World·AnalysisU.S. President Donald Trump and his family members have earned at least $2 billion from business ventures and investments that have benefitted from his past 16 months in the White House, according to research by watchdog groups and media outlets.Trump's stock trades, IRS deal, $1.8B Anti-Weaponization Fund prompt fresh scrutinyMike Crawley · CBC News · Posted: May 22, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 19 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 7 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order relating to cryptocurrency on Jan. 23, 2025, three days after taking office, and less than a week after he launched his own meme coin cryptocurrency $TRUMP. It's just one of the ways that Trump and his family are profiting off his presidency that are drawing fresh scrutiny. (Ben Curtis/The Associated Press)U.S. President Donald Trump has earned billions of dollars from family business ventures and his investments over his past 16 months in the White House, according to research by watchdog groups and media outlets.The various ways that Trump and his family are profiting off his presidency have been closely tracked since his inauguration in January 2025, but they are drawing fresh scrutiny in the wake of disclosures about stock trades made by Trump's personal investment advisers. The White House insists Trump has done nothing that violates any U.S. laws, nor has he broken any ethics rules that apply to the presidency. Still, independent observers are describing the scale of Trump's personal enrichment in dramatic terms. "Donald Trump has presided over the most lucrative presidency in American history, adding billions to his net worth, largely by cashing in on crypto," said Forbes magazine. "Trump has enriched himself financially on a scale that dwarfs even the most infamous scandals in American history," said Eric Petry, counsel in the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan law and policy organization at New York University. The Trump family has made billions in "ill-gotten dollars" during his term, said Barbara Perry, a historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, an institute for the study of the U.S. presidency. "Presidents have had corrupt, even criminal, family members … but none of them succeeded to the extent of the Trump family in the level of graft achieved," Perry told the New York Times this week.Will Ragland, vice-president for research at the Center for American Progress, a Democrat-leaning think-tank in Washington, D.C., says the way Trump has personally profited from his time in office is unprecedented. AnalysisThe 'New Deal' of grift: Trump sets standard for presidential self-enrichment"I think that this is an open, pay-for-play, corrupt presidency," Ragland told CBC News. "There really is no historical precedent for the amount of personal cash he has brought in and the political money he's been able to raise since being elected the second time." WATCH | Here's who could cash in on Trump's Anti-Weaponization Fund:Trump's new $1.776B Anti-Weaponization Fund is a wild ride | About ThatMay 20|Duration 12:44The Trump administration set up a roughly $1.8 billion US fund to support Americans facing domestic political persecution — but there are questions about accountability and who may benefit most from the cash. Andrew Chang explains how the Anti-Weaponization Fund originates with U.S. President Donald Trump's own lawsuit, and the concerns about a conflict of interest.