Donald Trump
Is A Crook.

The Ledger38 entries

1. Jul 6, 2026Net Worth$Billions in office

   NYT investigation: Trump has personally cleared billions in income since taking office

   A New York Times investigation tallied the money flowing to Trump personally since January 2025 — crypto ventures (World Liberty Financial, $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, American Bitcoin), Trump Media stock sales, licensing fees on Trump Mobile and branded merch, foreign real-estate deals, and pay-for-access events at his properties — concluding he has cleared billions in in-office income, an amount and pattern with no precedent in the modern presidency.

   ↗ New York Times↗ CREW
2. Jul 1, 2026Market Manipulation

   Bloomberg tally: 900+ Truth Social market-moving posts, dozens preceded by suspicious trades

   A Bloomberg analysis covering January 2025 through mid-2026 counted more than 900 Truth Social posts by Trump that measurably moved stocks, tariffs-sensitive commodities, crypto, or prediction markets — with abnormal options and futures volume detected in the minutes before dozens of them. SEC and CFTC inquiries remain open; no charges have been filed.

   ↗ Bloomberg↗ Reuters
3. Jun 25, 2026Self-Dealing$300M+

   Reflecting pool and East Wing gardens torn up for donor-funded ballroom expansion

   Construction crews began demolition around the White House reflecting pool and historic East Wing gardens to make way for Trump's $300M+ donor-funded ballroom — a footprint far larger than originally disclosed. Preservation groups sued; the donor list is dominated by regulated industries and crypto firms with active business before the administration.

   ↗ New York Times↗ Washington Post↗ AP News
4. May 19, 2026Pardons & Justice$1.8B

   $1.8B IRS settlement “forever bars” audits of Trump and his family

   A newly unsealed settlement document — signed by Acting AG Todd Blanche, a former Trump personal lawyer — permanently drops federal tax claims against Trump and bars the IRS from ever investigating pre-settlement tax returns filed by Trump, his family, the Trump Organization, and related trusts. Legal scholars call it an extraordinary use of executive power to shield the president's finances from scrutiny.

   ↗ CNN↗ CNBC↗ Washington Post / AP↗ Reuters (via Yahoo)↗ The Hill↗ Axios↗ New York Times
5. May 15, 2026Self-Dealing$300M+

   Corporations & crypto billionaires fund $300M White House ballroom

   Trump's vanity 90,000 sq ft East Wing ballroom is being paid for by a who's who of regulated industries and crypto magnates with active business before the administration — raising blatant pay-to-play questions.

   ↗ FactCheck.org
6. May 7, 2026Pardons & Justice

   Congressional Democrats open probe into “pay-to-play” pattern in Trump pardons

   Senate and House Democrats launched a formal investigation into whether a string of Trump pardons and commutations — many going to donors, crypto executives, and politically connected fraudsters — were driven by pay-to-play dynamics, requesting records from more than a dozen recipients.

   ↗ CBS News
7. Jan 20, 2026Crypto$1B+

   House Oversight Democrats: Trump took $1B+ in crypto “digital kickbacks”

   An interim staff report from House Oversight Democrats documents how Trump and his family used World Liberty Financial, the $TRUMP memecoin, and related crypto vehicles to collect more than $1 billion in payments from foreign governments, sanctioned entities, and criminal interests — calling it “professionalized corruption” unprecedented in the modern presidency.

   ↗ House Oversight Democrats (PDF)↗ House Judiciary Democrats (PDF)
8. Jan 5, 2026Market Manipulation

   Whale bet on Maduro's capture raises Venezuela-invasion insider questions

   A single trader placed an outsized Polymarket bet on Nicolás Maduro being captured or removed, spiking the odds just as Trump escalated military threats against Venezuela. Analysts flagged it as a textbook insider-trading pattern, noting Trump's son Eric is publicly tied to one of the prediction-market platforms benefiting from the war-bet surge.

   ↗ ABC / Sinclair↗ AP News↗ Newsweek
9. Dec 1, 2025Market Manipulation

   Trump on pace for record-breaking volume of executive orders reshaping markets

   Trump signed more than 200 executive orders and hundreds of tariff, sanctions, and deregulation actions in his first year — an unprecedented pace, with many issued via Truth Social posts hours before market open. Academic studies and Bloomberg analyses found repeated abnormal trading patterns in options, futures, and prediction markets in the minutes before major announcements, prompting SEC and CFTC inquiries.

