President Trump brushed off questions about the money he’s made while in office, saying his sons run his businesses and that he didn’t know about the lucrative crypto investments that netted him over a billion dollars.
“I’ve always made money,” he told CNBC, pointing to his past career. “I’m a business person. I’m a really good business person. I made money. I made a tremendous amount of money.”
Others invest his income, and he doesn’t know who they are, he noted.
“I let people invest it. I don’t even speak to – I don’t even know who they are,” he said. “My son Eric handles it. I don’t talk to him about things such as this.”
He went on to say his investments are given to “big firms” who create “semi-blind trusts or blind trusts.” The president didn’t offer further details on which firms oversee his fortune but said one reason his income rose was that “the stock market went up.”
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But Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings. He claimed he didn’t know about the investments during a 40-minute interview in the Oval Office on Thursday.
But he went on to say, if he did know about them, it wouldn’t be illegal, noting the president and vice president are not required to recuse themselves from decisions that could affect their financial interests.
“I didn’t. There’s nothing illegal with that. I could know,” he said, pointing out there is no legal requirement “to recuse yourself on every decision running the country that could have anything to do with you. It just isn’t feasible to do it.”
For decades before he entered public service, Trump worked in the private sector, amassing a fortune from real estate deals, casinos, and his popular NBC show “The Apprentice.”
He pointed out he doesn’t take a salary from the government while serving as president.
“This is the Oval Office,” he added. “It’s a much bigger purpose than whether or not I make money. As an example, the president’s the highest paid person in government, and you know, by some standards it gets a lot of money. … I gave up my salary. I don’t get a salary.”
Presidents are usually paid an annual salary of $400,000.
Trump established the Trump Organization to run his businesses long before he ran for office. His three children – Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka – were heavily involved, although his daughter has since stepped away.
Because of the close ties of a family business, Trump said it was impossible for his children to distance themselves from decisions he made while president.
“Almost anything my kids do — if they buy a truck — they have inside information,” he said, arguing his children are facing unfair scrutiny for running their professional lives while he serves as president.
“I feel badly in a way for my kids,” he said, adding that “anything they do, because the presidency is so powerful … if they buy a cupcake company, well, the energy to make the cupcakes, is you know, sort of like, how’s my energy policy?”
“So it’s pretty tough in that sense. I tell my kids, ‘stay away,’” Trump said. “But they also have a life. You know, they were doing business long before I ever thought of … running for president.”
When pressed about the billions he made off crypto, Trump shrugged off a question about a possible conflict of interest.
“The way I view crypto is a little differently. We have to be at the top, otherwise China is going to take it over,” he said.
While president, Trump has pursued an aggressive pro-crypto policy, arguing the United States should be the “crypto capital of the world” through deregulation, the establishment of a Bitcoin reserve, and supporting a stablecoin market backed by the dollar.
