Trump’s enormous fortune has few known global precedents

Berlusconi enacted laws that seemed tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire.

Furthermore, his annual income statements showed that he had received tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.

This week, new financial revelations suggest that Trump has broken that mold by earn at least 2.2 billion dollarss in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from the businesses of cryptocurrencies of his family.

Trump’s earnings represent an unimaginable fortune for any leader of a liberal democracy, especially a sitting American president.

No modern Western leader has publicly revealed such benefits during his tenure.

According to experts, the Trump family’s income has placed it at a level of enrichment more typical of authoritarian leaders of Russia and Türkiye.

Its gains were even more striking because the United States has long positioned itself as a benchmark in financial regulation, anti-corruption measures and the rule of law.

However, his cryptocurrency gains highlight an unusually glaring conflict:

as president, Trump oversees regulation from an industry from which, as an entrepreneur, he also obtains great benefits.

The White House has denied that Trump or his family incurred any conflicts of interest, and he has personally downplayed those concerns, saying this week:

“I never talk to any of the people who handle the money.”

According to experts, this reluctance to recognize any conflict now makes it difficult for anti-corruption investigators in countries large and small to combat conduct that the United States, until Trump’s presidency, came to condemn.

“The behavior of the United States was very influential in shaping international norms,” said Professor Liz David-Barrett, director of the Center for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex.

Now, Trump’s windfall has undermined the idea that “there is a standard to which we should all aspire,” he said.

He added that it is now easier for other world leaders to ask:

“Why should I regulate my behavior?” when the largest world power does not regulate its president.

Of course, Trump is not alone when it comes to accusations of exploiting his public office for private gain.

Berlusconi came to power after a bribery scandal that toppled the Italian ruling class.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has defended itself against accusations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

He is accused of granting regulatory favors to prominent businessmen in exchange for gifts or favorable media coverage.

The former president of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapaterois being formally investigated for alleged influence peddling, an accusation he denies.

For his part, the current president of the Government, Pedro Sanchezrecently defended himself before Parliament against corruption accusations against his wife, his brother and former political allies.

But the vastness of the Trump family’s earnings puts him in a different league than any of those leaders, experts say.

Neither Trump nor his family have been accused of breaking the law to obtain his windfall, and he is exempt from laws that would otherwise force top US officials to sell their stakes in companies that could benefit from their political decisions.

However, the magnitude of his earnings has drawn comparisons with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Officially, Putin only owns a modest apartment, two classic Soviet cars, a Lada SUV and a Soviet caravan, but his critics claim that he is the head of a vast network of oligarchs and state power that have made him one of the richest people in the world.

An anti-corruption foundation led byr Alexei Navalnya Russian activist who died in prison in 2024, claimed that Putin had accumulated a large amount of personal assets.

The foundation alleged that these included properties throughout Russia, yachts in Europe and an extensive palace complex, valued at approximately 1.3 billion dollarson the shores of the Black Sea, equipped with a multi-story underground bunker system with a tunnel connecting to the beach, vast luxury private vineyards and a hockey rink.

Putin denied owning these properties.

In Africa, I know Abachaa Nigerian general and former dictator who died in 1998, was accused by the Nigerian government of looting billions of dollars, including money stolen from the central bank.

The Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Sekowho came to power in a coup in 1965, laundered huge sums of money through real estate in Europe before his death in 1997.

Those properties included a mansion on the French Riviera and a luxurious palatial complex in his hometown.

David-Barrett He claimed that the Trump family’s businesses also drew comparisons to political dynasties in Asia, where leaders had been accused of conflicts of interest between their political activities and their families’ business empires.

Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, has licensed the Trump name on properties located in countries that rely on the Trump administration for support, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The White House has frequently rejected concerns about it, arguing that those running the organization are Trump’s children, not the president.

The family of Thaksin Shinawatraa telecommunications billionaire and former populist prime minister of Thailand, is among the Asian dynasties accused of abusing their proximity to power.

He was imprisoned for having used his mandate to further enrich his family, among other things, after his wife purchased valuable land from a government agency.

Shinawatra claimed the conviction was politically motivated.

Najib RazakMalaysia’s prime minister until 2018, orchestrated the systematic embezzlement of billions of dollars from the state sovereign wealth fund, of which he co-founded.

This diversion of funds was used to finance a superyacht, works of art and hundreds of handbags found in his wife’s closets.

He has been found guilty of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust, among other charges, and has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison to date.

David-Barrett said growing polarization in many countries made it easier for leaders to avoid accountability.

In a polarized society, voters often perceive accusations against their political leaders as a politically motivated attack, rather than a legitimate concern, leading them to downplay such accusations.

Even if voters believe the allegations, according to David-Barrett, their loyalty to their parties and leaders may lead them to turn a blind eye to their mistakes.

As Trump said of his own negotiations in January:

“I found out that no one cared.”

Berlusconi’s close friend Fedele Confalonieri once said something similar.

“Of course Mr. Berlusconi has a conflict of interest,” Confalonieri declared in 2011, as Italy became increasingly polarized between Berlusconi’s supporters and critics.

“But it is so clear and so transparent,” Confalonieri added, “that it is almost not worth talking about.”

According to experts, this type of indifference It has weakened the ability of traditional checks and balances to hold leaders accountable.

If voters question the importance of the accusations against their leaders, they could come to reject the legitimacy of the watchdogs that make them, according to Fernando Jiménez Sánchez, a political scientist specializing in corruption at the University of Murcia, Spain.

The stain of corruption can still be a powerful political weapon.

Viktor Orbánformer Prime Minister of Hungary, lost power in the recent elections after voters turned their backs on him, in part, due to numerous corruption allegations against his government.

Transparency International usually places Hungary at the bottom of its annual corruption ranking among European Union countries.

However, for many voters in countries ruled by populists, Sánchez said, “checks and balances are generally seen as just another part of the elite politics they criticize.”

Since the Watergate scandal, he added, the United States had helped set international standards in the fight against corruption.

Now, he claimed, Trump was setting a different standard that could tear down democratic safeguards and pave the way for conflicts of interest by others.

“This,” Sánchez said, “is what is being lost.”