   ↗ Bloomberg↗ Reuters↗ Financial Times
10. Oct 23, 2025Pardons & Justice

    Trump pardons Binance founder CZ after company enriched Trump family crypto venture

    Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao — convicted of money-laundering violations the DOJ said caused “significant harm to U.S. national security” — months after Binance helped power the Trump family's World Liberty Financial stablecoin, a deal worth billions on paper to the Trumps. 60 Minutes and House Democrats flagged it as a textbook pay-to-play pardon.

    ↗ CBS News / 60 Minutes↗ Public Citizen
11. Oct 1, 2025Net Worth~+$3–4B

    Trump's net worth roughly doubles to ~$7.3B during first year back in office

    Forbes and Bloomberg's Billionaires Index both estimate Trump's personal net worth roughly doubled in the first ~9 months of his second term — driven mainly by the family's crypto ventures (World Liberty Financial, $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, American Bitcoin mining SPAC), Trump Media (DJT) stock, and expanded foreign real-estate licensing. No prior sitting U.S. president has seen anything close to this scale of personal enrichment while in office.

    ↗ Forbes↗ Bloomberg↗ CREW
12. Aug 22, 2025Self-Dealing

    GSA quietly revives favorable federal lease terms for Trump-branded properties

    The General Services Administration reversed first-term guidance and restored favorable treatment for Trump Organization leases on federal property, including a renewed pathway back into the Old Post Office building in D.C. Ethics lawyers said the move recreates the exact self-dealing lease problem that dogged the first term.

    ↗ Washington Post↗ CREW
13. Jul 10, 2025Campaign Finance$450M+ in donations

    Federal favors flow to mega-donors' industries after nine-figure 2024 checks

    Top 2024 megadonors — including Miriam Adelson ($100M+), Timothy Mellon ($150M+), and crypto industry PACs ($200M+) — saw their industries and personal interests advanced through executive orders, DOJ dismissals, and regulatory rollbacks within months of Trump taking office. OpenSecrets and CREW documented the pattern as one of the most direct donor-to-policy pipelines in modern U.S. history.

    ↗ OpenSecrets↗ CREW
14. Jun 22, 2025Market Manipulation

    DOJ & CFTC probe multi-million-dollar bets timed to Iran strike announcements

    Federal regulators opened investigations into a 'consistent pattern' of suspiciously well-timed futures, options, and prediction-market bets placed minutes to hours before Trump's Iran war announcements — strikes, pauses, and ceasefire posts. Reporters identified at least seven separate wagers that paid out massive sums, fueling fears of leaks from inside the White House.

    ↗ The Independent↗ The New Yorker↗ i Paper↗ Yahoo Finance↗ news.com.au
15. Jun 16, 2025Family Enrichment$47.45/mo + $499 phone

    Trump Mobile launches “T1” phone & $47.45/mo plan from the sitting president's family

    The Trump Organization unveiled Trump Mobile — a branded MVNO wireless service and a gold-colored “T1 Phone” pitched as American-made — while Donald Trump is president and his administration sets telecom, tariff, and spectrum policy. Reporters quickly documented that the phone could not plausibly be U.S.-manufactured at the promised price and spec, the “Made in USA” claim was quietly scrubbed, and the venture routes subscription and licensing revenue straight to the Trump family. Ethics lawyers called it one of the most direct merch-the-presidency schemes yet.

    ↗ AP News↗ Reuters↗ The Verge↗ Washington Post↗ CREW
16. Jun 5, 2025No-Bid Contracts$400M+

    Contract to retrofit Qatari 747 as Air Force One steered to politically connected vendor

    The Pentagon awarded a limited-competition contract worth several hundred million dollars to retrofit the Qatari-gifted 747 as a functioning Air Force One, with the work steered to a defense contractor with close ties to Trump allies. GAO opened a review.

