President Trump filed a financial disclosure in June detailing more than $2.2 billion in revenue he brought in during 2025—and a new CREW analysis shows that more than a third of that revenue came from dozens of companies Trump had just incorporated months before. The timing of Trump’s incorporation bonanza during the weeks leading up to his return to office demonstrates how much more motivated and prepared he was to profit from his second term compared to his first.
Trump’s first year back in office was not only more profitable than the entirety of his first term, but was by far the most lucrative of his life, according to Forbes. $859 million of Trump’s staggering 2025 revenue came from companies and Trump-branded products he has added to his business empire since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee for president in 2024. While Trump’s first term was an unprecedented mire of corruption, he’s taken his profiteering to the next level during his second term, establishing new crypto businesses and foreign properties to capitalize on his presidential power.
CREW’s new analysis of incorporation data shows how in the final months before the 2024 election and well into his second term in office, Trump has rapidly built up his business empire, adding 74 new companies and products, setting the stage for the profiteering boom revealed in his 2025 financial disclosures—which has only just begun.
In the decade before Trump first ran for office, he was on a corporate incorporation spree—adding an average of 29 companies to his portfolio every year. But when Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee in May 2016, his business almost entirely stopped incorporating new businesses. From that point until the election, his portfolio expanded by just two entities that generated a total of $61,045 before they were dissolved years later.
Once in office, Trump incorporated four more companies that weren’t tied to his existing businesses. One of them, Trump Media and Technology Group, wasn’t formed until the final weeks of his first term, after he lost the 2020 election. Of the other three, only two generated any revenue for Trump while he was in office, totaling more than $3.5 million over four years. Nearly all of that sum came from a company called T Retail LLC, which was established in November 2017 to manage an online store that sold Trump merchandise like hats, t-shirts and deodorant.
Those millions came on top of hundreds of millions Trump made in office from longstanding properties that were being used by special interests and foreign governments as vehicles to enrich the president while currying favor with his administration. But as bad as Trump’s profiteering was in his first term, it pales in comparison to the bottomless corruption he’s exhibiting this time around.
In the three years from when Trump left office in 2021 to early 2024, he created 12 companies, and put his name on two books, a set of Trump-brand sneakers and a fragrance. This marked a dramatic slowdown from his pace of corporate creation during his last stint as a private citizen, before entering public service.
Then, in March 2024, he became the presumptive Republican nominee for president, and instead of drastically scaling down the number of companies he was adding to his empire, as he had done in his first term, he and his family opened the firehose. In the following eight months leading up to the election, Trump’s business empire added 12 more companies, while also endorsing two books—including a Bible—and putting his name on a set of personalized watches. Eight of the new companies were tied to foreign developments in UAE, Vietnam, and India. Four others were holdings for Trump-branded games and crypto products.
During the time when most candidates begin to plan their presidential transition, Trump appears to have been focused on building up his business portfolio, and he was just getting going. In the two months from his election victory to the inauguration, Trump added a customized Trump “45” guitar and 24 more companies—including four to manage his crypto revenue as well as multiple new foreign developments in India, the Philippines, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia.
Trump has formed at least 34 new companies while in office in his second term, according to CREW’s analysis. The incorporation spree began within just a few days of taking office, including multiple new foreign developments, an unnamed Nashville development and a mobile phone service.
The data suggests that following the wave of crypto revenue that defined Trump’s 2025 income, there is a second significant—though smaller—wave of foreign income from his new licensing deals that will begin to crest in his second year. In 2025, Trump reported more than $54 million from 12 foreign Trump-branded development deals inked after he became the presumptive nominee for president, spanning the globe and including UAE, Romania, India, Vietnam and the Philippines. This appears to be the tip of the iceberg, as there are a number of other new developments in the disclosure for which Trump has yet to report any revenue. This is the case for all 26 companies Trump has started since August 2025.
Trump appears to have formed 12 new companies this year, indicating that he only intends to continue expanding his opportunities for profit. Ten have names that indicate they are tied to new foreign developments. A final pair, TRUMP ACQUISITIONS II LLC and TRUMP ACQUISITIONS II MEMBER CORP, don’t appear to have ever been reported anywhere, but they share a similar name to a company called Trump Acquisition LLC, which was a focus of investigations early in Trump’s first term related to his effort to build a Trump Tower Moscow.
The purpose of Trump Acquisition II LLC is unknown, but in recent years, Trump Acquisition LLC itself has found new life as a vehicle for millions in foreign money. In 2024, it was the vehicle for a $10 million payment from one of the richest men in Asia, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Since making the payment, Ambani has found himself in the good graces of the Trump administration. In another instance, earlier this month, during the drafting of this report, the Trump Organization announced a new project in Hanam, South Korea, which makes it too new to even be included in the data for this analysis. The Trump Organization’s partner company in the project is a South Korean aluminum company facing a trade investigation by the Commerce Department. In 2025, that company paid Trump a $2 million “nonrefundable development fee” as part of a “letter of intent.” The payment was made through Trump Acquisition Inc.
By far the majority of the money Trump made from these new companies formed after he became the presumptive nominee, more than $797 million, has come in the form of crypto. Trump—a former crypto skeptic who called the controversial financial instruments a scam—has relentlessly melded his presidency with his crypto businesses. Nowhere has that been more profitable than his memecoin. Trump held two special events for holders of the useless product, offering special perks for investors, many of whom have been foreign, willing to purchase the most.
The promotions paid off: Trump reported making $635 million memecoin royalties in 2025. That total eclipses his entire revenue, from all sources, in any of the four years of his first term. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of his loyal investors have lost billions collectively as the value of the memecoin collapsed.
Trump also reported $54 million from new foreign developments in the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Trump isn’t building any of these properties, but licensing his name to them. In other words, he gets paid regardless of whether they succeed or fail—or if they’re even built.
While drafting this report, the Trump Organization announced a new foreign development in Hanam, South Korea. Their partner for the project is a Korean firm that has already paid Trump $2 million, while also fighting an investigation into its trade practices by Trump’s Commerce Department. This one instance, which is too new to be included in this analysis, is indicative of all this report has endeavored to demonstrate: Trump’s business empire is expanding dramatically, with an intentionality that he and his administration have denied, while he sits atop an executive branch that can, and has, rewarded those who put money in his pocket.
Trump is a public servant by statute, but a profiteer in practice, and he has perfected his craft during his second term. He has not one company—but hundreds—some formed long ago and dozens formed around his return to power.
Not all of these efforts to enrich himself have succeeded—as his developments in Serbia and Australia have shown. But even failed efforts make Trump’s intention clear: make it out of the presidency with as much money for him and his family as possible. Trump’s blatant profiteering demands accountability.
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