Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations
Foreign and domestic emoluments, constitutional financial conflicts of interest.
20 entries
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceThe $TRUMP Meme Coin Dinner: Selling Presidential Access to Top Cryptocurrency Holders2025
In January 2025, days before his second inauguration, Donald Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin, a cryptocurrency token from which Trump and his business partners stood to profit directly. In May 2025, Trump hosted a private dinner for the 220 largest holders of the coin, with a private White House tour for the top 25 investors,…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceThe 2025 Financial Disclosure: $2.03 Billion in Reported Income, Seventy Percent of It From Digital-Asset Ventures Created After the 2024 Election2025
On June 29, 2026, Donald J. Trump signed and filed his annual public financial disclosure for calendar year 2025, the first full year of his second term. The filing, made on OGE Form 278e and certified by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on June 30, 2026, runs to 847 pages. The reviewing official recorded two administrative notes on…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceCryptocurrency, Meme Coins, and the Presidency: Trump's World Liberty Financial Venture, the $TRUMP and $MELANIA Tokens, and Second-Term Emoluments Concerns2024–2026
Beginning in September 2024, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump launched a series of cryptocurrency ventures that continued to generate revenue for his family after he took office for a second term in January 2025. These ventures included World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform, and two meme coins, $TRUMP…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceRolling Back Crypto Regulation While Holding Crypto Assets: The Trump Family's World Liberty Financial and the SEC's Retreat from Enforcement2024–2026
In September 2024, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump and his family launched World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture in which the Trump family holds a 75 percent share of net proceeds from token sales, along with a cut of stablecoin profits. The venture was co-founded by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and members of…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismIvanka Trump China Trademarks: Foreign Government Approvals Coinciding with Diplomatic Engagements2017–2018
While serving as a senior adviser in the White House, Ivanka Trump maintained ownership of her eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand, which held and actively sought trademarks in foreign countries, including China. On multiple occasions, the Chinese government granted or provisionally approved trademarks for Ivanka Trump's business at…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidencePromoting Trump-Branded Products from the White House: Goya Beans, Ivanka's Fashion Line, and the Use of Official Office for Commercial Endorsement2017–2020
During Trump's first term, the president, his family members serving as senior advisers, and senior White House officials used official positions and government platforms to promote commercial products connected to the Trump brand or to the president's political allies. These actions violated federal ethics standards, including the…
Tier 2, Formally Charged or InvestigatedEmoluments Clause Lawsuits: Three Federal Cases Alleging Constitutional Violations Through Business Profits2017–2021
Three federal lawsuits filed between 2017 and 2018 alleged that Donald Trump violated the Constitution's Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses by continuing to profit from his hotel and business empire while serving as president. The central allegation across all three cases was that foreign governments and domestic state officials…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceTrump International Hotel DC: $3.7 Million in Foreign Government Payments and GSA Lease Violations2017–2022
Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., located in the federally owned Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, operated throughout Donald Trump's first presidential term as a high-profile venue where foreign governments, domestic corporations, and politically connected interests spent money at an establishment owned by the…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismMar-a-Lago: Pay-for-Access and Security Breaches at the 'Winter White House'2017–2021
Throughout Donald Trump's first term, his private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, functioned as an informal seat of government where paying members gained proximity to the president, foreign dignitaries, and classified discussions that in other contexts would have occurred in secure government facilities. The club's dual role as…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceDoral G7 and Government Spending at Trump Properties: Self-Dealing Through Federal Business2017–2021
Throughout his first term, Trump directed or permitted federal government spending at properties he owned, a pattern that transferred taxpayer and government funds to his private business. The most dramatic single episode was the announced and then reversed selection of Trump's Doral golf resort for the 2020 G7 summit. Separately, the…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceTaxpayer Costs of Presidential Golf Trips: Over $150 Million Spent at Trump-Owned Properties During First Term2017–2021
During his first term in office, Donald Trump played golf approximately 293 days at his own properties, generating an estimated $151.5 million in taxpayer-funded costs for travel, security, and support logistics. The spending represented a direct financial benefit to Trump's private business, as the Secret Service and other government…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismTrump Organization Foreign Licensing Deals During the Presidency: Ongoing Business Relationships in Countries Where U.S. Foreign Policy Was Active2017–2026
Throughout both of Donald Trump's presidential terms, the Trump Organization has maintained active licensing and management agreements with foreign business partners in countries where U.S. foreign policy decisions directly affected those partners' interests. Unlike most previous presidents, Trump did not divest from his business…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismJared Kushner's Business Conflicts While Serving as Senior White House Adviser: 666 Fifth Avenue Bailout, Foreign Entanglements, and Security Clearance Failures2017–2021
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, served as a senior adviser to the president throughout the entirety of Trump's first term while maintaining significant financial interests that intersected with his policy portfolio, which included Middle East diplomacy, U.S.-China relations, and government modernization.
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary Evidence3,400 Conflicts of Interest: Trump's Refusal to Divest From His Businesses During the Presidency2017–2021
Donald Trump was the first president in modern American history to maintain ownership of a sprawling private business empire while serving in office. Every president since Jimmy Carter had either divested from business holdings or placed assets in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. Trump declined to do either, instead…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismGhost Bookings at Trump Hotels: Foreign Governments Reserved Rooms They Never Used, Effectively Making Payments to the President's Business2017–2021
During Donald Trump's presidency, House investigators and journalists documented a pattern in which foreign governments and politically connected organizations booked large blocks of rooms at Trump's Washington, D.C., hotel and other Trump properties without occupying them. These "ghost bookings," rooms paid for but never used, raised…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceTrump Tower Moscow: Pursuing a Russian Business Deal During the 2016 Campaign While Publicly Denying Russian Connections2015–2019
While running for president in 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization actively pursued a licensing deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that could have generated over $300 million in revenue. Throughout this period, Trump repeatedly and publicly denied having any business dealings or connections with Russia.…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismThe Trump International Hotel Lease Sale: $375 Million Exit After Years of Government Patronage Inflated the Property's Value2012–2022
In May 2022, the Trump Organization completed the sale of its long-term lease on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm, for $375 million. The property, housed in the historic Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, was subsequently rebranded as a Waldorf Astoria…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismTrump Towers Istanbul: Licensing Fees from Erdogan-Connected Developer While Shaping U.S. Policy Toward Turkey2012–2019
Trump Towers Istanbul consists of two conjoined skyscrapers in the Sisli district of Istanbul, Turkey, containing a residential tower, an office tower, a shopping mall with approximately 80 shops, and a multiplex cinema. The property was developed by Turkish billionaire Aydin Dogan under a licensing agreement with the Trump Organization.…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismTrump-Branded Real Estate That Defrauded International Buyers: Failed Licensing Projects in Baja Mexico, Fort Lauderdale, Toronto, Panama, and SoHo2005–2016
Between 2005 and 2016, the Trump Organization licensed the Trump name to real estate developers across multiple countries in a business model that allowed the Trump family to collect licensing fees and management contracts while bearing little or no financial risk if the projects failed. In several of these projects, buyers who purchased…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismForeign Government Spending at Trump Properties: Saudi, Kuwaiti, Qatari, and Other Foreign Government Payments Beyond the Washington Hotel2001–2021
While the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. (documented in EMOL-001) became the most visible venue for foreign government spending at Trump properties, a broader pattern of foreign government payments flowed to Trump-owned properties across multiple locations before, during, and throughout Trump's presidency. A January 2024…