Before returning to the White House, Donald Trump transferred all 114.75 million shares in the parent company that runs his Truth Social platform to a revocable trust.
His shares in Trump Media & Technology Group are currently worth approximately $4 billion, accounting for the majority of his $6 billion net worth. He is the group’s biggest shareholder.
According to SEC filings, the president-elect transferred the stake earlier this week to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. According to filings, his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is the sole trustee and has sole voting and investment power over the trust’s securities.
Trump remains the “sole beneficiary” of the trust.
The president-elect has faced criticism from ethics groups, lawmakers, and government watchdogs for a web of potential conflicts of interest for his presidency.
His appointees — many of whom are billionaires and uber-wealthy Wall Street figures with their own conflicts — will be tasked with regulating agencies and overseeing policy that could affect his profit margins, while the administration’s dealings with other countries could benefit his real estate empire and other financial investments.
In 2017, before his first presidency, Trump transferred his assets, real estate holdings, and liabilities into his namesake trust, promising to hand over control of his empire to his sons, donate his salary to the government, and refrain from engaging in new foreign business.
However, the former president, whose Trust was the subject of a years-long investigation into fraud within the Trump Organization, has spent the years since leaving office pursuing new deals in his real estate and branding interests, ranging from opening a new golf course to promoting Bibles and guitars and investing in cryptocurrency.
A legally required ethics plan for Trump’s incoming administration notably omitted language addressing how those ethics requirements would apply to Trump personally.
“Without a clear plan, the American public is left in the dark about how Trump — a wealthy businessman with a real estate empire and ties to numerous industries — will navigate the potential conflicts of interest that may arise in his second term,” according to the Campaign Legal Center.
Trump has also nominated several Truth Social board chairs to his administration, including professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education and conspiracy theorist Kash Patel as the next FBI director.
Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, has also been selected to chair the incoming president’s intelligence advisory board.