The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Wednesday accused Donald Trump and his family of “profiting off the presidency in ways that demean the office” and warned how it could eventually backfire on Republicans.
In a scathing editorial, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper contrasted the Trump family’s burgeoning fortunes during the president’s second term with the economic pressures currently faced by many Americans.
“Americans tell pollsters they don’t think they are getting ahead financially,” the board wrote. “But President Trump and his family are having no trouble, judging from his 2025 financial disclosure report released Tuesday. The Trump clan is cashing in on the Presidency in big and sketchy ways.”
The editorial pointed to Trump’s seismic jump in income in 2025, driven largely by nearly $1.4 billion in crypto earnings, as well as lucrative business deals involving his sons and other agreements that have boosted the family’s wealth.
“Assuming all of this is legal, it’s still an unseemly display of using the Presidency for family profit,” the board wrote. “It’s hard to believe the Trump boys would be able to do the same deals if Dad wasn’t in the Oval Office.”
The board argued “there will be political costs—for Republicans. If Democrats take back the House or Senate this November, they will have a field day probing the Trump family deals.”
“Charges of GOP corruption will resound through 2028. This will feed the left’s class warfare and facile narrative that billionaire ‘oligarchs’ are getting rich off government,” it added.