Trump Made a Billion While in Office. Now Ask Yourself If Barack Obama Could Get Away With It
Let’s talk about the unwritten rule when it comes to Black America that was drilled into your head before you could legally purchase alcohol: you can’t do everything white people do. You must be twice as good—and God forbid you show a hint of financial ambition. If a Black politician so much as breathes on a vacation home or secures a minor bag while in office, typically within weeks he’s investigated and audited. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump just raked in over a billion from crypto alone and Bibles.
It’s a tale as old as time, Black folks: we simply cannot do what others do, we do not play by the same rules, and are not held to the same standard. Barack Obama had to run a flawless administration that accounted for every single penny because the system was practically salivating to condemn him.
Even when doing things entirely by the book—like waiting until after leaving the Oval Office, per the New York Times, to sign his historic $60 million publishing deal with Penguin Random House, Black leaders are forced to follow a completely different set of rules just to survive.
President Donald Trump earned more than $1.4 billion in income through numerous cryptocurrency ventures in 2025, according to his latest financial disclosures, POLITICO reported. The eye-watering 927-page document, released by the Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday (June 30), shows that Trump secured over $636 million in pure revenue through a Trump affiliate CIC Digital that’s behind his memecoin, $TRUMP. But wait, there’s more.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto company co-founded by Trump and his sons during his 2024 presidential campaign, generated nearly $600 million in income, according to POLITICO. The president’s windfall doesn’t stop at crypto.
Related: America 250: A Look at Trump’s ‘Freedom Trucks’ That Are Sanitizing Black History
Thousands of Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bibles— shipped at just $3 per Bible according to PBS— are being sold at $59.99 each, putting potential sales revenue around $7 million. The BBC reported he pocketed $300,000.
Need to smell good for a night out on the town? Yet another Trump venture has you (and his bank account) covered! Trump’s fragrance, the “Victory 47″ collection packaged in a rose-gold bottle of his likeness, retails for $249 for 3.3 ounces.
He made $2.5 million from the fragrances and his Trump 45 Sneakers, according to a financial disclosure report released in June 2023, according to ABC News.
Propery wise, his ultra-exclusive private club and primary residence in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, took in $77 million in “resort related revenue,” CNN reported. Other profit generators included $4.7 million in royalties just for “Trump Watches,” and nearly $440,000 in lavish gifts handed to him during his final year in office.
Now, imagine if a Black politician did any of this.
If a Black lawmaker released a $15 gospel mixtape or pocketed millions off real estate while in office, the ethics committees would probably trip over their feet from running so fast to investigate them in a wild double standard. While a white politician rakes in millions, any Black official would face immediate career ruin and systemic policing the millisecond it appears they are building wealth for themselves in office.
As reported by The Atlantic, back in 2012, Black lawmakers made up just 10% of the House but accounted for nearly 85% of the lawmakers under active investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
Abbe Lowell, the white D.C. attorney representing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in her legal battle against Trump, famously called out the blatant hypocrisy. “A white member of Congress who maintains two houses and sends his children to private school is not considered unusual,” he wrote in an op-ed, according to reports. “When a black does the same, someone wants to know where he gets his money.”
Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.
