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Welcome to Popular Information, a newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism.
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On Tuesday, President Donald Trump released his 927-page financial disclosure. The filing, which reveals the sources of his income, shows that Trump made at least $2.2 billion in his first year in office.
While Trump is known for being a real estate developer, the filing shows that most of his income now comes from his crypto ventures. According to the report, Trump earned around $1.4 billion from crypto-related businesses. In comparison, Trump “reported over $620 million in real estate, hotel and golf-related income.”
Much of Trump’s crypto-related income is from his most frivolous venture — the Trump meme coin, $TRUMP. Trump launched his meme coin, which is a type of crypto token tied to a celebrity or joke, on January 17, 2025, just days before his inauguration for his second term.
According to the financial disclosures, Trump’s meme coin business, CIC Digital LLC, “generated $636 million in income,” with the majority of it coming from “royalties from a license agreement with Celebration Coins,” Bloomberg reported. The income from Trump’s meme coin business includes money collected from the initial sale of 200 million tokens plus transaction fees that are siphoned off of each trade.
Trump’s reported earnings from the $TRUMP coin prove that the token is great for Trump. But investors in the coin are not reaping the same benefits. Since it first launched, the coin has lost around 97% of its value. The token reached a peak value of over $74 shortly after it launched, but, as of Wednesday, it sits at $1.66, according to Coinbase.
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While the companies behind $TRUMP don’t disclose revenue, a Reuters investigation that used blockchain data found that buyers have plowed at least $1.2 billion into $TRUMP. But, based on the price of the coin as of April 30, these holdings were worth only $521 million. This amounted to “a loss of more than $700 million for buyers.” (The value of a $TRUMP token was around $2.40 on April 30, so investor losses are even larger today.)
A software project engineer, Fatime Elrgdawy, told Reuters that she put $2,000 of her savings into $TRUMP after her friend told her about an online post from Trump promoting the launch of the coin. Elrgdawy thought that “it must be a legitimate investment” if Trump was putting his name on it. But as of the end of May, her $TRUMP tokens were worth less than $120. Elrgdawy told Reuters that she now thinks the Trump meme coin “was just a pump and dump scheme.”
The information landscape in the United States has reached a crisis point. Billionaires are using the social media platforms and media outlets they control to curry favor with Trump.
A Trump loyalist just seized control of CBS, CNN, and TikTok’s US operations.
Google paid Trump $25 million to settle a bogus lawsuit.
The Washington Post used editorials to advance the financial interests of owner Jeff Bezos
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg installed a Republican operative as head of policy
The only way to fight back is to build up independent media that is free from the influence of billionaires and corporate America. Popular Information will never bow down to the powerful.
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“I LOVE $TRUMP!!”
The $TRUMP coin has lost much of its value despite numerous efforts by the Trump family to revive interest. Trump has posted multiple times about the coin since its launch. “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE!” Trump wrote on X on January 17, 2025. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW.”