How Trump’s Sons Cashed In On Their Father’s Comeback

Forbes Breaking News

Don Jr. and Eric Trump struggled to launch new ventures during their father’s first term. Now, they’ve spotted opportunities everywhere, in licensing, hospitality, firearms, retail and—perhaps most importantly—crypto. Forbes money in politics reporter Kyle Khan-Mullins joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2025/05/23/how-trumps-sons-cashed-in-on-their-fathers-comeback/

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my Forbes colleague, money and politics reporter Kyle Conn-Mullins. Kyle, thanks so

00:11much for joining me. Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.

00:15And as I noted in your title, you report on the intersection of money and politics,

00:19and that's what we're going to be talking about today. And you have some reporting on

00:23the Trump's eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, how they made money and they're making money,

00:29continuing to do so on the heels of their father's political comeback now in Trump 2.0.

00:34So to start off the conversation, how much were the eldest Trump sons worth at the beginning of

00:40the Trump second term? So in November, we did a revaluation of Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump,

00:47and actually also did Ivanka Trump. And we found Don Jr. was worth about $50 million. Eric Trump

00:53was worth an estimated $40 million. Now, the vast majority of both of their fortunes comes from

00:58their work over the many years at the Trump organization. They've both been executive VPs

01:02at the company, or they've both been in leadership at the company, I should say,

01:06since the early 2000s. However, Don Jr. gets that little extra bump. He's got multiple other side

01:14businesses related to politics that we think pushed his net worth up a little bit more over his brother.

01:20And I want to read a portion of your reporting because I think it tees up this conversation really

01:24well. You write this, quote, though they were technically running the real estate operation

01:28in Trump's first term, they remained somewhat hamstrung by ethics promises their father made

01:33upon assuming the presidency. So talk to us a little bit about what exactly they were working on

01:38when President Trump was president the first go-around.

01:40They were mostly focused on domestic projects. They largely abandoned foreign dealmaking. I don't

01:49want to say entirely. I don't want to overemphasize that. There's a great clip of Don Jr. back in 2018,

01:56I think it is. And he's in an interview in India. And he's talking about how he and the Trump

02:02organization have just totally thrown out all foreign dealmaking. And while he's sitting there in

02:07India selling condos at a Trump property. But the vast majority of their new foreign dealmaking

02:15was put on hold while their father was in office. He, you know, the whole company, which he was still

02:22the ultimate beneficiary of, was put into a trust. It was not a blind trust. He claims he had no say

02:29over how things were going. That appears to not be quite true. But by and large, his sons are running

02:34the business. And they were focused for the most part on a project in the United States.

02:38Kyle, I think my next question would then be, what happened? Because you're reporting that they

02:43aren't so hamstrung now. Why not? And how much money are they poised to make in the next four years?

02:49Well, they certainly are not hamstrung now. You know, the ethics promises that were made in the first

02:55term were always a little bit questionable. It doesn't really seem like Trump actually fled. Their

03:01father, Donald Trump, fully separated himself from the business, as ethics experts said that he

03:06should if he wanted to follow press precedent. But they have completely given up even the pretense

03:11of trying to follow those ethics rules these days. You know, they have fully embraced foreign deal

03:16making, even between when he won the election when he was in office and now he's in office. And they

03:20are going full steam ahead on all types of deals that raise all sorts of conflicts of interest

03:24questions with their father, the newly elected, or newly reelected, I should say, president of the United States.

03:30So how much are they poised to make in the next four years? That is the tens, hundreds of millions

03:36of dollar question, maybe billion dollar question, depending on exactly how well some other business

03:41ventures do and how well the Trump organization does. That's the question. And that's what we're

03:45going to talk a little about today. And so before we get into those new opportunities, I want to talk

03:50about their bread and butter, which is the Trump organization. What are they working on as EVPs there?

03:56Because they still have that role. Yeah, their recent months have been very, very busy. Just

04:02since the election, they've announced five new Trump related properties in India, six across the

04:08Middle East. They have one in Serbia as well. These are all summer hotels, summer condos, summer golf

04:14courses, but they see the brand as very strong overseas, probably stronger than it is in, you know,

04:20parts of Europe or the United States. And these are conservative, fairly Trump friendly countries.

04:28Trump has now, you know, in his first term, his first foreign trip was to the Middle East.

04:34And this term, his first foreign trip was planned to be in the Middle East. That was side railed by

04:39his, he did attend the Pope's funeral in Rome. So that actually ended up being his first foreign

04:44trip. But these are conservative, Trump friendly countries, India and the Middle East. And the Trump

04:48organization is cashing in by making deals there. So I want to talk about some of the new industries

04:53now, because if you were covering politics in President Trump's first term, you'd be very

04:58surprised at some of the things he's saying now, especially in the crypto space, because

05:02he went from crypto skeptic to now real crypto enthusiast. I want to read something that he posted

05:08in 2019. He said cryptocurrencies aren't real money and their value is highly volatile and based on

05:14thin air. Now in his second term, he vowed to be the country's first crypto president. And Don Jr.

05:20and Eric Trump are in the crypto space. So talk to us first about their work there, particularly with

05:26World Liberty Financial.

