Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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💰 Trump reaps $1.4 billion from crypto

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump pulled in more than $2.2 billion in his first year back in office, powered by roughly $1.4 billion from crypto ventures, new financial disclosures show, according to his 927-page disclosure, released yesterday. The filings offer the clearest picture yet of a president profiting from an industry he regulates. The disclosure pegs Trump's assets at a minimum of $2.4 billion, but ranges cap at more than $50 million per holding, so the real total could be higher, The New York Times reports. He also reported $86.5 million from settling five suits against ABC, CBS, YouTube, Meta and X. The White House told The Washington Post that Trump has never had a conflict of interest and any suggestion otherwise is a "tired, false narrative." Go deeper (gift link).

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Federal judge denies effort by Trump administration to get New Hampshire’s detailed voter data

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Justice Department aimed at compelling New Hampshire to turn over its voter rolls, dealing the Trump administration another setback in its quest for detailed information about the nation’s voters.

https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-voter-list-new-hampshire-trump-8d490c0f19b8658abe00f0b6b2cba408?

• Trump announces first-ever midterm convention for Republicans
   
• Republican Tom Kean Jr. reveals depression diagnosis after four-month absence from Congress
   
• House GOP deadlocks over Trump’s demands, sending lawmakers home early
   
• Trump’s actions signal a move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities, advocates warn 
   
• Filing shows Trump took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year
   
• Trump administration suspends funding for New York’s Medicaid fraud unit
   
• Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead new White House UFO council 

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How Secrets of Trump’s First Rally Show He Was Always Fake

Donald Trump held his first rally in 1990. This is the true story of its brazen fakery.

On Saturday night, Donald Trump will take over the National Mall to turn the nation’s 250th birthday party into a celebration of himself.

“We are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,’” he announced on Truth Social.

The event—which is to end with what Trump is hyping as the “largest fireworks show in history”—will be the most grandiose of the 80-year-old’s self-celebrating rallies, whose history now stretches back nearly four decades.

But its tacky, tawdry essence will be the same as the very first Trump rally. It will be all about one man. It is certain to include attacks on the press. It may even be just as fake as that very first one.

That event was a public-relations stunt touted as “a grassroots show of support” by employees at his four Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos, two days after his 44th birthday on June 16, 1990.

That was also one day after he missed $42.65 million in payments on $1.3 billion in debt. The need for counter-publicity was made clear by newspaper headlines such as “Donald Duck$” and “Uh-Owe.”

The $1 billion-plus Taj Mahal casino that towered 44 stories above the boardwalk where the rally was held had been hyped by Trump at its opening as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

It was now being called “the eighth blunder.”

What was supposedly a spontaneous show of support had been orchestrated by a Trump advertising executive.

Trump management estimated to journalists that 3,000 employees attended the rally. The Associated Press counted around 800—a pattern of numerical inflation that has become very familiar.

More importantly, New York Newsday reported that one of the employees said supervisors had ordered them the day before to attend the rally.

A reporter who was at the scene, but who has since left the news business and asked not to be identified, told the Daily Beast that the rally “was definitely organized” and that he got the impression “from the few people I talked to… it was a company-mandated activity they had to attend.”

As Trump arrived, moving through the crowds and shaking hands, mid-level management called out, “Happy Birthday, Donald!… We Love You, Donald!”

A five-piece band, booked by the ad executive, played Happy Birthday as Trump mounted a stage that had been erected for what his people called a grassroots expression of solidarity. A banner hung overhead:

“We’re behind you 400 percent… P.S. Happy Birthday.”

The show continued, and Trump was presented with an outsized birthday card signed by hundreds of well-wishers. He was also given a 6-by-4 rug with a woven portrait of his favorite person, himself.

“Trump’s portrait on a rug,” the former reporter recalled. “I thought it was kind of tacky… like a portrait of Elvis in a motel room or something.”

Trump seemed delighted by the portrait and by the rest of the rally, dedicated entirely to his favorite person.

“This is unbelievable,” he told the crowd. “Nobody’s going to believe that this had nothing to do with me.”

All the themes of a Trump rally were there to see. There was defiance of authorities, in this case, the banks, and attacks on the press, who had been invited to the event.

