00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now
00:07is my Forbes colleague, money and politics reporter Kyle Conn-Mullins. Kyle, thanks so
00:11much for joining me. Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.
00:15And as I noted in your title, you report on the intersection of money and politics,
00:19and that's what we're going to be talking about today. And you have some reporting on
00:23the Trump's eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, how they made money and they're making money,
00:29continuing to do so on the heels of their father's political comeback now in Trump 2.0.
00:34So to start off the conversation, how much were the eldest Trump sons worth at the beginning of
00:40the Trump second term? So in November, we did a revaluation of Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump,
00:47and actually also did Ivanka Trump. And we found Don Jr. was worth about $50 million. Eric Trump
00:53was worth an estimated $40 million. Now, the vast majority of both of their fortunes comes from
00:58their work over the many years at the Trump organization. They've both been executive VPs
01:02at the company, or they've both been in leadership at the company, I should say,
01:06since the early 2000s. However, Don Jr. gets that little extra bump. He's got multiple other side
01:14businesses related to politics that we think pushed his net worth up a little bit more over his brother.
01:20And I want to read a portion of your reporting because I think it tees up this conversation really
01:24well. You write this, quote, though they were technically running the real estate operation
01:28in Trump's first term, they remained somewhat hamstrung by ethics promises their father made
01:33upon assuming the presidency. So talk to us a little bit about what exactly they were working on
01:38when President Trump was president the first go-around.
01:40They were mostly focused on domestic projects. They largely abandoned foreign dealmaking. I don't
01:49want to say entirely. I don't want to overemphasize that. There's a great clip of Don Jr. back in 2018,
01:56I think it is. And he's in an interview in India. And he's talking about how he and the Trump
02:02organization have just totally thrown out all foreign dealmaking. And while he's sitting there in
02:07India selling condos at a Trump property. But the vast majority of their new foreign dealmaking
02:15was put on hold while their father was in office. He, you know, the whole company, which he was still
02:22the ultimate beneficiary of, was put into a trust. It was not a blind trust. He claims he had no say
02:29over how things were going. That appears to not be quite true. But by and large, his sons are running
02:34the business. And they were focused for the most part on a project in the United States.
02:38Kyle, I think my next question would then be, what happened? Because you're reporting that they
02:43aren't so hamstrung now. Why not? And how much money are they poised to make in the next four years?
02:49Well, they certainly are not hamstrung now. You know, the ethics promises that were made in the first
02:55term were always a little bit questionable. It doesn't really seem like Trump actually fled. Their
03:01father, Donald Trump, fully separated himself from the business, as ethics experts said that he
03:06should if he wanted to follow press precedent. But they have completely given up even the pretense
03:11of trying to follow those ethics rules these days. You know, they have fully embraced foreign deal
03:16making, even between when he won the election when he was in office and now he's in office. And they
03:20are going full steam ahead on all types of deals that raise all sorts of conflicts of interest
03:24questions with their father, the newly elected, or newly reelected, I should say, president of the United States.
03:30So how much are they poised to make in the next four years? That is the tens, hundreds of millions
03:36of dollar question, maybe billion dollar question, depending on exactly how well some other business
03:41ventures do and how well the Trump organization does. That's the question. And that's what we're
03:45going to talk a little about today. And so before we get into those new opportunities, I want to talk
03:50about their bread and butter, which is the Trump organization. What are they working on as EVPs there?
03:56Because they still have that role. Yeah, their recent months have been very, very busy. Just
04:02since the election, they've announced five new Trump related properties in India, six across the
04:08Middle East. They have one in Serbia as well. These are all summer hotels, summer condos, summer golf
04:14courses, but they see the brand as very strong overseas, probably stronger than it is in, you know,
04:20parts of Europe or the United States. And these are conservative, fairly Trump friendly countries.
04:28Trump has now, you know, in his first term, his first foreign trip was to the Middle East.
04:34And this term, his first foreign trip was planned to be in the Middle East. That was side railed by
04:39his, he did attend the Pope's funeral in Rome. So that actually ended up being his first foreign
04:44trip. But these are conservative, Trump friendly countries, India and the Middle East. And the Trump
04:48organization is cashing in by making deals there. So I want to talk about some of the new industries
04:53now, because if you were covering politics in President Trump's first term, you'd be very
04:58surprised at some of the things he's saying now, especially in the crypto space, because
05:02he went from crypto skeptic to now real crypto enthusiast. I want to read something that he posted
05:08in 2019. He said cryptocurrencies aren't real money and their value is highly volatile and based on
05:14thin air. Now in his second term, he vowed to be the country's first crypto president. And Don Jr.
05:20and Eric Trump are in the crypto space. So talk to us first about their work there, particularly with
05:26World Liberty Financial.
