The Secrets Of Trump's Finances

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering Trump’s finances, more U.S.-Iran negotiations, tracking the Congo’s ebola outbreak, a Republican mutiny in Congress, U.S. jobs numbers, and a proposal atop the Empire State Building.

“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom…is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” – Anthony Bourdain

A Peek Into The President’s Pockets

According to mandatory financial reports, U.S. President Donald Trump made $1.4 billion off of business dealings in cryptocurrency alone last year. The financial reporting also shows that the president’s total income in 2025 was a whopping $2.2 billion, a significant jump from the roughly $600 million he reported in the year before.

Of the $1,430,390,415 he “earned” from crypto transactions last year, Trump made roughly $635 million through an entity called Celebration Coins, which experts think was the company behind the $TRUMP meme coin that the president launched just before his inauguration last January. Since then, $TRUMP’s value has cratered, but the president was able to walk away from the wreckage with a tidy profit. For comparison LeBron James has earned just over $580 million from NBA contracts across his 23-year career. 

Trump received a further $500 million in income from World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company founded by the Trump family and the sons of Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. World Liberty Financial was embroiled in controversy last year when a company associated with the government of the UAE purchased $2 billion worth of crypto from the Trump-associated firm before also secretly purchasing a 49% stake in the company. Soon after both of those transactions, the Trump White House sold that same Emirati firm hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, overriding the concerns of national security advocates.

“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged - or will ever engage - in conflicts of interest,” said the White House deputy press secretary in a statement defending her boss against media coverage of the reports. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people – and any so-called 'reporters' pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade,” she added.

Other income sources included $77 million from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, over $200 million from his various golf courses, and about $4.7 million in royalties from various Trump-branded items including Bibles, watches, and fragrances. “I purposely, I never speak to any of the people that run the money,” Trump said when asked about his finances. “You know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market is going up,” he added.

An On-Again, Off-Again Negotiationship

• Despite their usual contrasting claims, the U.S. and Iran both participated in technical talks aimed at working out a lasting ceasefire in the wake of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war this week. The two parties are in the Qatari capital of Doha for the indirect negotiations, which began on Tuesday night and are being mediated by diplomats from Qatar and Pakistan.

• While the memorandum of understanding that brought a pause to the conflict was a semi-win for the U.S., talks have stalled as of late, leading the two sides to continue trading strikes. Currently, the negotiations seem to be caught up on Iran’s demands for international recognition of its control over the Strait of Hormuz, which would in turn allow it to charge fees on ships entering ⁠or leaving the Persian Gulf.

• Another sticking point is Iran’s nuclear program – a top U.S. priority is the removal of all of the country’s highly enriched uranium, while Iran views a nuclear weapon as the only true deterrent to future invasion attempts from the U.S. “The denuclearization of ​Iran is moving along well,” Trump ​told reporters yesterday. “They've had very good meetings, and ⁠we’ll see.”

An Ebola Update

• In mid-May, the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of the ebola virus in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, authorities have struggled to contain the virus, which has now infected roughly 1,300 people and claimed the lives of over 300. According to a recent worst-case scenario report published by the U.N. Development Programme, the disease’s spread could cost countries across Africa up to $3.6 billion, and might lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

• Meanwhile, another disease outbreak has been announced – this time in neighboring Uganda, which has already been dealing with cases of ebola spreading from the DR Congo. That outbreak – of a disease named Marburg virus – has already claimed the life of one child, and at least one other case of infection has been confirmed. The virus causes hemorrhagic fevers and spreads via body fluids, much like ebola. 