Trump was reported to have been given 10 days to work out an arrangement with the banks for a bailout loan or face bankruptcy, but he dismissed reports of his financial difficulties and insisted the Taj Mahal was “setting records.” He launched into an attack against what was even then his favorite target.

“I know there are reporters here, but you don’t see them writing this story,” he said. “Nobody wants to write the positives.”

He then said, “Well, over the years, I’ve surprised a lot of people. And the biggest surprise is yet to come.”

He repeated his remarks at the rally almost verbatim at a birthday party that night in the ballroom of the Trump Castle casino.

“Just remember one thing…” he said, then repeating, “I’ve surprised you before, and the biggest is yet to come.”

Among the B-list celebrities and entertainers in attendance was comedian Fred Travalena, who had been flown in to deliver an impersonation of President George H.W. Bush.

“I keep hearing Donald Trump would make a great president,” Travalena’s President Bush joked.

Exactly a quarter century later and two days after his 69th birthday, Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower with his latest wife, Melania, to announce what had seemed just a jest in 1990.

He had survived a prolonged financial crisis involving more than $2 billion in debt by giving up actual building and simply licensing his name. The power of the Trump brand had grown exponentially as The Apprentice demonstrated reality TV’s ability to create an illusion. He announced he was running for president, and many rallies followed, some with almost as many supporters in attendance as he claimed.

But even Trump was surprised by the outcome.

“Do you believe this s---?” he told a longtime New York politician who called him the morning after he was elected.

As we came to his 80th birthday on June 14, Trump was in his second term. He has been doing all he can to conflate his birthday with America’s 250th anniversary. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

Thirty-six years after the publicity stunt outside the Eighth Blunder of the World, Trump and the equivalents of his ad executive have been weaving another show—Freedom 250—that is often proving as tacky as a portrait on a motel-room rug. He acts as if it were an expression of support for him, as if all of America were out on a continent-sized boardwalk, chanting, “We Love Donald” along with, “USA! USA!”

On the Fourth of July, Trump will hold another rally. This one will be on a much grander scale, but it is sure to be much like his first in all its damning pretense and denial.

We can only hope that we are not in for an even bigger surprise in the days ahead.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trumps-very-first-rally-eerily-foreshadowed-his-july-4-takeover/?

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First-Term Trump Lawyer Torches President’s ‘Onslaught of Corruption’

The president’s staggering fortune was revealed in financial disclosures.

Donald Trump’s former White House lawyer Ty Cobb accused the president of squeezing an historic amount of “corruption” into just 18 months.

Trump’s staggering personal fortune got a public airing this week when the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a 927-page financial disclosure revealing just how lucrative his second presidency has proved.

The document shows Trump raked in at least $2.2 billion in 2025 alone—from cryptocurrency, real estate, legal settlements, and an array of other income streams.

More than $1 billion of that came from crypto, including profits from World Liberty Financial, the venture he founded with his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, that sells “governance tokens,” and the $TRUMP meme coin he launched three days before his inauguration.

This, Cobb surmised, amounts to an “onslaught of corruption.”

“I don’t think it was contemplated by the founders when they created the Emoluments Clauses,” he said on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront on Monday, referencing the provisions in the Constitution designed to prevent corruption.

He said crypto is a “slimy industry,” and added that the way Trump is “going around it, where he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by.”

Getting straight to the point, Cobb, who served as a White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, said, “There’s no question. I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months.”

He said Trump, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $6 billion, has a daily “devotion” to accumulating wealth and power and added that the “grift” is at a “stunning” scale.

Cobb left the first Trump administration in 2018 after managing the White House’s internal legal team on matters related to Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.

In response to Cobb’s comments, White House Spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast: “This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.

“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public—which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media. There are no conflicts of interest.”

In a previous statement, shared on Tuesday, Kelly said: “Neither the president nor his family has ever engaged—or will ever engage—in conflicts of interest.

“President Trump proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world through executive actions, supporting legislation like the GENIUS Act, and other commonsense policies to drive innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans. All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people—and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/first-term-trump-lawyer-torches-presidents-onslaught-of-corruption/?

