Bombshell report reveals 'massive stockpile' of cash Trump built since election

Donald Trump's return to the presidency has coincided with a dramatic financial transformation as his family business pivoted from struggling real estate operations to lucrative cryptocurrency and licensing deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a deep dive investigation by the New York Times found Wednesday.

Before his 2024 election victory, Trump faced significant financial challenges. His Manhattan office building at 40 Wall Street "generated too little cash to cover its mortgage," while many of his golf courses "regularly lacked enough players to cover costs." Legal judgments totaling more than $600 million with interest threatened his cash reserves.

Despite Trump's 2023 testimony in a civil court case that he had "$300 million and $400 million in cash," court records revealed his balance had "fluctuated wildly, hitting a low of $52 million in 2018." The subsequent increase came largely from property sales rather than operational success, the Times found.

One internal email revealed the company produced "only $2.2 million in 2017, before taxes or disbursements to the family," with golf courses being a "primary culprit."

Recognizing these challenges, Trump and his sons "refocused the family business, forming a series of partnerships, especially in cryptocurrency, with investors who were willing to bank on his victory." Eric Trump acknowledged the appeal of licensing deals, stating they required minimal investment: "I don't want to say it was free revenue, but it was a pretty spectacular system that we were able to create."

Following Trump's Republican nomination, foreign branding deals accelerated rapidly. Nine new agreements were announced across Vietnam, Serbia, India, and the Arabian Peninsula. Real estate developer Kalpesh Mehta, who has six deals with the Trumps, noted that Trump-branded properties "draw heightened interest in India."

Ziad El Chaar, CEO of Saudi-backed DarGlobal, emphasized the brand's global appeal, saying the Trump name "immediately put the project on the global map."

The family's crypto ventures have proven particularly profitable. Trump received over half of Trump Media's stock "worth $2 billion," while crypto coins from World Liberty Financial are "worth at least $236 million." Most lucrative have been memecoin sales, generating "$320 million" in fees according to Chainalysis.

These new revenue streams have already addressed previous financial pressures. Last month, "the Trumps paid off the $115 million mortgage coming due on 40 Wall Street," which analysts worried would be difficult to refinance.

Eric Trump expressed confidence in the company's direction: "Our portfolio is operating flawlessly, and 2025 will mark the strongest year in the remarkable history of the Trump Organization."

Critics like Noah Bookbinder, President of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, argue Trump's "approach to almost everything at this point now seems to be that he's going to get away with whatever he can get away with."

However, the transformation has created what the analysis calls "a massive stockpile with the potential to cover legal judgments, mortgage payments and holes in balance sheets for years to come."