Politics pays: Donald Trump is now worth about $5 billion, with his social-media venture accounting for more than half that sum.
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Donald Trump, who has long tried to suggest he has little to do with the operations of his business empire, retains power over the trust that holds his assets, according to a filing his business submitted to British regulators last month.
The document, titled “notice of individual person with significant control,” identifies Donald John Trump, born in June 1946, as someone with influence over Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, the entity through which the president holds Trump Turnberry, a golf resort that hosted four British Opens before Trump purchased it in 2014.
A more detailed section of the filing, labeled “nature of control,” specifies that “the person has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust.” The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds Golf Recreation Scotland Limited and, via a web of additional entities, virtually every other asset in Donald Trump’s empire. By stating that Trump has control over the trust, his business appears to admit that Trump maintains a grip on his entire empire.
The “nature of control” section goes on to describe the role of the trust’s designated trustee or trustees, during Trump’s first term his son Don Jr. and executive Allen Weisselberg (with Eric Trump serving as chairman of the advisory board of the trust). “The trustees of that trust (in their capacity as such) have the right to exercise, or actually exercise, significant influence or control over the company,” the document says. Or, in plain English: Trump delegated authority while retaining ultimate power.
Of course he did. In early 2017, after Trump promised he would not talk about his business with his heirs, first son Eric Trump told Forbes that the president would receive financial updates “probably quarterly.” Around that time, ProPublica obtained a document suggesting that Trump could demand money from the trust at any point. The president spent much of his first term visiting his properties, decamping to Mar-a-Lago so often that he nicknamed it the “winter White House.” His ambassador to the United Kingdom reportedly told people Trump asked him to look into whether the British government could help direct the British Open to Turnberry. The president also tried to steer the G7 meeting of global leaders to his golf resort in Miami. A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2024 said that Trump remains the sole beneficiary of his trust.
Even in moments that the president has feigned separation from his business, he sometimes hints at the truth. For example, in 2017, Trump hosted a press conference to highlight his moves to hand things off to his heirs. At the conclusion of the event, however, he couldn’t help but assert control: “I hope at the end of eight years, I’ll come back and say, ‘Oh, you did a good job.’ Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I’ll say, ‘You’re fired.’” He also named an ethics lawyer during his first term, Bobby Burchfield, then replaced him with William Burck. In a social-media post last month, Trump suggested his business should ditch Burck. Eric Trump confirmed within hours that the Trump Organization was parting ways with the attorney.
Nonetheless, efforts to portray the president as separate from his multibillion-dollar empire persist. Contacted last month about a story that measured the impact tariffs had on Trump’s business, a spokesperson for the White House responded, “The president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children while he is working overtime to lead the country to economic prosperity.” White House representatives did not respond to inquiries about the new filing.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did weigh in, however. “This was a simple administrative update,” a spokesperson said. “The structure of the business has not changed.” In other words, despite efforts to make it seem otherwise, the president has apparently been in control all along.