Poll: 6 in 10 Americans Say Trump Profits Unethically

More than $1 billion in cryptocurrency revenue, eight foreign real estate agreements and the removal of self-imposed ethics guardrails have left most Americans convinced that President Donald Trump is using his second term to enrich himself, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults believe Trump is either illegally profiting from the presidency or engaging in behavior that is unethical but not illegal, the survey found. Only about 2 in 10 say he is doing nothing wrong. The findings reflect a sharp public reaction to a series of financial ventures launched by the Trump family since January that intersect directly with industries and foreign governments subject to U.S. policy.

The White House has categorically denied any conflicts of interest, maintaining that the president acts solely in the national interest. But the financial disclosures tell a different story. A mandatory federal filing submitted in June revealed that Trump generated more than $1 billion from new cryptocurrency enterprises after his administration moved to loosen regulations on the digital asset industry.

Unlike his first term, when Trump pledged to separate himself from international business dealings and placed his assets in a trust managed by his sons, the second-term approach has dismantled those barriers. The president lifted a self-imposed ban on his family pursuing private-sector deals overseas early this year. He dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest in an interview with The New York Times at the start of his term, saying, “I found out that nobody cared.”

That shift has opened the door to transactions unprecedented for a sitting American president. One major Trump crypto venture secured a half-billion-dollar investment shortly after the election from a United Arab Emirates entity tied to the Gulf nation’s royal family. The same project received backing from a cryptocurrency firm founded by a Chinese billionaire who faces legal troubles in the United States. Both the UAE and China are central players in ongoing trade negotiations and tariff disputes with Washington.

On the real estate front, the Trump Organization has closed eight foreign deals during the first year of the presidency. Many involve authoritarian or single-party states where governments exert heavy influence over private enterprise. These nations frequently seek favorable U.S. tariff rates, continued American military protection, or diplomatic leverage — creating scenarios where foreign leaders have direct financial incentives to approve projects bearing the president’s name.

Historically, the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clauses were designed to prevent exactly this dynamic. The foreign emoluments clause prohibits federal officeholders from accepting gifts or payments from foreign states without congressional consent. During Trump’s first term, watchdog groups filed multiple lawsuits alleging violations through foreign government patronage of Trump hotels. Those cases were largely dismissed as moot after he left office in 2021, leaving the constitutional boundaries around presidential business dealings legally untested heading into his second term.

Public perception of these activities cuts across traditional priorities. Just over half of Americans, 56%, say Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests “a lot” since returning to the White House, while 54% say the same about the business interests of his friends and family. By contrast, only about one-quarter believe he places similar emphasis on the country as a whole, and roughly 1 in 10 say he focuses heavily on people like them.

Partisan divides remain stark, though skepticism exists within the president’s own coalition. About 8 in 10 Democrats say Trump is breaking the law. Among independents, roughly 3 in 10 view his actions as illegal, and 2 in 10 consider them unethical. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans believe he is acting illegally, with a similar share calling it unethical. Most Republicans say he is doing nothing wrong or lack enough information to judge.

Even among supporters, the financial focus registers. Less than half of Republicans say Trump is prioritizing his personal business interests “only a little” or “not at all,” indicating that a majority within his own party acknowledges some degree of overlap between his office and his wealth. Some Republican voters point to Hunter Biden’s past role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma during his father’s vice presidency as evidence of a partisan double standard, arguing that Democratic families faced less scrutiny for similar overlaps.

The scale of the second-term ventures dwarfs previous modern precedents. Before Trump, presidents typically divested their assets or placed them in blind trusts managed by independent fiduciaries to avoid the appearance of corruption. Jimmy Carter famously sold his family peanut warehouse before taking office in 1977 to eliminate potential conflicts. Trump’s current model — actively launching new ventures in sectors his administration regulates while soliciting foreign capital — represents a fundamental departure from decades of executive branch norms.

Voter sentiment reflects the economic anxiety underlying these ethical questions. Several respondents in the survey connected the president’s growing wealth to their own financial stagnation. Oscar Delgado, a 50-year-old Michigan factory worker who voted for Trump in 2024 seeking economic improvement, said the president is “turning greedy” and failing to put the country first.

The AP-NORC poll surveyed 2,140 adults from Sept. 24-28 using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel. The margin of sampling error for all adults is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.