05:29Yeah, Eric and Don Jr. are expanding into all sorts of different industries. We're talking data centers,
05:34we're talking firearms, we're talking drones, there's a private club in Washington, D.C. There's private
05:38equity. But it seems like for now, the biggest of all is likely cryptocurrency. It's the most built
05:45on hype industry in the world. And if there's one thing we know about the Trumps, it's that they've
05:49always been good at selling hype. So yes, you mentioned World Liberty Financial. This was a
05:54venture, it's kind of a vaguely defined crypto venture that was started before the election. And
06:01at the most recent update is I think they're planning on launching a stable coin. It's based on the US
06:05dollar. And then separately from World Liberty Financial, you've also got the Trump meme coin
06:12that was launched just a couple days before Trump was inaugurated as president again. And between the
06:18two of those, the Trump family is poised to receive a majority of the proceeds from those ventures.
06:25So we estimate that if Don Jr. and Eric, we're not sure exactly what share they own, but if they have
06:31a similar share to previous Trump family ventures, they could be making anywhere from, they could have
06:36made anywhere from 25 to $30 million just since the election on those items. Likely more, because
06:43these coins continue to sell, World Liberty and the Trump meme coin continue to sell tokens, continue to
06:49sell all sorts of digital assets. And the Trump family is getting a cut of every single one of those
06:55sales in every single transaction. And based on his resume, it seems like Don Jr. in particular
07:00is keeping really busy in the past couple of months, especially he's wearing a lot of different
07:06hats as an advisor, as a partner, as a board member at different firms. So can you talk to us a little
07:11bit about those roles and how much he's taking home from each? So I think the most interesting one
07:17here is 1789 Capital. This is a venture capital firm that was started by a friend of Don Jr.'s, Omid
07:25Malik. And Don Jr. signed up as a partner less than a week after the election. It's unclear exactly how
07:33much he's making from it, whether he's invested in it, that kind of thing. These are not 100% clear.
07:38But 1789 Capital's pitch is that they really focus on finding companies in the so-called alternative
07:43economy. This is the, you know, area of the economy where right-wing folks are looking to build
07:50alternatives to sort of big established companies. And oftentimes it's alternatives to big tech, but you
07:56see also other alternatives as well. And so that's his main thing. But he's also, you know, he's joining
08:02all sorts of boards, either as an advisor or as an actual board member of the company. He's at Unusual
08:07Machines. That's a drone company. He's got about a million dollars in shares as of when I published my
08:12piece. We've also got Public Square. This is kind of an anti-woke competitor to Amazon. Also,
08:18he's got around a million dollars in holdings to that and in that. He's been working with them for
08:22a while now, but even before the election. He recently joined up with Grab-A-Gun. This is a
08:28online firearms marketplace. He's poised to get 300,000 shares in that company once the company goes
08:35public. And it's going, it's planning on going public via a SPAC merger later this year. So he's been
08:41keeping plenty busy. And it looks like things are going to continue to be busy for him in the near
08:46future as he continues to, like I said, join these boards, join these advisory committees on these
08:51various companies. And I want to talk about another board that both Don Jr. and Eric Trump are sitting
08:56on, and that is the Board of Dominary Holdings. It's a company that's focused on some of the industries
09:01that the Trump administration has heavily invested in since the beginning of President Trump's second
09:07term. So ethics questions aside here, talk to us a little bit about their work there and how much
09:12they're making. So what they're actually doing for Dominary Holdings is a little bit unclear.
09:16What Dominary Holdings itself does is also a little bit unclear. It's kind of a vaguely defined
09:20financial firm. It is publicly traded. It's got a very small market cap relative to other firms like
09:26this. But between the stock compensation and the additional shares that both Don Jr. and Eric have
09:34gotten since joining this company, both of them now have a share in this company of about $6 million
09:38each. And recently the company said, you know, when they brought on Don Jr. and Eric, that they're
09:44bringing them on because they're looking to expand into the AI and data center space. And they're
09:49bringing on Don Jr. and Eric for their expertise in the AI and data center space. Now, I'm not sure
09:56when Don Jr. and Eric actually worked in AI and data centers. But what we do know is that the Trump
10:01administration announced billions of dollars in investments in AI and data centers from the
10:06federal government around the same time. So that is an interesting coincidence of timing. And that
10:14is one of their more lucrative things that they've done just since joining or just since the election.
10:20So business-wise, according to your reporting, Don Jr. and Eric Trump seemingly are not as
10:26hamstrung this term. So what do the next three and a half years look like for the brothers?
10:30You're reporting that the future, financially speaking, looks pretty bright.
10:36It does. They're going to presumably continue to add to the board seats, their advisor roles,
10:41their Trump organization expansions as they continue to announce projects all over the world.
10:45Eric Trump's got additional crypto ventures that he's working on. So as we continue to see these
10:50kinds of things roll in, these announcements, as companies continue to add Don Jr. and Eric to
10:55their boards and their advisory committees, me and the rest of the Money in Politics team,
10:59we're going to stay on top of the coverage and we're going to do our best to keep bringing you
11:03updates on these figures. And I think for me, at least, that means that you and I have plenty of
11:08conversations in store. Kyle Conmullens, thanks so much. Absolutely. Always great to be here,
11:14Brittany. Thanks again.
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