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Ex-CIA Director John Brennan seeks court order requiring records from investigations be preserved

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations that he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.”

https://apnews.com/article/brennan-cia-russia-justice-department-investigation-0953e358307a391d6f1c0da14b18bf4e?

• ✈️ President Trump took flight today on his new Air Force One: a Boeing 747-8 given to the U.S. by the Qatari government. He told reporters ahead of takeoff: "This was a gift from a country that's treated us very well." How Trump got a "palace in the sky."
• 🇺🇸 The White House will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The administration is setting up years of annual reviews that bring fresh uncertainty for businesses that depend on trade with two of America's largest trading partners. Go deeper.

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Coordination Rules Everything Around Me (Dan Brandenburg / Getty)

View in browser No sooner had the Supreme Court issued its opinion in a big campaign-finance case yesterday than my inbox began filling up with nongovernmental organizations and Democratic leaders decrying the ruling. In the case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the justices struck down a law limiting the amount of money that political parties can use for coordinated spending on candidates. On first glance, the ruling is yet another in a string of cases in which the Court’s conservative majority has overturned laws that try to regulate the flow of money in politics, citing the right to free speech. “Today’s ruling is a win for billionaire donors and special interests who want more influence over the GOP agenda and an invitation for corruption,” the leaders of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thundered in a statement. Michael Waldman, head of the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice, took a similar line: “Today’s campaign finance ruling is part of the Roberts Court’s 16-year drive to destroy anti-corruption laws.” The Elias Law Group, a top Democratic law firm, said that the decision “needlessly overturns its own precedent to destroy a long-standing pillar of federal campaign finance law.” The bleakest predictions about the decision may yet come true—contemporary American politics seldom disappoints pessimists—but I think another interpretation is more likely. NRSC will help empower the political parties, reduce the appeal of super PACs, and potentially even improve transparency, all of which are positive changes. The conservative majority may have unintentionally stumbled into a good result for election law, at least within the bounds of the deeply broken status quo. The law in question is, like all campaign-finance rules, arcane. Individuals are permitted to give only a set amount to candidates, and the statute was designed to keep donors from funneling greater sums by passing them through the parties. It set a limit on how much parties can spend in coordination with candidates—$65,300 in most House races in 2026. Meanwhile, the Court has issued many decisions demolishing existing campaign-finance laws over the past couple of decades, including Citizens United v. FEC, which struck down limits on outside spending, as did a lower court with its decision in SpeechNOW.Org v. FEC, which paved the way for super PACs, both in 2010. That shift means that far more money is sloshing around, but instead of going to parties, it’s going into independent groups such as super PACs, which have comparatively little regulation or disclosure rules. The idea that political parties should be stronger may be counterintuitive to most Americans, who hold both the Democratic and Republican Parties in low esteem. But many political scientists have argued that one reason American politics is such a mess is that the party organizations have been weakened for decades, through steps that include the deregulation of campaign-finance and also “good governance” reforms such as choosing candidates via transparent primaries rather than in smoke-filled rooms. Weak parties are less able to squash candidates whose positions come from the fringes of their coalitions, or massively wealthy candidates—or both, in the case of Donald Trump, whom the GOP establishment disdained but proved powerless to stop in 2016. “Unlike Superpacs, the political parties are accountable to the voters,” Rick Pildes, a professor at the New York University School of Law, told me in an email. “They aggregate a broad array of interests, unlike ideological Superpacs; the money to parties is fully transparent, unlike Superpacs; and political parties are the major vehicle through which voters get messages about a governing agenda.” He added, “Even if you believe there’s too much money in politics, it’s better to have that money flow through the political parties than these unaccountable, outside groups that are often narrowly focused.”   Lifting the ban on coordination won’t eliminate super PACs, which raised $5 billion in the 2024 election, but it will make them less alluring to donors. Money can be used more efficiently if it’s going directly to a party and candidate, rather than to a super PAC that is legally barred from coordinating with a candidate.   One reason Democrats reacted angrily to the ruling is that, in the immediate term, the GOP will likely benefit. (This is also the reason Republicans brought the suit.) Bloomberg notes that Republican committees have more money in their coffers than their Democratic counterparts do, even as many Democratic candidates are out-raising their opponents. In the long run, though, both parties will benefit.   Like a huge majority of Americans, I would prefer a far more restrictive campaign-finance regime, one that made money less important, thus freeing elected officials of the need to spend astonishing amounts of time fundraising, and reduced the political sway of billionaires and wealthy special interests alike. This spring, The New York Times reported that one-fifth of federal-campaign donations in 2024 came from billionaires and their immediate family members—a total of more than $3 billion. But the current Supreme Court has demonstrated that it will strike down almost any law that attempts to restrict this type of spending as an infringement on the First Amendment—as it did in this case.   Bruce Cain, a political scientist at Stanford, wrote in an email that he agreed with the “core argument” of the NRSC ruling, but added, “The problem of mega-donors and independent spending will not go away because of this decision.” In its other recent jurisprudence, he said, “the Court has ruled that independent spending cannot corrupt the way a direct contribution can. This is a ludicrous legal assumption, but it will not be changed soon.”   NRSC v. FEC does nothing to fix these broader systemic problems with money in elections, but it’s a baby step toward a more functional politics.   Related: Trump exposes the holes in campaign-finance laws. (From 2018) Small donors still aren’t as important as wealthy ones. (From 2016)

