Foreign media have reported that the US Democratic Party will focus its attacks in the November 3 midterm elections on President Donald Trump's wealth, which grew by more than 3 trillion won last year alone. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the criticism, saying there is no problem with Trump's massive cryptocurrency earnings.
US online outlet Axios reported Monday that if the Democratic Party becomes the majority party in the midterm elections, the opposition would accelerate its attempts to impeach Trump. Axios said the Democrats are preparing hostile investigations into administration insiders regarding Trump's accumulation of wealth. The outlet forecast that if the Democrats gain control of the House in the midterms, they would issue a series of subpoenas demanding congressional testimony from figures close to Trump. Those mentioned as subpoena targets include Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., senior executive vice president of the Trump Organization; his second son Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his two sons; and Jared Kushner, Trump's eldest son-in-law. "The Democratic strategy is to use Trump's earnings as part of a broader public debate over the cost of living," Axios said. "The Democrats will argue that Washington works only for a well-connected few, while everyone else pays the price."
According to US media reports Sunday, Trump reported income of more than $2.2 billion (about 3.42 trillion won) last year alone in his 2025 financial disclosure report submitted to the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE). This is $1.6 billion more than the roughly $600 million he reported in 2024, just before returning to power.
Cryptocurrency-related business earnings accounted for the largest portion of his wealth gains. Trump reported to the OGE that he earned $588 million through his family-owned cryptocurrency firm "World Liberty Financial," $636 million through his meme coin "$Trump" (a coin that forms value based on online popularity without any particular technical purpose), and $197 million through the sale of his stake in stablecoin (value-stable digital asset) holding company Holdco last year. Trump accelerated the easing of cryptocurrency regulations from the start of his term.
In particular, Trump also purchased large quantities of 327 blue-chip stocks through his investment account one day before announcing the pause on reciprocal tariffs in April. This raised controversy over whether he used his own decision to delay tariff imposition—a market-boosting development—as nonpublic information. The US federal ethics law enacted in 1978 does not impose an obligation on the president to "dispose of assets that could give rise to conflicts of interest." However, past US presidents voluntarily disposed of assets with potential conflicts of interest or placed them in blind trusts. Trump is the first leader not to follow this tradition since the law was enacted.
On CBS on Sunday, Secretary Bessent said of Trump's cryptocurrency earnings, "I don't think there is an apparent problem." Bessent argued, "President Trump is carrying out an innovative presidency," adding, "Whether it's digital access, artificial intelligence (AI), or everything happening in the technology ecosystem, all Americans are benefiting from it."
