President Donald Trump sought to dismiss criticism that he has unfairly profited from his presidency during an Oval Office interview with CNBC on Thursday, arguing that his children are responsible for running the family’s businesses.
“I don’t do anything having to do with my business. My kids run it,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen, co-host of “Squawk Box,” when asked about the criticism.
Trump said that his son Eric Trump handles managing his investments and that he feels “badly, in a way, for my kids” because of the scrutiny they are under.
The president’s comments came days after the release of his financial disclosures, which showed that he reported more than $2 billion in income since returning to the White House. The largest share of those funds came from more than $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency-related income, including $500 million coming from World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company he co-founded in 2024 with his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
After the annual disclosure’s release, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said that any cryptocurrency legislation being discussed by the Senate must prevent the president and his administration from “profiting off the crypto industry.” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Thursday also accused Trump of “blatantly profiteering off the presidency” with those ventures and urged Congress to instate “ethical guardrails” to prevent it.
Democrats aren’t the only ones criticizing the president over his finances. The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board wrote in an op-ed on Wednesday that the president and his family “are profiting off the Presidency in ways that demean the office.” Tax experts have also suggested the amount of money the president has made in this role is historically unprecedented.
Asked about the crypto-related income on CNBC, the president insisted that he was not aware of it, but added, “There’s nothing wrong with it.”
CNBC is owned by Versant Media, the parent company of MS NOW.
The president also reported another $635 million in income tied to sales of the $TRUMP meme coin, along with hundreds of millions of dollars from his properties, including $122 million from Trump Doral, $77.5 million from Mar-a-Lago and $39 million from Trump Tower Chicago. The disclosure also reported more than $80 million from legal settlements with media companies, and more than $8 million in royalties from books and branded merchandise.
The president said Thursday that he believes his business acumen is “one of the reasons I got elected.”
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