LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Nobody has made more money while in office in the U.S. than President Trump. Most of his earnings come from cryptocurrency. Researchers who spent months gathering examples of Trump's conflicts of interest are now calling on the future Democrat-run Congress to act. NPR's Rafael Nam reports.
RAFAEL NAM, BYLINE: Nearly $3 billion - that's how much President Trump and his family have made in his second term, according to Will Ragland at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
WILL RAGLAND: I think you could probably combine all of the past presidents' income made during their time in office, and it wouldn't come close to what we're seeing here.
NAM: It starts with the memecoin. It's a type of cryptocurrency usually based on memes or internet jokes. Days before his inauguration, Trump launched his own memecoin. He made over $600 million, according to the president's own disclosures. In an effort to drum up demand, the president held a dinner last year for the top holders of the coin. Many of those guests were foreign. Ragland thinks he knows why.
RAGLAND: This is a way for foreign investors - foreign countries, in some instances - to try and get as much influence as they can and use that as leverage or deals that they want to make that are helpful to them.
NAM: The White House has denied it's peddling influence. Foreign entanglements are also front and center in the president's other main crypto venture. It's called World Liberty Financial. And it's earned him and his family $1.4 billion for a company that's just over 2 years old, according to the researchers who spoke with NPR. Here's Virginia Canter of the anti-corruption group Democracy Defenders Fund.
VIRGINIA CANTER: How many individuals are there in America who made $1.4 billion in a business that they just got into?
NAM: Canter says there are several troubling foreign investments in World Liberty. A member of the United Arab Emirates royal family known as Sheikh Tahnoon invested half $1 billion into World Liberty, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. It was an extraordinary show of confidence in a new company that had been struggling to gain acceptance. Months later, the UAE got something it had been lobbying for - a shipment of advanced AI chips from the U.S., giving the kingdom a big boost in its ambition to become an AI power. Canter wants to know why.
CANTER: And I think Congress would be on the strongest grounds, based on what's in the Constitution, to investigate what was involved and what was the motivation behind their initial $500 million investment in World Liberty.
NAM: World Liberty Financial declined to comment, while the Trump administration has denied any quid pro quo. But other deals made by World Liberty and foreign investors followed. There were additional deals made with Sheikh Tahnoon. There was also a deal by a company affiliated with World Liberty Financial with the government of Pakistan. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," the president denied he knows much about World Liberty or his other business ventures.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, let me explain. I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don't care. I make - I have a lot of money and far more than I ever thought I'd have. And I guess it's gone up.
NAM: But Democrats in Congress are signaling they care. Shortly after the election, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, posted a message on social media - lawyer up.
Rafael Nam, NPR News.
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