‘Everybody’s profiting’: Trump defends $1 billion crypto earnings

US President Donald Trump defends earning $1.2 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency activities last year, saying “everybody’s profiting” from his time in power.

Taking his maiden flight aboard a new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, Trump rejected criticisms that he was using his presidency to enrich himself.

“You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up, everybody’s profiting,” Trump tells reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The 80-year-old Republican said his earnings were placed in blind trusts to ensure that he could not influence government policy to boost his fortune.

“I don’t get involved in my personal (finances), we have funds that run my money,” Trump says. “I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them.”

Trump also insists that his wealth was due to his prior career, despite the fact that the earnings were related to crypto ventures launched during his first year back in the White House.

“I don’t know if I’ve had a better career in politics or business, but I had a great career in business, and you know, you saw the cash, and you report the different things,” he says. “So we’re all profiting. I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash.”

According to financial disclosures released by the US Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday, Trump received nearly $550 million from his ties to the startup World Liberty Financial (WLF) in 2025.

WLF was co-founded in September 2024 by Trump’s sons and the son of Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.