Business dealings, fraud, and bankruptcies
The U.S. Trade Representative proposed 10–12.5% tariffs on 60 trading partners — including the EU, China, Japan, the UK, and Canada — under a Section 301 'forced labor' rationale, the administration's new legal vehicle for restoring tariffs the Supreme Court struck down.
An Office of Government Ethics filing revealed Trump executed 3,642 stock trades worth $220-750 million in the first quarter of 2026, including purchases of Nvidia, Dell, Palantir, and Axon days before his administration took actions that sent those stocks soaring.
Trump arrived in Beijing with Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, and a dozen other CEOs in tow, asking Xi Jinping to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz Trump's own war had closed — while leaving a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan unsigned on his desk.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled 2-1 on May 8 that Trump's 10 percent across-the-board global tariff, imposed in February under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, was unlawful. The ruling — won by a small spice retailer, a toy company, and the state of Washington — is the latest in a string of federal court losses for Trump's signature tariff agenda, and it forces the administration to scramble for new statutory authority to keep the duties in place.
Public Law 119-21, signed at a White House ceremony with B-2 flyovers on July 4, makes Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent, raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, and pays for it with the largest Medicaid cut in the program's 60-year history. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will add $3.4 trillion to the deficit and strip health insurance from at least 10 million Americans by 2034.
In a Rose Garden ceremony on April 2, 2025, Trump declared a national emergency and imposed the highest US tariff regime since 1909 — a 10% baseline on every trading partner plus 'reciprocal' rates of up to 50% — under a formula his own economists could not defend. The S&P 500 lost 12.4% in two trading sessions. Seven days later, after the bond market revolted, Trump paused most of the tariffs for 90 days. Stocks jumped 9.52% in a single afternoon — the biggest one-day rally since 2008.
Trump imposed or threatened sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, roiling global markets and sparking fears of a trade war, before pausing some tariffs after last-minute negotiations with neighboring countries.
On the Friday before his second inauguration, Trump launched $TRUMP — a personal cryptocurrency whose 800 million tokens were retained by his own companies and whose buyers, anywhere in the world, could anonymously deposit value into accounts the president-elect controlled.
After a months-long bench trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump and his co-defendants to disgorge $355 million in fraud proceeds — a figure that grew to over $464 million with pre-judgment interest — and barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. Engoron's 93-page opinion called the defendants' 'complete lack of contrition and remorse' 'pathological' and said they were highly likely to commit fraud again.
A New York judge ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years by inflating the value of his real estate assets on financial statements, ordering the dissolution of some of his business entities and setting the stage for a trial on remaining claims.
Allen Weisselberg, the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization, was indicted along with the company itself on charges of running a 15-year tax fraud scheme involving unreported employee compensation.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office expanded its investigation of the Trump Organization into a full criminal probe, examining potential bank and insurance fraud, tax fraud, and falsification of business records.
Under court supervision and after a state lawsuit detailed 'a shocking pattern of illegality,' the Donald J. Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve, distribute its remaining $1.78 million in assets to other charities at the New York Attorney General's direction, and submit Trump and his children to ongoing legal restrictions on charitable activity in the state.
Multiple fraud lawsuits against Trump University gained national attention during the Republican primary, with former students alleging they were deceived into paying up to $35,000 for worthless real estate courses at what turned out to be an unlicensed institution.
The Trump Organization continued pursuing a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, engaging in negotiations with Russian developers that would extend secretly through the 2016 presidential campaign.
Donald Trump brought the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in partnership with Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, an event that deepened Trump's financial ties to Russia and later drew scrutiny from federal investigators.
Donald Trump launched Trump University, a for-profit real estate training program that would later face multiple fraud lawsuits and result in a $25 million settlement after thousands of students alleged they were deceived.
NBC debuted 'The Apprentice,' a reality television show starring Donald Trump, which drew over 20 million viewers and transformed Trump from a regional real estate figure into a national brand and household name.
Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a deduction so large it could have legally allowed him to avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
Trump's Taj Mahal casino filed for bankruptcy, the first of six Trump corporate bankruptcies that would cost investors billions while Trump himself emerged largely unscathed.
Trump's reckless borrowing spree of the late 1980s caught up with him as his personal debt reached an estimated $900 million, forcing him to cede control of key assets to creditors and survive only through bank-negotiated bailouts.
Trump purchased the iconic Plaza Hotel on the corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue for $407.5 million, calling it the 'Mona Lisa' of real estate, but the overleveraged acquisition would become a financial albatross within two years.
Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, then pushed the upstart league into a disastrous antitrust lawsuit against the NFL that contributed to the USFL's collapse.
Trump Tower, a 58-story mixed-use skyscraper on Fifth Avenue, opened to the public, becoming Donald Trump's signature property, personal residence, and the physical embodiment of his brand.
Construction of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue relied on a crew of undocumented Polish immigrants who worked 12-hour shifts for sub-standard wages, demolishing the Bonwit Teller building to make way for Trump's signature skyscraper.
Trump secured his first major Manhattan real estate deal by purchasing the aging Commodore Hotel near Grand Central Terminal and converting it into the Grand Hyatt New York, leveraging an unprecedented 40-year tax abatement from the city.
The Department of Justice filed a civil rights suit against Trump, his father Fred, and their company for refusing to rent to Black tenants in 39 buildings across New York City.
Donald Trump assumed control of his father Fred Trump's real estate company, renaming it the Trump Organization and shifting its focus from outer-borough housing to Manhattan development.
