It’s a truly Trumpian tragedy: he’s made billions of dollars but can’t buy love or respect | Emma Brockes

Summary

Potus pocketed over $2.2bn last year – but with an algae-filled reflecting pool and his State Fair a fiasco, what price happiness? F rom certain angles, it might appear as if President Trump is having a tough month. He messed up the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he blamed on acts of vandalism no one has been able to stand up. The supreme court rejected both his bid to appeal against the $5m (£3.8m) civil judgment against him for defaming and sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, and his executive order to end birthright citizenship . And the war with Iran keeps rumbling on. And yet, after Trump’s mandatory financial disclosure report was released on Tuesday , headlines drew attention to the fact the president made more than $2.2bn in revenue in 2025 – more than three times what he pulled in the year before his inauguration. Contrary to appearances, perhaps everything is going exactly to plan. It is always a question with Trump as to how much the wealth he has accrued in his second term in office is the spoils of strategy rather than the lucky result of his scattergun but industrial-scale hustle. As the New York Times points out , a large chunk of Trump’s $2.2bn windfall last year came from an investment firm with ties to the United Arab Emirates, which bought an almost 50% stake in his crypto company, World Liberty Financial, and which is part of an industry over which Trump has policy-making and regulatory influence. Rich but mocked; successful, if you look at his income, but an absolute turkey of a leader with a 39% approval rating and an image so tarnished that even Giorgia Meloni, the unpopular rightwing leader of Italy and former absolute lickspittle to Trump, has felt emboldened to have a crack .