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Trump's wealth

President Donald Trump on Wednesday took his first flight aboard the new Air Force One, a luxury Boeing jet donated by the government of Qatar. The aircraft, an unconditional gift estimated to be worth about $400 million, has raised legal, ethical and national security concerns. It comes as Trump faces renewed scrutiny over claims that he is profiting from the presidency after new financial disclosures showed his wealth has soared since retaking office and his Florida resorts have posted record-breaking revenue gains. Read more.

ANALYSIS: Will Trump pay a political price for his rising wealth?

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Crypto, real estate, watches: How Trump made over $1 billion last year President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office. Read more.

Why this matters: Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office. The White House has repeatedly said that Trump has acted only in the public interest, never gets involved in a family business run by his two oldest sons and has zero conflicts of interest.   The rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, a stunning development sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry and help from billionaires and other actors with important business before the presidency.   The report also shows Trump took in tens of millions from new property holdings in countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump flies on new Air Force One worth $400 million gifted by Qatar   How the Supreme Court became a pivotal force in Trump’s immigration agenda   AP’s long-time Supreme Court reporter reflects on front-row seat to legal history   Trump embraces ‘Great Equivocator’ role, sending mixed signals that vex markets and allies   Judge orders Pentagon to lift policy that journalists be accompanied by an escort   US and Iran hold separate meetings in Qatar and agree to continue discussions   Ex-CIA Director John Brennan seeks court order requiring records from investigations be preserved   Americans step out for their nation’s 250th in a proud moment sown with division and doubt   Medicare is now covering some GLP-1 weight loss drugs for $50. Here’s what to know

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Trump Secretly Orders Mass Arrests After ICE Disasters

Federal agents have detained more than 10,000 people in five days.

Donald Trump secretly ordered a surge in immigration arrests that has seen more than 10,000 people detained in just five days. The clampdown marks a change of gear for a president, 80, whose high-profile enforcement operations last year descended into chaos and bloodshed. Border Patrol and ICE agents shot at least 14 people between September 2025 and February 2026, among them two U.S. citizens killed in Minneapolis. They were Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, also 37, and a VA intensive care nurse, who was thrown to the ground and shot by Border Patrol agents at a protest weeks later.

Agency leaders have now ordered top ICE officials to throw more of their officers into rounding up immigrants marked for deportation, according to the New York Times, which obtained internal documents and spoke to federal officials. The White House wanted more arrests, three officials with knowledge of the conversations told the paper. They were told 2,000 detentions a day was the new benchmark.

According to its own figures, that appears to have worked. Daily arrest numbers have roughly doubled from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. Agents have seized people at routine immigration check-ins, during traffic stops, and out on the street.

Detentions peaked on Saturday, when more than 2,400 people were taken in a single day, according to the Times.

