Trump family rakes in profits as President Trump fires ethics watchdog

The Trump family has reportedly made nearly $80 million since the election through a documentary deal with Amazon and multi-million-dollar legal settlements with media and tech companies.

Meanwhile, the Trump Organization, now overseen by the president's son Eric Trump, has not barred itself from pursuing deals with foreign companies, as it did during Trump’s first term.

President Trump also fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics.

These moves have raised concerns about conflicts of interest.

"I think we've seen in his first term, Trump had the Trump Hotel in DC and had all kinds of ways that he sort of broke with the norms of how presidents have treated their personal financial interests," say Rebecca Ballhaus, a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been investigating the Trump family's finances. "And I think we're seeing, if anything, an escalation of that approach this time around.

One of the biggest money makers for the family is this documentary about Melania Trump, which Amazon paid $40 million for. How did that come about?

“This is a pretty notable thing to begin with that the first lady is signing on to a documentary deal just weeks before the inauguration.

“But I think what's even more striking is how this deal came about and what we understand is that the first lady came up with this idea for a documentary. Her agent had been shopping it around, and then Jeff Bezos came to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and Melania for dinner ahead of the inauguration.

“We understand that at that dinner, Melania brought up the idea of this documentary, and after that, just a few weeks later, Amazon agreed to pay $40 million to license the film, which was the most that Amazon had ever spent on a documentary and was nearly three times the next closest offer that Melania's agent had gotten."

Bezos has talked about becoming closer in general with the Trump administration. I understand the first lady is also pursuing sponsorships from celebrities. Could that bring in a lot of money as well? 

“So that's one of the most striking parts of this to me. Her cut is more than 70% of that $40 million, and her team is also trying to sell these sponsorships which start at $10 million.

"They've been reaching out to prominent CEOs and billionaires who were at the inauguration, and what they would get in exchange for sponsoring the film would be a ‘thank you’ at the end of the credits and an invitation to the premiere.

“And I think it's safe to say that this is not sort of a typical ask that people make for a documentary like this."

What conflict of interest rules apply to the first lady and to the president? 

"The president is exempt from the conflict-of-interest rules that apply to the rest of the administration, but I think it's safe to say that previous presidents and first ladies have sort of still adhered to this norm that you try and avoid anything that could even look like a conflict of interest, even if it isn't one.

“And I think we've seen in his first term, Trump had the Trump Hotel in DC and had all kinds of ways that he sort of broke with the norms of how presidents have treated their personal financial interests, and I think we're seeing, if anything, an escalation of that approach this time around."

President Trump has sued social media companies like Meta, Twitter, which is now X. He's also sued ABC News. Tell us about those cases and the money they have brought in. 

“So, this has been something entirely new this time around. We did not see him do this in his first term. During his time between administrations, the president filed a number of lawsuits, but what we've seen since the election is that he's been using his leverage as president to try and pressure those entities to settle the cases and in some cases pay him or his presidential library several million dollars.

“And we saw Meta, which Trump had sued in 2021 over the platform's decision to suspend his Facebook account after Jan. 6. They agreed to pay $25 million in January going to Trump's presidential library. That's notable because when that case was filed, you know, it was largely considered frivolous by many legal experts, and it had been languishing since 2021.

“We also saw him settle the case with Elon Musk's Twitter. He had sued the platform back before Musk owned it, but Musk agreed to pay $10 million and this one goes to Trump personally.”

And then of course there's crypto. The Trump administration has signaled a much less regulatory approach to the crypto industry, perhaps treating it differently than Wall Street. How might that benefit the first family? 

“Well, what was pretty striking was just a couple of days before the inauguration we saw Trump start selling this meme coin with his name on it.

“It’s a remarkable way that people are able to sort of try and curry favor with the first family is by buying his coin or a similar coin that Melania launched just the next day.

“I think that that's just one of these various ventures that people can try and funnel money to the first family without it necessarily being disclosed."

Where does the money go? Does it go to the president's family, to the Trump Organization? 

"There are some clues about where at least the meme coin money could go.

"It's described on its website as this company that is an affiliate of the Trump Organization, together with an LLC that was registered by an ally of Trump's together own 80% of the supply of the Trump meme coin.

"But of course, they're subject to lockups that prevent them from selling immediately.  So, it's not clear how much money they will end up getting from this meme coin endeavor, but it's clear that the Trump Organization is somehow involved in owning the supply of that coin."

How about the Trump Organization and its deals with foreign companies? 

"What the Trump Organization has said last time and this time was that they won't do deals with foreign governments and that if any foreign government officials are able to be identified as staying, for example, at a Trump hotel that they will donate those profits to the Treasury, and I believe what they did in the first term is they sort of announced an overall number that they were donating to the Treasury each year.

"But of course there is not much transparency in how they come to that number, and also it leaves a decent amount of wiggle room when you say whatever foreign government dollars are able to be identified at these locations.

"And what's notable this time around is that they're not banning deals with foreign private companies. And so, I think we're going to see at least efforts by the Trump Organization to expand their deals with those foreign companies, and I think that will be something to keep a close eye on."

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.