    ↗ Defense One↗ Washington Post
17. May 30, 2025No-Bid Contracts

    Palantir handed sole-source deals to build cross-agency citizen database

    The administration steered a series of sole-source and limited-competition contracts to Palantir — a company deeply tied to major Trump donor Peter Thiel — to build a unified database merging IRS, SSA, DHS, and other agency records on U.S. residents. Career procurement officials warned the awards bypassed normal competition rules.

    ↗ New York Times↗ Wired
18. May 22, 2025Crypto

    Top $TRUMP coin holders win private dinner with the president

    Trump hosted the top 220 holders of his memecoin at a private Virginia dinner — a pay-for-access scheme that ethics experts called the most brazen sale of presidential access in modern U.S. history. Many top holders were foreign nationals.

    ↗ AP News↗ Campaign Legal Center
19. May 11, 2025Foreign Influence$400M

    Trump accepts $400M luxury 747 jet from Qatar

    The Qatari royal family gifted the U.S. a $400M Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One and eventual transfer to Trump's presidential library foundation — what watchdogs called the largest single foreign emolument ever accepted by a sitting U.S. president.

    ↗ AP News↗ ABC News
20. May 5, 2025Foreign Influence$400M+ projected

    Don Jr. & Eric meet officials from 8 foreign governments while inking Trump Org deals

    While their father set U.S. foreign policy, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump met with high-level officials from at least eight foreign governments — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Vietnam, Serbia, Oman, Albania, and Romania — to advance new Trump Organization developments. CREW projects foreign property income alone will exceed $400M in the second term.

    ↗ CREW↗ CREW (foreign income)↗ Seattle Times / NYT↗ Fortune / AP
21. May 1, 2025Foreign Influence$2B

    UAE fund uses Trump family stablecoin for $2B Binance investment

    An Abu Dhabi state-backed investment fund announced it would use World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin — a Trump-family crypto product — to settle a $2 billion investment into Binance. The transaction routed a fee stream directly to the Trumps from a foreign sovereign wealth fund and a firm whose founder Trump would later pardon.

    ↗ Reuters↗ Financial Times↗ CBS News
22. Apr 20, 2025Campaign Finance$75M in, $Billions in rollbacks

    Oil executives who gave $75M get sweeping regulatory rollbacks

    After Trump reportedly told oil executives at Mar-a-Lago that $1B in donations would be a “deal” given the regulatory relief they'd get, the industry delivered ~$75M and the administration rapidly rolled back methane rules, EV mandates, LNG export limits, and offshore drilling restrictions.

    ↗ Washington Post↗ New York Times
23. Apr 12, 2025Market Manipulation$800M

    $800M in suspicious oil trades around tariff announcements trigger probe

    Regulators opened an investigation into a flurry of suspiciously well-timed oil trades worth roughly $800 million around Trump tariff announcements.

    ↗ Wall Street Journal
24. Apr 9, 2025Market Manipulation

    “BUY!” — Truth Social post hours before tariff pause sends stocks soaring

    Hours before announcing a 90-day tariff pause that rocketed markets, Trump posted “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” on Truth Social. Lawmakers and ethics experts called it textbook market manipulation and possible insider trading.

    ↗ PBS NewsHour↗ The Guardian
25. Mar 20, 2025Foreign Influence

    Foreign delegations book Trump hotels — again

    Foreign officials and lobbyists are once again routing spending to Trump-branded hotels and clubs, a pattern that drew Emoluments lawsuits in the first term and has resumed with no guardrails.

    ↗ Campaign Legal Center
26. Mar 15, 2025No-Bid Contracts$Billions

    Musk companies scoop up billions in federal contracts while he runs DOGE

    While Elon Musk led the White House DOGE effort — with direct influence over which agencies got cut and which vendors got paid — SpaceX, Starlink, and other Musk entities were awarded or fast-tracked billions in new and expanded federal contracts, many on sole-source or limited-competition terms. Inspectors general and Democrats in Congress opened multiple probes.

    ↗ New York Times↗ Washington Post↗ Reuters
27. Mar 1, 2025Crypto

    World Liberty Financial & $TRUMP memecoin enrich the family

    The Trump family's crypto ventures — including World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP memecoin — created instant nine-figure paper fortunes while the administration shaped crypto policy. Foreign buyers gained direct financial access to the president.

