President Trump’s venture into crypto products has increased his family’s wealth by billions in the last six months, according to a new report, as his administration continues to loosen the federal government’s regulatory approach to the digital currency industry as a whole. 

The group State Democracy Defenders Action estimated in a new report that the president’s crypto holdings now represent nearly 40% of his net worth — or approximately $2.9 billion. That increase is due in part to his release of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, in addition to a large stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto exchange affiliated with the Trump family that launched in October 2024. State Democracy Defenders Action identifies itself as non-partisan, but it is overseen by frequent critics of President Trump, with an agenda focused on “the autocratic threat to our nation.”

The president’s net worth is expected to get another bump, with World Liberty Financial’s announcement this week that a Abu Dhabi-backed firm will invest billions of dollars in the Trump family-affiliated crypto fund. The Emirati firm, MGX, will purchase $2 billion in a stablecoin product offered by World Liberty, the company said in a statement to CBS. The currency, called “USD1” will then be used to invest in Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

World Liberty has ties to the president and his sons. The fine print on the company’s website says an entity affiliated with Mr. Trump and his family members own a 60% stake in the company.

According to the company’s public reports, a Trump family entity also holds 22.5 billion of the $WLF tokens –- and takes an additional 75% in net revenue from future token purchases.

Details of the MGX deal have not been released, so it is unclear how much the Trump family stands to benefit from this transaction.

In a statement to CBS News, World Liberty said the deal represents the “single largest-ever investment in a crypto company” and sets a “historic precedent.” It did not respond to questions about how much the Trump family stands to make from the investment.

The White House responded to a request for comment by telling CBS News to “report on something people actually care about.” A spokesperson provided links to several White House technology initiatives.

As the president’s investments in crypto have grown, the Securities and Exchange Commission has paused investigations into a dozen crypto companies since his inauguration, a CBS News analysis found.

“The bottom line is it appears like he’s profiting off of his public office,” said Virginia Canter, State Democracy Defenders chief counsel for ethics and anticorruption. Canter, who co-authored the new report, served as senior ethics counsel for the Treasury Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 

“In terms of prior presidents in the modern age, they’ve all divested their assets, or they’ve rolled them over into what we call blind trusts,” Canter said. “President Trump did not do that in his first term, and it seems as if in the second term he’s doubled down and he is all in (on) the crypto industry.”

The report leans heavily on past media reports, including a Fortune magazine article that reviewed the Trump family’s financial disclosures and provided the original estimates of the president’s net worth.

Crypto companies are not legally required to disclose who is buying and selling on their platforms to the public, so little is known about who has invested in Trump family-affiliated crypto products. 

Canter says this makes it more difficult to identify potential conflicts of interest. 

“In his first administration, we could see who was walking in and out of the Trump hotels,” she said.

Trump hopes U.S. will be the “crypto capital of the world”

The president, who as recently as 2021 described crypto currency as a “scam,” has since embraced digital currency, saying he hopes to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.”

Since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has made several moves to unwind the regulatory environment that many industry insiders say crippled crypto businesses. 

He has issued multiple executive orders to promote cryptocurrency, including one that seeks to promote the growth of digital currencies and another that instructed the Treasury Department to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. 

Mr. Trump has also used his office to pardon the three founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to prevent money laundering on their platform, according to a report by Reuters. 

The value of Mr. Trump’s crypto assets have at times fluctuated with his policy decisions and social media posts.

The value of $TRUMP increased 18.1% in early March after the president issued an executive order promoting a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, according to the report. A few weeks later, on March 23, the president posted “I Love $TRUMP– SO COOL!! The Greatest of them all!!!!” on Truth Social, which led to an increase in the price of the meme coin from $10.93 to $12.24.

Whether or not the $TRUMP coin increases in value, the president’s business collects trading fees when people buy or sell the coin. A Reuters analysis found that business entities behind the $TRUMP coin could have made nearly $100 million in fees in less than two weeks of trading.

World Liberty Finance: The Trump family’s crypto exchange

Aside from meme coins, the Trump family’s more recent foray into cryptocurrency may become its most profitable. 

