investigations or enforcement lawsuits have been dismissed, withdrawn or halted, according to Public Citizen.
- 16 of the 27 corporate donors to Trump’s ballroom were in line for antitrust, labor or SEC investigations. Many cases were dropped, scaled back or paused by the administration, according to the Washington Post .
Extortion / Coercion
Major companies paying Trump to settle flimsy lawsuits he filed
- Paramount – $16M to settle lawsuit against 60 minutes that experts widely say was baseless. Trump administration also approved Skydance Media’s pending takeover of Paramount.
- Meta – $25M to settle lawsuit saying Trump’s social media account was suspended after Jan 6 riot.
- X – $10M to settle lawsuit alleging censorship against Twitter for banning Trump’s account after Jan 6 riots, citing possibility of further violence. Both Meta and X lawsuits were considered weak by legal experts as private companies have First Amendment rights to moderate content on their platforms. (Wikipedia)
Major law firms provide trump almost $1B in legal services rather than fight exec orders.
Trump’s executive orders signed in the first weeks of his second term targeted law firms that had represented or employed his critics, alleging they were “dishonest”, engaged in conduct detrimental to American interests and used political or discriminatory practices.
He threatened to terminate federal contracts, restrict them from federal buildings or barring interaction with federal employees. As a result, Major law firms have pledged $940M in pro bono services for conservative causes to avoid being targeted by Trump executive orders
As with other companies, these law firms figured it safer to pay Trump than to fight these lawsuits, as they stood to lose clients and lawyers if they fought back. Paul, Weiss – which represented Hillary Clinton in her private email server case, was first to capitulate, paying $40M in pro bono work to Trump. Another eight firms gave in later and paid significantly higher prices, over $100M each.
Trump makes administrative claims against DoJ for $230M for federal investigations against him
- Claims damages for violations of civil rights during investigation into Russian election tampering
- Claims FBI violated his privacy when searching Mar-a-Lago for classified docs.
- These actions are precursor to a lawsuit. Since Trump runs the DoJ his people will be deciding whether he is guilty, making this possibly the most blatant case of a conflict of interest corruption.
According to NY Times story, “The situation has no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims. It is also the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department.”
Profiting off of policy announcements
Trump is charging money ($100,000 per month) for companies/people to get his Truth Social posts early. Reportedly, 10 customers have signed up for this service. (ABC News)