U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks with reporters before boarding the new Air Force One, a plane gifted by the Qatari government, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 1, 2026.
On Wednesday, an anchor at what the Daily Beast calls President Donald Trump’s “most hated network” exposed the hypocrisy of his second-term grift by showing a montage of the many times he’s attacked his rivals for profiting off their positions.
“The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power, and in the money,” declared then-candidate Trump at a New York event in July 2016. “Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit, and even theft,” he said, attacking his main Democratic opponent at the time.
The montage showed many other wide-ranging instances of Trump accusing “corrupt politicians” of enriching themselves by “bleeding America dry,” suggesting they “ran for office promising to protect American workers” only to “line their pockets with special-interest cash.” According to Trump, only he could “dethrone the failed political class” and “drain the Washington swamp,” once asserting, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost.”
After playing the montage, CNN anchor Laura Coates noted the hypocrisy, saying, “For nearly a decade, that has been his case against Washington. Now, his own financial disclosure — is it Exhibit A against him?” Disclosures of Trump’s finances filed earlier in the week highlighted the parallels between the president’s policy decisions and his investments.
As the Daily Beast explains, “His accounts snapped up 327 stocks valued at up to $12.8 million last April, just one day before he hit pause on his global tariffs, sending the S&P 500 stock market index up almost 10 percent, according to an analysis of the 927-page document by Sludge. The April haul was not the only buy with lucky timing. One of his accounts picked up Intel stock worth between $250,000 and $500,000 on Aug. 18. Four days later, he revealed that Washington would take a nearly 10 percent stake in the chipmaker, worth roughly $8.9 billion, prompting its shares to climb 6 percent. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan had sat down with Trump at the White House only a week ahead of the purchase.”
He bought up large quantities of Palantir stock as his administration expanded the data company’s government contracts, including controversial contracts with ICE. Trump also bought shares of the private prison company GEO Group as it ramped up its detention capacity to accommodate deportation arrests.
What’s more, according to the Daily Beast, “The disclosure clocks more than $1.4 billion flowing to Trump from crypto holdings in 2025. His $TRUMP memecoin, widely derided as a scam, raised $635 million, while World Liberty Financial, the digital asset venture founded by his sons, brought in north of $500 million. The president has spent the same period rolling back regulations across the sector.”
All of this comes amid revelations that Trump’s sons are poised to profit off a billion-dollar mining deal struck by their father. This has prompted even ostensible Trump allies to criticize the president’s corruption. For example, conservative commentator Megyn Kelly admitted earlier this week that “the Trump family is grifty.”