    ↗ AP News↗ Campaign Legal Center
28. Feb 15, 2025Family Enrichment

    Family members monetize proximity to the Oval Office

    Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners continues raking in Gulf sovereign wealth while Don Jr., Eric, and Lara Trump headline paid foreign events and crypto ventures tied to administration policy.

    ↗ ProPublica↗ CREW
29. Feb 1, 2025Foreign Influence

    Foreign government dealings with Trump Organization expand

    New Trump Organization projects in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Vietnam and Serbia — many backed by foreign-government-linked partners — create textbook Emoluments Clause problems.

    ↗ Kleptocracy Tracker (JHU)↗ RepresentUs
30. Jan 21, 2025Pardons & Justice

    Mass pardons for Jan. 6 defendants and white-collar allies

    Trump issued sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including those convicted of violence against police, alongside a parade of pardons for politically connected fraudsters.

    ↗ Trump Corruption Tracker
31. Jan 20, 2025Self-Dealing

    Taxpayer dollars flow to Trump properties on every presidential visit

    CREW's running tracker documents hundreds of presidential visits to Trump-branded properties — each one a marketing op funded by the public and a direct revenue channel to the Trump Organization.

    ↗ CREW
32. Jan 19, 2025Crypto

    $MELANIA memecoin launches the day before inauguration

    One day after $TRUMP launched and one day before the inauguration, the first lady launched her own $MELANIA memecoin — instantly siphoning value from $TRUMP holders and generating hundreds of millions in trading fees to insider wallets. On-chain analysts documented classic pump-and-dump patterns benefiting a handful of connected addresses.

    ↗ Reuters↗ Chainalysis / Bloomberg
33. Jan 17, 2025Crypto~$70B peak

    $TRUMP memecoin launches 3 days before inauguration

    Trump launched the $TRUMP memecoin days before taking office, with 80% of the supply controlled by Trump-affiliated entities. The token's paper value briefly topped $70B, an unprecedented direct cash conduit from anonymous global buyers — including foreign nationals — to the incoming president.

    ↗ AP News↗ Reuters
34. Oct 19, 2024Campaign Finance$1M/day

    Elon Musk hands out $1 million checks to voters in swing states

    Through his America PAC, Elon Musk publicly awarded $1 million per day to registered swing-state voters who signed his pro-Trump petition. The DOJ warned the scheme likely violated federal law barring payments tied to voter registration; a Philadelphia judge let it continue through Election Day after Musk's lawyers admitted recipients weren't actually random. Musk spent ~$277M backing Trump in 2024.

    ↗ AP News↗ Reuters↗ BBC
35. Apr 5, 2024Foreign Influence

    Saudi-funded LIV Golf returns to Trump Doral — again

    LIV Golf, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, held another tournament at Trump's Doral resort, funneling millions to the Trump Organization while the candidate publicly defended the Saudi government.

    ↗ CREW↗ AP News
36. Mar 26, 2024Self-Dealing

    Trump hawks $60 “God Bless the USA” Bibles

    During Holy Week 2024, Trump began selling branded Bibles for $59.99, taking a licensing fee on each sale while campaigning. Followed a pattern of monetized merch — gold sneakers, NFT trading cards, silver coins — sold directly off his candidacy.

    ↗ AP News↗ NPR
37. Mar 26, 2024Self-Dealing~$4B

    Trump Media (DJT) goes public — instant multi-billion-dollar paper windfall

    Trump Media & Technology Group merged with a SPAC and began trading as DJT, handing Trump a stake worth roughly $4–6 billion on day one despite Truth Social's tiny revenue. Critics called the valuation a vehicle for anonymous foreign and domestic actors to funnel money to the candidate.

    ↗ AP News↗ Reuters
38. Mar 8, 2024Campaign Finance$100M+

    Trump installs family at RNC; donor money pays his legal bills

    Trump installed daughter-in-law Lara Trump as RNC co-chair and his campaign's Save America PAC continued spending tens of millions in small-donor money on his personal criminal and civil legal defense.

    ↗ AP News↗ CREW