First lady Melania Trump has made millions from Amazon, a memoir and a cryptocurrency that later collapsed, according to a scathing editorial from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In an editorial Saturday about the Trump family's profits, the paper's editorial board wrote that Trump's "third and current wife, Melania, is also cashing in."
The biggest payday came from Amazon. The board said the first lady received an estimated $40 million for documentary projects during her husband's term, citing The Guardian. The New York Post reported this week that she announced a two-part docuseries that will come out later this year.
She also got an undisclosed amount for her memoir, "Melania." The editorial links to a Vanity Fair report that her publisher asked for $250,000 in exchange for an interview about the book.
Her crypto venture went worse, at least for the people who bought in. The board wrote that the $MELANIA memecoin launched with an initial market value of about $1.7 billion, according to the BBC, and then fell by about 95%.
"But not before some insiders reportedly made roughly $100 million," the board wrote, citing the Financial Times.
The board said a lawsuit later accused the coin's designers of running a "pump-and-dump" scheme, citing The Guardian.
Melania Trump's ventures are part of what the board called unprecedented profiteering across the family. Citing the FT, it said the family has reportedly made $1 billion in pretax profits from crypto since Trump returned to the White House.
"It is all part of Trump's shameless Art of the Steal," the board wrote.
Trump has dismissed criticism of his family's business deals. According to the editorial, he maintains that he always puts the nation's interests first.