In October, then-candidate Trump helped launch World Liberty Finance, a decentralized or “defi” cryptocurrency exchange. Its website, which heavily features the president’s image, offers users the opportunity to buy into the exchange using $WLFI tokens. 

“Good News, the World Liberty Financial token is now live. Crypto is the future, let’s embrace this incredible technology and lead the world in the digital economy. Go to World Liberty Financial.com,” Mr. Trump posted on X in October, before the presidential election. 

The website says World Liberty is “inspired by Donald J. Trump” and Mr. Trump is listed as chief crypto advocate. His sons, Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, are all listed as Web3 ambassadors. 

Donald Trump Jr. promoted World Liberty Financial in March, at the D.C. Blockchain conference, where crypto industry insiders rubbed shoulders with members of Congress and the administration.

“I’m just super excited about what this can mean for the future of banking for the future of financial systems,” said Trump Jr., who joined World Liberty’s panel remotely. Founders Chase Herro, Zak Folkman and Zach Witkoff appeared on stage to promote World Liberty’s stablecoin offering.

“We want Republicans, Democrats, whether it be black, blue, brown, white, to be using our stable coin,” said Zach Witkoff, the son of Steven Witkoff, the White House special envoy to the Middle East. “We think it democratizes finance.” 

World Liberty says it has raised more than $550 million from investors who purchase the $WLF governance token. The majority of these investors remain anonymous to the public. For now, these $WLFI tokens are non redeemable, meaning that once they are purchased, users cannot exchange them. 

World Liberty denied CBS’ multiple requests for an interview.

Justin Sun, the crypto billionaire famous for buying and eating a $6.2 million banana duct-taped to the wall, is one of World Liberty’s few publicly known investors. 

Sun, who was being investigated for securities fraud in the Biden administration, said he invested $30 million shortly after Mr. Trump’s election, at the time claiming in a post on X to be World Liberty’s”largest investor.”

Days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Sun said he invested another $45 million, which he also disclosed in a post on X. A few weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission reversed itself and asked the judge to grant a stay in Sun’s case, citing “public interest.” The pause in Sun’s case was part of a larger push by the SEC to dismiss cases against crypto companies. 

A spokesperson for Sun and the SEC declined to comment. 

Last month, Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent a letter to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about the potential for conflict of interest as the Trump administration considers regulations of companies like World Liberty Financial.

“President Trump’s involvement in this venture, as he strips financial regulators of their independence…presents an extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system,” said the letter, which was signed by five Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Chris Van Hollen. 

World Liberty Financial says 85,000 investors have gone through a standard Know Your Customer process to determine “participation eligibility,” and the company says it is arranging for a third-party accounting firm to audit its new venture into the U.S.-debt-backed stablecoins. 

As president, Mr. Trump is not subject to the criminal conflict-of-interest law. But he is required to disclose his assets and income under the Ethics in Government Act, including his crypto assets. The next financial disclosure report deadline for the president is May 15. 

Lawyers for the families of two children with U.S. citizenship, including a 4-year-old who has Stage 4 cancer, have accused the Trump administration of deporting the youths to Honduras on the same day another child with citizenship was allegedly sent to the Central American country, which led to an order from a federal judge requiring the government to explain itself.

President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday and insisted that “no U.S. citizen child” had been deported. He claimed that “deported means ordered by an immigration judge” and suggested that the mothers may have chosen to take the children with them, saying: “That’s a parent’s decision. It’s not a government decision, it’s a parent’s decision.”

Reports emerged late Saturday and Sunday from The Washington Post and New York Times saying the 4-year-old and a 7-year-old had also been shipped out Friday with the child that led to the judge’s memorandum in federal court.

As Law&Crime previously reported, a federal judge in Louisiana known for his rulings that tend to align with causes championed by Trump issued a memorandum order Friday setting a hearing to address the apparent deportation of a 2-year-old identified only as V.M.L. According to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus — a request that court determine whether a person’s detention is unlawful — V.M.L. was born in 2023 in Baton Rouge, as indicated on her birth certificate.

Lawyers for the mother of the 2-year-old told the Times that she and the other two kids were all deported to Honduras Friday. The Times reports that the mother of the 2-year-old is pregnant, while the 4-year-old from the other family has a rare form of late-stage cancer. The boy allegedly had no access to his medications or his doctors during the removal process, the lawyers say.

