Trump’s net worth keeps soaring — but his investors are taking a hit

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 31, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump's net worth continued to grow in 2025 thanks to a variety of business activities, from Trump Media & Technology Group (which announced a merger with TAE Technologies in December) to Trump Mobile to an array of branded merchandise. Estimates of Trump's net worth vary, but according to Forbes, it increased from $3.9 billion in 2024 to $7.3 billion in September 2025.

In the past, much of Trump's net worth came from real estate. These days, he's also selling everything from cryptocurrencies to smartphones.

But according to Axios reporter Ben Berkowitz, the fact that Trump himself is growing richer doesn't necessarily mean that his investors are.

"Retail investors had the chance in 2025 to put their money directly on Donald Trump in a way unlike any American presidency in history," Berkowitz explains in an article published on January 2. "A couple of those bets didn't work out so well. The big picture: Trump's vast, burgeoning business empire includes multiple tradable assets linked to him and his family — but two of those assets underperformed peers and broader markets in 2025. The primary way to 'buy' Trump in 2025 was either the stock of his publicly traded media-finance-and-energy company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG, which has the ticker symbol 'DJT'), or his cryptocurrency memecoin, Official TRUMP."

Berkowitz adds, "Trump has plenty of other direct and derivative assets, from real estate to NFTs to other crypto ventures. But the publicly traded stock and cryptocurrency are the broadest — and easiest — way for the average investor to put money directly on the success of his business empire."

The Axios reporter notes that Trump Media & Technology Group shares "fell 67 percentfrom the day before he took office through the end of 2025 — while Official TRUMP is "down 89 percent since January 19."

"The retail investing public may not have done well with Trump assets in 2025," Berkowitz reports, "but the president and his family, by all accounts, did just fine…. The bottom line:Investing is not for the faint of heart — even when the president's business empire is the investment."

Read Ben Berkowitz's full article for Axios at this link.

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