From crypto to drones: how Trump Spa earns 4-5 billion

Eric promotes drones as 'the way of the future' and he knows a thing or two about it: a fund where he and his brother are partners, American Ventures, has a combined investment in the sector estimated at 750 million. Their operations in unmanned aircraft, alongside Powerus, see Eric behind a 1.5 billion deal for the Nasdaq listing of the Israeli company Xtend. Don jr has been advising Unusual Machines in components since 2024. And his 1789 Capital has stakes in Anduril Industries, which specialises in automatic arsenals and is a veteran of government contracts. The Pentagon, which first mobilised one-way drones against Tehran, is multiplying spending and contracts for an armada of hundreds of thousands of aircraft - $1.1 billion by 2027 - while the administration has banned similar Chinese and foreign technologies for national security reasons.

More disturbing hypotheses touch Trump's entourage: the yellow of insider trading on the war. Anonymous bets with suspicious timing, just before the attack on Tehran on 28 February, on the Polymarket square have attracted attention; meanwhile, calls for reforms of the so-called prediction markets, which are poorly regulated and of dubious reliability, remain unanswered. A user with the code name Magamyman, for instance, pocketed half a million with a war bet that took place 71 minutes before the surprise announcement of hostilities. Similar bets had raised alarm on the eve of the secret blitz ordered by the White House in Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro. The administration denies any involvement in speculative manoeuvres.

The Project on Government Oversight has complained that new deals related to defence and conflict spending are, at the very least, improper in appearance, crowning a long list of dubious overlaps between politics and business. While the Trump family claims that the president does not participate in business decisions, he has certainly dealt with conflicts of interest more freely in his second term, claiming total immunity under the law and heedless of controversy. He does not use a blind trust, rather a revocable trust, a vehicle piloted, precisely, by his children and over which he can have the final say. Ethics and government experts, borrowing the vocabulary of huge and rare business successes, call Trump a 'unicorn' when it comes to wealth built on public office. The Democratic opposition more openly denounces unprecedented favour trading and corruption, a boom in oligarchies and crony capitalism.

But the multiple operations of the president's empire, hinged on the Trump Organisation holding company, promise to remain in the hunt for opportunities. From its origins in real estate and reality TV, it has come a long way and will not stop. The crypto world has become his passion and chief treasure: according to the New Yorker, he has derived at least 2.4 billion from it in one year. He has launched tokens and volatile meme currencies ($Trump, $Melania) and has a stake in World Liberty Financial, strong in digital assets and stablecoins. Among its partners it counts the ever-present Witkoff.

Trump Technology and Media itself, known for social Truth, is now dedicated to the management of digital currencies. Not only that: in the most recent development it orchestrated a six-billion marriage with nuclear fusion brand Tae Technologies, to take advantage of the data centre's hunger for power. From finance (where it receives international investment), earnings of perhaps 340 million have come to the family. Hospitality (fifteen or so golf courses, resorts and hotels, with projects under development from Saudi Arabia to Vietnam) is a business worth hundreds of millions, in earnings (27o million) and assets. Ten courses in the US are now worth 550 million. The media brought in 166 million, including a documentary on Melania overpaid by Amazon. Other items - private jet, merchandising, legal settlements - have generated 280 million.

Trump has also made the fortune of allied family empires, particularly tech, in a game of mutual appeasement. Above all the Ellisons, his big backers. Larry Ellison with Oracle is now a leader in the race for artificial intelligence. His son David is at the head of a media colossus, the combination of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery born beating Netflix and with the President's favour. Who, at the height of the hard-fought merger auction, did not forget to look for bargains: he invested two million in Warner and Netflix bonds.