05:29Yeah, Eric and Don Jr. are expanding into all sorts of different industries. We're talking data centers,

05:34we're talking firearms, we're talking drones, there's a private club in Washington, D.C. There's private

05:38equity. But it seems like for now, the biggest of all is likely cryptocurrency. It's the most built

05:45on hype industry in the world. And if there's one thing we know about the Trumps, it's that they've

05:49always been good at selling hype. So yes, you mentioned World Liberty Financial. This was a

05:54venture, it's kind of a vaguely defined crypto venture that was started before the election. And

06:01at the most recent update is I think they're planning on launching a stable coin. It's based on the US

06:05dollar. And then separately from World Liberty Financial, you've also got the Trump meme coin

06:12that was launched just a couple days before Trump was inaugurated as president again. And between the

06:18two of those, the Trump family is poised to receive a majority of the proceeds from those ventures.

06:25So we estimate that if Don Jr. and Eric, we're not sure exactly what share they own, but if they have

06:31a similar share to previous Trump family ventures, they could be making anywhere from, they could have

06:36made anywhere from 25 to $30 million just since the election on those items. Likely more, because

06:43these coins continue to sell, World Liberty and the Trump meme coin continue to sell tokens, continue to

06:49sell all sorts of digital assets. And the Trump family is getting a cut of every single one of those

06:55sales in every single transaction. And based on his resume, it seems like Don Jr. in particular

07:00is keeping really busy in the past couple of months, especially he's wearing a lot of different

07:06hats as an advisor, as a partner, as a board member at different firms. So can you talk to us a little

07:11bit about those roles and how much he's taking home from each? So I think the most interesting one

07:17here is 1789 Capital. This is a venture capital firm that was started by a friend of Don Jr.'s, Omid

07:25Malik. And Don Jr. signed up as a partner less than a week after the election. It's unclear exactly how

07:33much he's making from it, whether he's invested in it, that kind of thing. These are not 100% clear.

07:38But 1789 Capital's pitch is that they really focus on finding companies in the so-called alternative

07:43economy. This is the, you know, area of the economy where right-wing folks are looking to build

07:50alternatives to sort of big established companies. And oftentimes it's alternatives to big tech, but you

07:56see also other alternatives as well. And so that's his main thing. But he's also, you know, he's joining

08:02all sorts of boards, either as an advisor or as an actual board member of the company. He's at Unusual

08:07Machines. That's a drone company. He's got about a million dollars in shares as of when I published my

08:12piece. We've also got Public Square. This is kind of an anti-woke competitor to Amazon. Also,

08:18he's got around a million dollars in holdings to that and in that. He's been working with them for

08:22a while now, but even before the election. He recently joined up with Grab-A-Gun. This is a

08:28online firearms marketplace. He's poised to get 300,000 shares in that company once the company goes

08:35public. And it's going, it's planning on going public via a SPAC merger later this year. So he's been

08:41keeping plenty busy. And it looks like things are going to continue to be busy for him in the near

08:46future as he continues to, like I said, join these boards, join these advisory committees on these

08:51various companies. And I want to talk about another board that both Don Jr. and Eric Trump are sitting

08:56on, and that is the Board of Dominary Holdings. It's a company that's focused on some of the industries

09:01that the Trump administration has heavily invested in since the beginning of President Trump's second

09:07term. So ethics questions aside here, talk to us a little bit about their work there and how much

09:12they're making. So what they're actually doing for Dominary Holdings is a little bit unclear.

09:16What Dominary Holdings itself does is also a little bit unclear. It's kind of a vaguely defined

09:20financial firm. It is publicly traded. It's got a very small market cap relative to other firms like

09:26this. But between the stock compensation and the additional shares that both Don Jr. and Eric have

09:34gotten since joining this company, both of them now have a share in this company of about $6 million

09:38each. And recently the company said, you know, when they brought on Don Jr. and Eric, that they're

09:44bringing them on because they're looking to expand into the AI and data center space. And they're

09:49bringing on Don Jr. and Eric for their expertise in the AI and data center space. Now, I'm not sure

09:56when Don Jr. and Eric actually worked in AI and data centers. But what we do know is that the Trump

10:01administration announced billions of dollars in investments in AI and data centers from the

10:06federal government around the same time. So that is an interesting coincidence of timing. And that

10:14is one of their more lucrative things that they've done just since joining or just since the election.

10:20So business-wise, according to your reporting, Don Jr. and Eric Trump seemingly are not as

10:26hamstrung this term. So what do the next three and a half years look like for the brothers?

10:30You're reporting that the future, financially speaking, looks pretty bright.

10:36It does. They're going to presumably continue to add to the board seats, their advisor roles,

10:41their Trump organization expansions as they continue to announce projects all over the world.

10:45Eric Trump's got additional crypto ventures that he's working on. So as we continue to see these

10:50kinds of things roll in, these announcements, as companies continue to add Don Jr. and Eric to

10:55their boards and their advisory committees, me and the rest of the Money in Politics team,

10:59we're going to stay on top of the coverage and we're going to do our best to keep bringing you

11:03updates on these figures. And I think for me, at least, that means that you and I have plenty of

11:08conversations in store. Kyle Conmullens, thanks so much. Absolutely. Always great to be here,

11:14Brittany. Thanks again.

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