Gracie Willis, a lawyer with the National Immigration Project who is reportedly involved in the case involving the 2-year-old, has condemned the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and local law officials as being both “horrifying and baffling” as the children are all considered “U.S. citizen” children.

Homan, however, says the government sees things differently.

“Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-of-jail free card,” he told “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“It doesn’t make you immune from our laws,” Homan said. “If that’s the message we sent the entire world, women are gonna keep putting themselves at risk and come to this country. We send a message. You can enter [the] country illegally, which is a crime. That’s okay. You can have due process, great taxpayer expense. Get ordered removed. That’s okay. Don’t leave. But have a U.S. citizen child and you’re immune from removal? That’s not the way it works.”

Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that if the children’s families want them to come back to the U.S. that they will be allowed to “if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them” in the United States.

“Ultimately, who was deported … was their mothers, who were here illegally,” Rubio said. “The children just went with their mothers. But it wasn’t like — you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the 2-year-old and threw him on an airplane. That’s misleading.”

A representative “next friend” of the 2-year-old, who says she has known her since birth, has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to block the child’s removal, accusing ICE of engaging in “attempts to disappear” V.M.L. and lying to the child’s family and representatives in the process.

At the time the TRO motion was filed, the girl’s representatives believed she was still in the U.S.

In its opposition to the TRO request, ICE said the girl’s mother wanted to take V.M.L. with her back to Honduras, and provided as proof a note written by hand in Spanish. Just like Homan and Rubio, the government also signaled skepticism that the child’s “next friend,” as well as V.M.L.’s father, were indeed who they said they were, saying they have not provided identification to ICE in support of releasing the child into their custody.

In Friday’s order, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty — appointed by Trump in 2018 — said that V.M.L. is “ostensibly” a 2-year-old United States citizen.

“Of course, ‘It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen,”” Doughty concluded.

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Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump‘s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., has sent a letter to the nonprofit behind Wikipedia — the free online encyclopedia “anyone can edit,” according to the website — accusing it of “masking propaganda that influences public opinion” and “permitting information manipulation” in benefit of “foreign powers,” the letter says.

Ed Martin, who is the president’s nominee to oversee the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, wrote that the Justice Department would be probing the “content manipulation” to see if Wikimedia Foundation was “engaging in a series of activities” that could violate its “obligations under Section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code,” which is what ultimately gives the organization its ability to operate as a nonprofit exempt from paying taxes.

“Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” Martin alleged.

“Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission,” the interim U.S. attorney said. “In addition, Wikipedia’s operations are directed by its board that is composed primarily of foreign nationals, subverting the interests of American taxpayers. Again, educational content is directionally neutral; but information received by my Office demonstrates that Wikipedia’s informational management policies benefit foreign powers.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s weekend order that blocked the Trump administration from carrying out certain deportations under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) has been flamed by the Justice Department as an “unprecedented injunction” that is “fatally premature,” according to the DOJ, as the applicants have “improperly skipped over the lower courts before asking this one for relief,” it says.

“This Court is ‘a court of review, not first view,”” wrote Solicitor General D. John Sauer in the DOJ’s response to the Supreme Court order, which was handed down early Saturday morning.

“Yet the application insists on judicial review in reverse,” Sauer said. “It calls for this Court to be the first to resolve due-process challenges to the adequacy of notice that designated enemy aliens receive, on behalf of a putative class that no court below has certified, on a nonexistent record.”

Fed up with the government’s “gamesmanship” and “grandstanding” over the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case, a federal judge in Maryland tore into the Trump administration on Tuesday afternoon following yet another nose-thumbing by the Justice Department in court filings — with DOJ lawyers and administration officials being blasted for not providing proper updates and blatantly ignoring judicial orders related to the deported dad’s situation.

“We’re going to do this by the federal rules of civil procedure,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Immigration Litigation Drew Ensign and the court Tuesday at a highly-anticipated hearing on Abrego Garcia’s deportation saga, according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, who was in attendance.

“No press release is going to move the court the same way that sworn, under oath testimony from persons with knowledge,” Xinis said. “If you have objections, you’re going to have to make them consistent with the rules.”

