The quiet Republican divide over whether Trump’s multibillion-dollar family empire is a conflict-of-interest crisis

The Republican Party scrutinized apparent conflicts of interest under President Joe Biden for four years, putting a spotlight on how Biden’s son, Hunter, repeatedly profited from his father’s name and position in the White House.

GOP-led congressional committees investigated Hunter’s placement on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, his unusual art sales to wealthy buyers and his emails referencing a $5 million Chinese energy deal with “the big guy,” who he later confirmed was the senior Biden.

In sum, lawmakers identified more than $20 million in payments from foreign entities that were funneled to the Biden family and close associates. However, they never found conclusive evidence Biden was directly involved in these financial dealings as president or vice president.

Now, concern over conflicts of interest at the highest levels of American government has returned to haunt the GOP with President Donald Trump back in the Oval Office.

Since winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump’s family ventures, operated in most cases by his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, along with the sons of Trump’s top advisers, have benefited from hundreds of millions in foreign payments.

The windfall followed Trump’s political comeback: In 2024, Trump’s business holdings pulled in at least $622 million. In 2025, he reported a minimum total revenue of $2.2 billion.

Around $1.4 billion came from the president’s emerging cryptocurrency empire — which was jumpstarted when a United Arab Emirates royal purchased a 49% stake in Trump’s main crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, for more than $260 million, making it a major global player overnight.

Neighboring countries also appear to be courting Trump’s favor: Qatar donated a $400 million Boeing 747-8 airplane to serve as Trump’s Air Force One despite security threats, and Saudi Arabia approved a “Trump” golf, hotel and residential development amid nuclear negotiations.

Is this unprecedented?

These deals have often coincided with policy shifts, like allowing the export of valuable computer chips to the Middle East, pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and pausing an investigation into crypto billionaire Justin Sun.

House Republicans have largely remained quiet about potential connections between foreign payouts and White House policy. Meanwhile, Democrats have broken their silence, suddenly much more interested in the ethical expectations they failed to codify during the Biden years.

There is no precedent “since the Civil War” for the current level of conflict between the president’s personal investments and his public office, according to Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007.

“The whole Hunter Biden thing was a disaster, it looked terrible,” Painter told the Deseret News. “The Trump boys make at least 100 times as much money as Hunter Biden could ever dream of making. Probably more than that. The Trump boys are really good at grifting off the presidency.”

Conflicts of interest can have a “substantial impact” on foreign and domestic policy, Painter said. Family deals with foreign governments could encourage a president to enter a war on their behalf, he said, and family ownership in an industry could discourage a president from regulating it.

This is why the Founders included the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting officeholders from accepting profits from foreign leaders without the consent of Congress, Painter said. The problem is it can’t be enforced unless Congress pursues impeachment.

“Even if there isn’t an impact on policy, this undermines public confidence in the government,” Painter said. “And then people think the government’s always corrupt. And, you know, that money rules. And then you get a cynicism, a cynicism toward democracy.”

This can produce a populist spiral, where the desire for an outside candidate to “clean the swamp” produces politicians who are “actually in the middle of the swamp,” Painter said, adding that eventually this can create the temptation for voters to support an authoritarian solution.

What are Americans saying?

Partisan loyalty still reigns supreme over public opinion, but a series of recent polls find that more than 6 in 10 Americans are opposed to the type of apparent conflicts of interest that have come to typify Trump’s second term.

A YouGov poll published last week found 65% of U.S. adults disapproved and 20% approved of Trump having a personal investment in the crypto currency industry. Self-identified Republicans were more conflicted, with 45% approving, 29% disapproving and more than a quarter not sure.

Almost an identical share of adults disapproved of Trump’s family doing business with foreign countries while he is in office, and found it “unacceptable” for a sitting president to accept gifts from other governments, the survey found. Republicans remained split with 45% for and 30% against.

These results were echoed by a Reuters/Ipsos poll also released last week: 63% of adults did not think it was appropriate for Trump’s family to earn money from crypto and 69% — including 48% of Republicans — thought Trump’s businesses influenced his decisions as president.

In multiple statements, the White House has said, “neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest,” and that the president “only acts in the best interest of the American public.”

While the largest share of Trumps’ gains have come from World Liberty — which is on its way to becoming a national trust bank, and its associated digital coins — the family has also benefited from investments in mining and social media.

In November, the Trump administration approved a deal to provide up to $1.6 billion in federal financing for an American company called Kaz Resources to extract tungsten in Kazakhstan. The Trump sons had previously bought a 20% stake in the business that would become Kaz Resources.

And Truth Social, the platform founded and mostly owned by Trump, launched a new product this month giving customers quicker access to the most popular accounts, including that of the president, for $100,000 a month. A dozen companies have reportedly accepted the offer.

Distrust in government

Aaron Bullen is what he calls a “very active Republican voter.” The Utah County resident is a familiar face in state party politics and a firm supporter of Trump. Yet when he noticed a pattern of private deals accompanied by policy shifts he started to voice his concern to fellow Republicans.

While not his top issue, the GOP’s standard bearer should do everything he can to avoid apparent conflicts of interest, Bullen said. Trump’s sons have made enough well-timed investments to “make your eyebrows raise” at the claim that their business success has been a coincidence, he said.

“We need to treat it equally when Trump’s family does things that seem shady, as we do when a Democrat’s family does something that seems shady,” Bullen told the Deseret News. “I don’t think it’s the driving factor behind governmental distrust, but it certainly doesn’t help.”

In 2026, American’s average confidence in institutions fell to near an all-time low, with just 27% of adults expressing a great deal of trust. This mirrors a persistent decline in the share who say they trust Washington, D.C., to do what is right most of the time, which has sunk below 20%.

Greg Wadas, a “staunch conservative” living in Arizona, attributes plummeting confidence to the elite “machine” that controls U.S. politics. Wadas, 72, voted for the first time in his life in 2024, and he told the Deseret News that he would vote for Trump “10 times” more if he could.

He admits Trump can be “unpresidential,” but Wadas sees Trump as the “most transparent guy we’ve had in that office in some time.” Compared to the insider trading that benefits some of Trump’s biggest critics in Congress, the business dealings of Don Jr. and Eric don’t bother him.

“He doesn’t take a salary and all that stuff; he’s a billionaire already,” Wadas said of Trump. “What his family does really has no consequence on whether I would vote for him or not. None.”