Additional World News

• Putin Is Slipping Into Delusion (Atlantic, $)

• Syria's president names final 70 lawmakers to new post-Assad parliament (BBC) 

• Russian drone, missile attack on Kyiv hits residential buildings, injures 16 (Reuters)

• Fears of Catholic schism as defiant sect ordains ultra-conservative bishops (Guardian)

• Untold casualties and humanitarian needs: What to know a week from Venezuela's quakes (NPR) 

• As the Pentagon stays quiet, AP reconstructs a US strike that killed over 100 Iranian children (AP)

Do Not Try This At Your Job

• House GOP leaders granted themselves an extended July 4 vacation on Tuesday after several hardline conservatives staged a mini-mutiny. The far-right representatives, frustrated that Trump’s SAVE America Act has been frozen in the Senate for months at this point, blocked a resolution for the House to hold votes on other bills later this week, effectively extending Congress’ one-week Independence Day break to an almost two-week vacation.

• In a 224-198 vote, 14 Republicans sided with Democrats to stop the House from working on any further legislation this week. That decision left multiple important bills stranded on the House floor, including the annual Pentagon funding bill and the 2027 budget bill for multiple federal agencies. The mutiny builds on Trump’s decision to block a bipartisan housing bill last week, and will put considerable pressure on Congressional Republicans to figure out a way to get Trump’s controversial election reform act passed despite resistance from Senate Democrats. While Republicans hold a simple majority in the Senate, they lack the 60-vote bloc needed to get the SAVE Act passed.

The Summer of Jobs

• In May, the U.S. economy beat expectations, adding 172,000 jobs (compared to the 85,000 jobs projected by Bloomberg). Unfortunately, that trend hasn’t continued. Yesterday, payroll processor ADP released its employment data from June, which showed that private employers added just 98,000 jobs last month, down from the 120,000 projected by Bloomberg.

• “The pace of hiring is telling a story of both supply and demand,” said ADP’s chief economist. “We know it's taking people longer to find work, but there also are signs of labor supply constraints in certain industries. For now, the overall effect is a slowdown in job creation.” The federal government’s employment report is set to be published later today, and is projected to show growth of 110,000. While those numbers aren’t the glowing data we saw in May, there are a few other good signs for workers: new data shows that job openings in May also came in higher than expected, and layoffs actually decreased in June.

Additional USA News

• Melat Kiros is the first political star truly formed by the 2020s (Vox)

• Vance and Rubio take different approaches as Iran tests their 2028 prospects (AP) 

• Crowded planes and airports set records, straining the U.S. aviation system (NPR)

• Congress blocks Massie-Khanna effort to kill US-Israel integration (Responsible Statecraft)

• Death by firing squad: archaic method on the rise in US as Idaho opens new execution chamber (Guardian)

• Bar pregnant foreigners from entering US? Trump allies considering all options after Supreme Court defeat. (Politico)

Now That’s A Top-Shelf Proposal

• I think we’ve quite literally reached the peak of marriage proposals. Yesterday, a pair of climbers scaled the needle of the Empire State Building, where they unfurled a flag reading, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace” before one of them seemed to propose to the other. The woman appeared to accept the proposal and the couple kissed before eventually climbing down to the building’s 103rd floor, where they were greeted by police and promptly arrested.

• The pair were identified as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, two Russian nationals who’ve become well-known for pulling similar high-flying stunts, even featuring in a 2024 documentary titled Skywalkers: A Love Story. They now face charges including burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.

• A spokesman for the Empire State Building noted that nobody was put at risk by the “unauthorized incident,” and noted that “the Empire State Building Observation Deck, atop the World's Most Famous Building in the center of New York City, does offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals.”

Additional Reads

• Why you should talk to your dead ancestors (Psyche) 

• Sony is killing all physical PlayStation game discs (Verge)

• U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic’s Most Powerful A.I. Models (NYT, $)

• Weak hands and blurry vision: Is your tech giving you 'phone body'? (BBC)

• I Went to the Great American State Fair and I May Never Sleep Again (Atlantic, $)

• Top AI Researchers Terrified of a "Chernobyl Moment": a Mass Casualty Event, or Worse, That Turns the World Against AI Forever (Futurism)

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