A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the “unlawful termination of humanitarian parole processes” by the Trump administration for more than a half-million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have been allowed to enter the United States and work under an umbrella of deportation protections.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in her order Monday that she was siding with immigrants from the four countries — who filed a lawsuit in late February and were seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) with the groups Justice Action Center and Human Rights First — on account of President Donald Trump’s attempt to revoke “previously granted parole and work authorizations” for individuals currently living in the United States without a “case-by-case review,” which she said was an “unlawful action.”

“Plaintiffs were paroled into the United States by complying with the immigration processes made available to them,” wrote Talwani, a Barack Obama appointee, in a 41-page order filed in Boston.

“As lawful parolees, they did not have to fear arrest for being in the United States, were permitted to legally work if they received work authorization, and could apply for adjustment of status or other benefits while paroled into this country,” Talwani explained. “The immediate impact of the shortening of their grant of parole is to cause their lawful status in the United States to lapse early — in less than two weeks,” the judge said.

The Trump administration is attempting to block an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., forcing it to let The Associated Press back into the White House press pool this week after the president tried barring the news outlet over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

The Justice Department filed a motion Wednesday to stay U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden’s preliminary injunction issued on Tuesday granting the AP’s request to block the White House’s ban on its access to the Oval Office, East Room and other sites of press events — saying the ban amounted to “impermissible viewpoint discrimination.” McFadden noted how the AP was likely to prove in court how it “suffered unlawful retaliation for exercising its speech rights,” despite claims by the Trump administration that it deserved the ban.

“Access restrictions must be reasonable and not viewpoint based,” McFadden wrote. “While the AP does not have a constitutional right to enter the Oval Office, it does have a right to not be excluded because of its viewpoint. And the AP says that is exactly what is happening.”

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., is forcing the Trump administration to let the Associated Press back into the White House press pool after it tried barring the news outlet over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

In a Tuesday court order, the judge said the media outlet was likely to prove it “suffered unlawful retaliation for exercising its speech rights.”

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Donald Trump appointee who was put on the bench in 2017, agreed to grant a request by the AP for a preliminary injunction blocking the White House’s ban on its access to the Oval Office, East Room and other sites of press events. In a memorandum order, the judge reasoned that the government’s ban amounted to “impermissible viewpoint discrimination.”

“Access restrictions must be reasonable and not viewpoint based,” McFadden wrote. “While the AP does not have a constitutional right to enter the Oval Office, it does have a right to not be excluded because of its viewpoint. And the AP says that is exactly what is happening.”

Chief Justice John Roberts has paused a Monday deadline for the Trump administration to return a protected Maryland resident who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador as part of President Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants back to the United States through a judge’s order after the Justice Department urged the U.S. Supreme Court to do so.

Issuing an order on Monday afternoon, Roberts temporarily halted a preliminary injunction in which U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis gave the DOJ just over three days to facilitate bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the country, referring to his deportation as “an illegal act” in her order. The 29-year-old was sent to El Salvador on March 15 in error as part of Trump’s proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to rush through mass deportations, which have since been blocked by a federal judge, without providing due process to those being flown out of the country.

Abrego Garcia was in the U.S. with protected legal status at the time of his deportation. His wife and 5-year-old child are both U.S. citizens. The DOJ admitted to the lower court on Friday that his deportation was an “administrative error,” leading to the suspension of a 15-year DOJ vet who made the public confession.

The federal judge who has been going back and forth with the Trump administration over its mass deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 (AEA) — and whether administration officials blatantly ignored orders he gave to shut them down — took a Justice Department lawyer to task on Thursday with an hourlong onslaught of questions and comments about the case, including warnings about holding people in contempt.

At one point during the hearing, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg flat-out called the Justice Department’s actions “pretty sketchy” as it continued to try and say certain information about the Trump deportation flights couldn’t be shared with Boasberg, even in a classified facility and under seal.

“If I don’t agree, if I don’t find your legal arguments convincing and I believe there’s probable cause to find contempt, what I’m asking is how should I determine who the contemnor or contemnors are?” Boasberg asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Immigration Litigation Drew Ensign, who was arguing on behalf of the DOJ.