The detained population inside ICE facilities has jumped by nearly 4,000, to more than 63,000 as of Tuesday.

But this time, as the eyes of the world are trained on the U.S. during the soccer World Cup, there is no fanfare. Last year’s operations were announced in advance and defined by officers pouring into Democratic-run cities. In the summer of 2025, the so-called “commander-at-large” Gregory Bovino racked up more than 5,000 arrests in Los Angeles and over 3,000 in greater Chicago, a campaign that was quickly buried under courtroom humiliations.

It all fell apart in Minneapolis, where Operation Metro Surge collapsed amid the deaths of Pretti and Good, and ended with the resignations of Bovino and the then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, 54.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, 48, who replaced Noem, has pledged a quieter enforcement drive since. “We are going to take a different approach that can be more effective and less public-facing,” Mullin said, although this week has seen him make a number of gaffe-strewn media appearances to mark 100 days in charge of DHS, some of which contained questionable data.

The perceived go-slow that followed Minneapolis had infuriated the president’s MAGA base. Arrests had slumped to as low as 1,200 a day, a fraction of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s stated goal of 3,000 detentions daily—a target the agency has never hit.

The renewed push suggests Trump wants to at least attempt to deliver on his signature promise of mass deportations. It comes days after the Supreme Court handed him a mixed result, expanding his power over immigration policy while blocking his bid to end birthright citizenship.

In South Texas, Nigerian nun Sister Letty Ugboaja, a local nurse, was arrested on her way to church on Sunday morning, according to her colleague Sister Norma Pimentel. She was released the same day after congressional officials intervened. “It took her a while to be able to talk—she was crying,” Pimentel told the Times.

Immigration lawyers report the same pattern across the country. In Utah, attorney Ysabel Lonazco said one client, a man who had overstayed his visa, was picked up while driving over the weekend. “People don’t want to leave their houses,” she said. “They are afraid to drive to do their grocery shopping.”

DHS defended the sweep. “Our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you and we will deport you,” department spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-quietly-orders-mass-arrests-after-ice-disasters/?

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Trump Voters Horrified by His Giant Cash Grab

The president has made billions while Americans suffer in a cost-of-living crisis.

Two people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 have blasted the president for how much he has enriched himself while in office.

The two individuals were interviewed by MS Now’s Laura Barrón-López about their reaction to the revelation that Trump’s income soared by $2.2 billion in 2025, including more than $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.

Speaking at the sparsely attended Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., Barrón-López asked whether it is “appropriate” for the president to make so much money while in the White House.

“I actually don’t, no. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” one man, whose name was not given, replied. “If you’re in office, take your salary. Your investments are in the hands of third parties that you don’t have influence over.”

A woman standing next to him added, “I think you should just concentrate on being the president. I think he has enough money already.”

After playing the clip, Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace repeated the woman’s belief that Trump “has enough money already.”

“I do too, but those folks are people who voted for Donald Trump 18 months ago,” Wallace said.

Trump, who has an estimated net worth of more than $6 billion, made improving the economy and tackling the cost-of-living crisis two of his main 2024 campaign promises.

However, the 80-year-old president has only exacerbated the financial hardships facing millions of Americans during his second term because of policies such as his sweeping tariffs and the war in Iran, which sent gas prices soaring.

At the same time, a 927-page document released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics revealed that Trump earned more than $2.2 billion last year from his various businesses and investments.

That includes more than $1.4 billion from his various cryptocurrency ventures, with digital assets overtaking real estate as the Trump family’s main source of income.

Last year, Trump raked in more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he co-founded with his sons, as well as another $635 million from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coin.

Speaking to reporters as he showed off the new Air Force One plane gifted to him by the Qatari royal family, Trump defended how much he has enriched himself while in office and insisted he does not make his own investment decisions.

“You know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market’s going up. Everybody’s profiting,” Trump said.

“How’s your 401(k) doing? It’s up about 85 percent. Thank you, President Trump. So we’re all profiting,” he added. “I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash, and I give it to institutions [to invest on my behalf]. I don’t know if they know what they’re doing or not, but they buy a vast array of things.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-voters-horrified-by-his-giant-cash-grab/?