For almost two years, federal judges, watchdog groups and Democrats have asked President Donald Trump and his family to answer questions about their business deals, stock trades, money raised and gifts received. They’ve mostly come up empty.
Letters drew denials and silence. Democrats, as the minority party in Congress, don’t have the power to issue subpoenas for information, making their letters merely requests.
If Democrats win control of the House or Senate, they’ll have the majority, and the subpoena power that comes with it.
Congressional Democrats have repeatedly said they want more information about how Trump’s individual fortune has grown since he was elected to a second term in the White House.
Forbes estimates that since Trump was re-elected in November 2024, his personal net worth has grown by $2.7 billion and reached $7 billion. The net worth of Trump and his children has grown to $10 billion.
And there will be a close look at gifts Trump has received as president, if Democrats take control of a chamber of Congress.
The Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause bars officials from accepting valuable gifts from a foreign government without congressional consent. And the federal Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act requires officials to report, and in most cases surrender, any gift from a foreign source worth more than $480, unless it’s formally accepted on behalf of the U.S.
Here’s a list of information being kept from the public as voters head to the polls:
More than $3.2 billion in government business for companies reportedly tied to Trump’s sons

Companies backed by investment firms tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have generated $3.2 billion in federal contracts, loans and investments since the president’s sons got involved, plus $3.1 billion in future contract options, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
Democrats have asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate those business ties and others.
In May, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, requested information about government contracts linked to Trump’s family.
In August, Garcia joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., to make another request. The lawmakers asked for a list of every award involving Trump-tied companies and a review of how the decisions were made.
The inspector general has not said whether it will open a review of the awards. “The DoW OIG acknowledged to the Members the receipt of the two letters dated May 8 and August 4, 2026, respectively,” a spokesperson for the office of inspector general at the Department of Defense (which the administration calls the Department of War) said in a statement to MS NOW. “The DoW OIG carefully considers each and every request from Members of Congress and evaluates such requests consistent with the office’s duties and responsibilities under the IG Act.”
A Pentagon official separately denied any favoritism. “No company receives preferential treatment,” the official said in a statement to MS NOW. “The War Department always looks for solutions to benefit the warfighter, not any pre-selected entity. Outside affiliations, investors, or political connections play absolutely no role in the Department’s funding decisions.”
More than $1 billion in unexplained presidential stock trades
Trump’s own financial disclosures reportedly show more than 14,000 stock trades worth up to $1.06 billion in his first year back in office, and another 3,555 in the first three months of this year, an average of about 50 trades every day the market was open.
In August, Sen. Warren and Rep. Garcia sent a letter asking Trump who manages his stock trades, whether he directs the trades and whether he knew about purchases made just before government actions. Those requests included questions about a purchase of Axon stock before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a contract for the company’s Taser devices. Trump has said, “they invest my money and I don’t talk to them.”
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said the president’s portfolio is managed independently by third-party financial institutions. “All holdings are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000,” Ingle said. “Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold. All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest,” Ingle said.
The Trump Organization told CNBC the Democratic lawmakers’ letter was a “baseless political stunt.”
Up to $400 million from taxpayers for Trump’s luxury Air Force One from Qatar
The Boeing 747 that Qatar’s royal family gave Trump is already flying as Air Force One. But its lack of proper security systems and an assassination threat from Iran prompted him to hide in a catering container and switch to an older Air Force jet when leaving this year’s NATO summit in Turkey.
It is unclear how much the Trump administration paid to upgrade the plane with security systems that are apparently not as effective as the older 747’s. In testimony to Congress in June 2025, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers the retrofit would “probably” cost less than $400 million but said the details were classified.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees Air Force One, predicted that the cost would run well over $1 billion. In a May hearing, he pressed an Air Force official again on why the Qatari jet was used by the president after only one year, a far shorter time than expected to finish retrofitting it. No itemized list of what retrofitting the jet will fully cost the American people has been made public.
Trump has brushed aside ethics concerns about the Qatari gift, writing on social media last year that the jet was a gift to the Defense Department — not to him personally — and will be used “temporarily” in a way that is “very public and transparent.” Trump initially said the plane would be displayed in his presidential library after he leaves office, but an aide told The New York Times in August that no final decision had been made.
Which organizations and individuals reportedly donated $333 million to Trump’s ballroom?
Democrats have sent at least nine letters to the administration regarding Trump’s White House ballroom. A letter from Garcia to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles asking about donors and ethics went unanswered.
On Oct. 15, The Washington Post reported on an internal spreadsheet showing $333 million in commitments, including $25 million each from Apple and Nvidia.
The White House told Reuters it would not release information about the donors, who spokesman Davis Ingle said represent “a wide array of great American companies.”
$21.5 million in unexplained money to the Trump library
Between December 2024 and July 2025, Meta, ABC and Paramount paid a combined $56.5 million to Trump for his claims that they had defamed him or done other harm. As part of the settlements, the net proceeds went to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation.
In July, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., said up to $21.5 million of the settlement money paid to the Presidential Library Foundation was either missing or spent without explanation. They requested an accounting from the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation.
In a statement to MS NOW, Madison Faupel, treasurer of the Trump Presidential Library, said that “all settlement funds were accepted as the Library received the proper 501(c)(3) status. There are no missing funds.”
Trump’s Freedom 250 donor list

In February, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and six other Senate Democrats asked Wiles for the donor list of Freedom 250, the private group Trump created to stage events for the nation’s 250th birthday. They cited reports that big donors were offered access to White House VIP events.
In May, the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the Interior Department, which had not released records in response to the group’s requests about Freedom 250’s funding.
In September, Warren, Schiff and two colleagues took the demand directly to Freedom 250 CEO Keith Krach, asking how much the group had raised and whether donations bought special treatment. Their Sept. 28 deadline has passed, and Freedom 250 still discloses neither its donors nor its spending.
An 18-karat gold ring with 321 diamonds from the Belgian diamond industry

In June the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, a Belgian trade group, gave Trump an 18-karat gold ring set with 321 diamonds and 75 other gemstones. The U.S. ambassador accepted it on Trump’s behalf at an America 250 event in Brussels. A month later, the administration exempted European diamonds from new tariffs.
In August, Warren and Blumenthal asked the Belgian trade group who paid for the ring, any contact its members had had with the administration before giving the ring, and whether anyone related to the trade group was told about the Belgian diamond tariff exemption ahead of its announcement. The trade group denied any link between the ring and the tariff decision and said the ring was a gift to the American people. It has declined to answer the senators’ questions.
The White House says the exemption was part of last year’s trade deal with the European Union, though the 2025 joint statement laying out the deal does not mention diamonds.
In October, the senators asked the White House gifts office and the National Archives a simpler question: Where is the ring? A White House official said the ring was never formally presented to Trump.
A private dinner for the 220 biggest buyers of Trump’s meme coin
In May 2025, Trump hosted a dinner at the Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C., in Sterling, Virginia, for the 220 largest holders of his $TRUMP memecoin. Most of those on the guest list had never bought the coin before the dinner was announced. A Bloomberg analysis found that more than half of the top holders had used crypto exchanges that bar U.S. customers. That day, 35 House Democrats asked the Justice Department to look into whether the dinner violated the federal bribery law or the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause.
A week later, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked Trump to release the names of everyone who attended and say where their money came from. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump attended on his personal time, and she would not commit to releasing the list. The names have not been disclosed.
On Nov. 22, three weeks after the midterms, Trump is scheduled to headline another event for the coin’s top holders, a dinner at the same club for the 185 largest buyers.
The post As voters head to the polls, questions about Trump’s financial dealings grow appeared first on MS NOW.
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