Bessent Waves Off Trump's $1 Billion Crypto Windfall
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there's no 'appearance problem' with Trump's $1 billion crypto haul, two days after disclosures detailed it.
Scott Bessent does not see a conflict. The Treasury Secretary told CBS News on Thursday that there is no appearance problem with President Trump collecting more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency profits while in office. His defense landed two days after federal disclosures put hard numbers on the haul, and it did little to quiet the questions about them.
Where the money came from
The personal financial disclosures, released Tuesday, show Trump earned more than $526.8 million last year from World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture he launched with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump in the fall of 2024. A second line runs even bigger. The documents cite more than $635 million in royalties from a licensing agreement between CIC Digital LLC, a Trump Organization affiliate, and what the filing calls celebrations coins. Both figures come straight from the paperwork Trump's own office filed.
The innovation defense
Bessent framed the windfall as broad upside. "This is an innovation presidency," he told anchor Kelly O'Grady, pointing to digital assets and AI, and adding that "all Americans are benefiting from that." He was answering a direct question about the optics. Trump, for his part, kept his distance from the trades. He told CNBC on Thursday that he had no knowledge of the investments and would not care if he had. "I could know about it. I didn't," he said. "There's nothing illegal, there's nothing wrong with it. I could know."
The wider ledger
The crypto income sits inside a much larger pile. The 927-page report from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics detailed more than $2 billion in earnings for Trump last year, including $220 million from holdings in dozens of large U.S. corporations. The scrutiny is not new. Critics have hammered Trump since he refused to divest his real estate empire and rolled out a meme coin ahead of his second inauguration, and the disclosure has only sharpened questions about conflicts of interest. The White House has cast those questions aside. So has its Treasury Secretary.
Sources
- Bessent brushes off critics of Trump's crypto haul
Disclosure
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