Continued Self Dealing and Cronyism

Corruption and self-dealing have been defining features of President Trump’s second term.

In January, we did a two-part recap of the Administration’s corruption throughout 2025. Here’s a look at how some of those in Trump’s circle have profited from government favor in the first six months of 2026.

Trump Administration settles sham case with Donald Trump

Trump sued the IRS earlier this year for $10 billion over the leak of his tax information by an IRS contractor between 2018 and 2020. Then four months later his appointees at the Department of Justice agreed to settle the case. It was called a “fraud on the court” by a bipartisan group of former judges who challenged the settlement. The bulk of the settlement agreement was the creation of an anti-weaponization fund to dole out nearly $2 billion to those who claim to have been unfairly investigated by the U.S. government, i.e., January 6 rioters and Trump himself. The slush fund was halted by a federal judge before the Administration dropped the plans. Trump’s personal-lawyer-turned-acting-Attorney-General Todd Blanche testified during a Congressional hearing that the plan had been abandoned, but said he was not committed to putting anything in writing to affirm that statement.

Trump grants himself tax immunity

In addition to the anti-weaponization fund, Blanche announced that the Trump Administration had agreed as a part of the settlement to permanently bar the government from prosecuting Trump, his sons, or the Trump Organization for violations of tax law. Trump floated the idea of releasing his tax returns, which has refused to do in the past, now that he is reportedly shielded from prosecution.

Dell Technologies scheme

In February, Trump’s investment portfolio purchased between $1 million and $5 million in Dell stock. Nine days later, Trump told a crowd in Georgia to “go out and buy a Dell computer.” But that’s not all.

Michael and Susan Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies and his wife, pledged $6.25 billion to the Trump Accounts program last year. Then this year, after Trump’s personal investment in their company, Dell was awarded a $9.7 billion contract with the Pentagon to provide software for the military. Dell’s revenue has increased more than 80% year over year and its stock has tripled in the past year.

Cronyism in Green

The Trump Administration paid a contractor to paint the base of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in an unsuccessful attempt to address the algae issue that has persisted since the pool’s construction. The no-bid contract was awarded to Atlantic Industrial Coatings for more than $14 million in taxpayer funds, seven times the original estimate. The contract was awarded on April 3. On April 23 and May 6, Trump said that the contractor had worked on pools for him in the past. But on May 12 he said he didn’t know the contractor and was not a part of the contract award.

In addition to the new paint job, the government awarded another no-bid contract to Green Water Solutions, a company owned by Trump donor John Cafaro. The contract was for $1.7 million for a new filtration system in the reflecting pool. Cafaro has pleaded guilty to financial crimes in the past, including campaign finance violations and bribery of Rep. James Traficant in 2001. Not only has he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s fundraising committees, he has also done work on at least one Trump Organization property.

Trump family members benefit too

The cronyism isn’t limited to those outside of the Trump family. Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner reportedly floated real estate projects along with an investment fund for Iran if a deal could be reached. The Memorandum of Understanding that has been negotiated includes $300 billion in funds for reconstruction and economic development for Iran. Kushner has made no secret of the intertwining of his role as an envoy to the Middle East and his personal financial dealings. Now a member of the executive board of Trump’s Board of Peace, Kushner has sought real estate deals in Gaza, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, telling 60 Minutes in January that “what people call conflicts of interest, Steve [Witkoff] and I call experience and trusted relationships.”

Since Trump won the 2024 election, Donald Trump Jr. has joined the boards of at least two companies directly benefitting from the current administration: PublicSquare, an e-commerce company which was being investigated for violating state consumer protection laws until the Trump administration dropped the investigation; and BlinkRx, a digital pharmaceutical company that stands to benefit from the development of TrumpRx. He has also invested in or joined the advisory boards of Unusual Machines, Polymarket, Kalshi, and Mixed Martial Arts Group:

• Unusual Machines sold drone parts to the Pentagon.

• Polymarket and Kalshi stand to benefit from a drastic shift in regulatory policy. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has historically taken a hard-line stance on prediction markets as another form of gambling, but current CFTC chairman Michael Selig stated that these markets “provide significant benefits to individuals, businesses, and the broader economy.” As a result, concerns of Don Jr.’s influence in policy-making and of insider trading have proliferated. Legislators on both sides of the aisle have proposed bills that would regulate bets (or event contracts, as the industry would call them) allowed on apps like Kalshi.

• This year, Mixed Martial Arts Group has sought taxpayer funded contracts for military and law enforcement training. It’s unclear whether any contracts have been awarded so far.

In August 2025 Don Jr.’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital invested $65 million in Vulcan Elements for an undisclosed stake in the company, a startup manufacturer of rare-earth magnets. In November 2025 the Pentagon announced that it would loan $620 million to the startup at the suggestion of Peter Navarro, White House advisor the the President and a friend of Don Jr.’s. The funding on this type of loan would typically take months, but this deal was rushed through in a matter of weeks. At the time of the loan announcement, Vulcan Elements had fewer than 50 employees and said they would use the funds to scale a new factory. Their valuation increased ten-fold from around $200 million to $2 billion.

Eric Trump and Don Jr. have tried to sell drone technology to Gulf countries during the war in Iran. They also both have an ownership stake in Skyline Builders which merged with a mining company in Kazakhstan this year. The Export-Import Bank of the United States, a government corporation that finances U.S. exports, issued a Letter of Interest for up to $900 million in project financing for mining operations in Kazakhstan which includes the largest known undeveloped Tungsten supply in the world.

Crypto meme scheme (or, token hokum)

Of course, the Trump family continues to profit off of cryptocurrency ventures as well. According to Reuters, the Trump family has gained $2.3 billion from crypto since the middle of 2024, including by dumping their own “tokens” – resulting in outside investor losses. A recent Public Financial Disclosure Report made to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics for Trump’s 2025 financials documented more than $635 million in earnings from a cryptocurrency licensing agreement for “Celebrational Coins”, $236 million in crypto token sales, and more than $300 million between equity sales and income reported from World Liberty Financial, a Trump family crypto company. According to Forbes, Trump’s net worth has risen to $6.5 billion as of March 2026, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.

The extent to which the Trump family is willing to publicly profit off of Trump’s second term sets an alarming precedent. And as for Congress, it relentlessly investigated Hunter Biden for profiting off of his father’s presidency but has turned a blind eye to the profiteering of the Trump family.