Almost as soon as Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) began announcing a flurry of business endeavors that experts warn amount to serious potential conflicts of interest. That’s nothing new for a Trump presidency. During his first term, government accountability watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, flagged more than 3,700 instances of conflicts of interest between the president and his business ventures. In recent months, Trump has also accepted the Qatari government’s gift of a Boeing 747 airplane, and hosted a black-tie gala for top investors in his memecoin.
But with TMTG, which went public in March 2024, the president’s corporate footprint – and the room it’s created for potential conflicts of interest – is growing.
Meghan Faulkner, communications director at CREW, pointed to one example wherein Switzerland’s publicly-owned bank bought nearly $2 million worth of TMTG shares, inviting potential foreign policy impropriety.
“[T]here may be other examples of businesses or government entities buying that stock,” Faulkner said, “but it is at this point certainly opaque so it is really difficult to know the extent of the possible conflicts.”
In response to emailed questions, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly sent a statement denying any conflicts of interest.
“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” Kelly said in an email.
TMTG did not respond to an email request for comment.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and ethics experts disagree that Trump putting his media company in a revocable trust controlled by his son, Donald Trump, Jr., satisfies potential conflicts.
Said Faulkner: “The trust is not truly blind if his sons are managing it and making announcements about what the companies are doing.”
From his company’s plan to offer paid subscriptions to its Truth+ streaming service, to the creation of a risky, multi-billion bitcoin treasury, the dealings of Trump’s media company threaten public trust in governance, ethics, and the rule of law, experts told TPM. Here are some of the most consequential moves TMTG has made in only five months since Trump reascended to the Oval Office, and what they could mean for the president’s domestic policy and, eventually, his pockets.
Stock buybacks to signal faith in an unprofitable business
In late June, TMTG announced a $400 million stock buyback, billed as a show of the company’s confidence in itself, and likely intended to signal that it believes its stock is undervalued. The company will pay its own money for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of its own stocks, and, theoretically, raise its share price. This comes after the stock price has plummeted by almost 50% since Election Day.
Trump had a 52% stake in the corporation according to the president’s 2025 financial disclosure, so, though he may not be involved in decision-making at TMTG, he stands to collect a significant profit — if the buybacks bolster the share price.
Here’s a small snapshot of the company’s financials: According to the company’s most recent quarterly report, its revenue is paltry compared to its operating costs and expenses, and independent auditors raised “substantial doubt” about TMTG’s financial viability in an April 2024 financial filing. In its most recent annual report, auditors found TMTG’s leadership had “had no way to evaluate the likelihood that its business will be successful.” The company claims to have more than $775 million in cash on hand, but posted a net loss of more than $400 million and less than $4 million in revenue, according to CNBC.
TMTG announces fintech platform, diving into crypto investing
On January 29, Trump Media announced that its board approved a $250 million investment into Truth.fi, a not-yet-launched financial technology company offering a financial services platform for retail, or everyday, investors. Think Coinbase, but geared toward more specific, TMTG-stamped assets.
If it turns out to be anything like a traditional crypto exchange, Truth.fi could make money by charging a fee on every trade. The more transactions, the more money Trump Media stands to make. Crypto exchanges also make money by charging to list new cryptocurrencies on their platforms, and can have subscription models.
This means the Trump administration’s enthusiastic embrace of pro-crypto economic policies could ultimately enrich the president.
Truth+ streaming hits the mainstream
After Trump Media announced that its streaming service, Truth+, would begin being able to accept and process payments in February, the streaming service made its way to Roku the following month.
No word on when paid subscriptions will begin to roll out on the app. For now, programming can be accessed for free through the app.
Creation of investment funds and accounts aligned with Trump’s domestic policy agenda
In February, March, and again in April, TMTG announced the ongoing creation of its exchange traded funds (ETFs) and separately managed accounts (SMAs) offering investment products that stand to benefit explicitly from Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
With names like “Made In America, “Liberty & Security” and “U.S. Energy Independence,” the funds stand to enable Trump’s company to profit from his administration’s own nationalist policy agenda.
“I think those ventures do pose serious concerns about whether there could be a push for favorable policies that could benefit the Trump Media business interests,” said Faulkner of CREW. “A ‘Made In America’ fund, you certainly have to ask if that could influence tariff decisions.”
In a March release, TMTG President and former congressional Trump ally Devin Nunes said the corporation’s funds would include “firms that concentrate on…strengthening the U.S. economy, unencumbered by woke nonsense and political posturing.”
A multi-billion dollar bitcoin treasury that “does beg the question, why…?”
The most significant money move TMTG has made by far since Trump took office has been the creation of a bitcoin treasury.
A bitcoin treasury provides investors with flexible exposure to cryptocurrency assets. If a company is performing well, bitcoin tied to the company’s valuation is also worth more than bitcoin by itself. TMTG said it raised around $2.3 billion from a combination of debt and investments from 50 institutional investors, giving those investors two types of TMTG stock in exchange. Trump Media initially said it would use the money to buy bitcoin, but later said the money would be used both for bitcoin and for “other general corporate purposes and working capital,” in a press release. This is significant because, again, a recent independent audit found that TMTG is not profitable, and possibly may not even be a financially viable, company.
Anyway, this type of so-called “leveraged bitcoin move” comes with significant risk, said Michael del Castillo, founder of AI crypto research and consulting firm Media Luna Creations. One risk includes a “collateral call,” which would happen if the value of the underlying digital asset — in this case bitcoin — falls to a certain point and lenders claw back the money they’ve loaned and leave the borrower, Trump Media, “high and dry,” said del Castillo.
Trump’s political power and status as president could mitigate that risk, and also raises questions about how investors truly seek to benefit from investing in this kind of exposure to bitcoin, said del Castillo.
The lenders “might be more willing to overlook a collateral call because they are implicitly trying to support an elected leader,” said del Castillo, who also covered the crypto industry as a journalist for more than a decade. If they “were truly looking just for exposure to bitcoin, they could buy bitcoin, they could buy a bitcoin ETF, they could buy stock at another bitcoin treasury play — which does beg the question, why this investment opportunity?”
The potential to curry favor with any elected leader by investing millions into business ventures that stand to benefit them must be considered, Del Castillo said.
TMTG engenders itself to the crypto industry that helped elect Trump and his allies
In June, TMTG expanded its bitcoin ETF into an ETF that carries both bitcoin and ether, the native cryptocurrency of a decentralized blockchain called Ethereum. Why the expansion? There could be two reasons, del Castillo said.
Perhaps Trump Media wants to signal its confidence in Ethereum, which is cast by its promoters as a kind of global supercomputer with no centralized governance. This would, del Castillo said, be a “gesture of support” for a decentralized future with freedom from traditional authorities.
More likely, said del Castillo, Trump’s media company is nodding to the Ethereum community because in 2024 the crypto industry banded together to spend millions of dollars to oust anti-crypto politicians and elect crypto-friendly ones.
“Adding an Ethereum ETF to Trump’s possible investments might be a gesture towards faith in the technology,” said del Castillo, “but it’s almost certainly a gesture toward gaining the support of the Ethereum community.”
