{"id":"1792885135673-money-segment","slug":"trump-s-billion-dollar-golf-tax-shelter","title":"Trump's billion-dollar golf tax shelter","summary":"Trump's 927-page 2025 financial disclosure reported at least $1.4 billion in crypto income — roughly $635 million from Celebration Coins (the $TRUMP meme coin entity) and over $500 million from World Liberty Financial — plus roughly $400 million more from real estate, legal settlements (including $88.5 million from Meta, ABC, CBS, YouTube, Twitter), overseas licensing, and branded merchandise. Total 2025 income was at least $2.2 billion, up from about $622 million in 2024.\n\nTrump profited heavily from crypto ventures launched around his return to office, including a meme coin and a crypto firm tied to his sons and Steve Witkoff's children. Forbes reported he used conservation easements on golf courses — donating development rights while keeping the properties — to offset a projected tax bill exceeding $500 million.\n\nTrump's 2025 financial disclosure reported about $1.4 billion in crypto income and over $200 million from real estate, with Forbes estimating a projected tax bill over $500 million. Forbes reported he used conservation easements on golf courses to reduce that tax liability. Houthi statements about striking Saudi targets could not be independently confirmed in this search round.","publishedAt":"2026-10-24T23:38:55.673Z","channel":{"id":"money","name":"Oncast Money","language":"en"},"show":"Money Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Trump's 2025 financial disclosure reported about $1.4 billion in crypto income and over $200 million from real estate, with Forbes estimating a projected tax bill over $500 million. Forbes reported he used conservation easements on golf courses to reduce that tax liability. Houthi statements about striking Saudi targets could not be independently confirmed in this search round.\nSource: [forbes.com](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2026/10/19/trumps-golf-empire-is-a-billion-dollar-tax-shelter/), [apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/ (https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/2114137612852342820)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Trump's 2025 financial disclosure reported about $1.4 billion in crypto income and over $200 million from real estate, with Forbes estimating a projected tax bill over $500 million. Forbes reported he used conservation easements on golf courses to reduce that tax liability. Houthi statements about striking Saudi targets could not be independently confirmed in this search round.","sourceName":"[forbes.com](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2026/10/19/trumps-golf-empire-is-a-billion-dollar-tax-shelter/), [apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/2114137612852342820","claim":"BREAKING: Trump turned his golf empire into a billion-dollar tax shelter. Trump made about $1.4 billion from crypto in 2025, plus more than $200 million from real estate, leaving him facing a projected tax bill of over $500 million, per Forbes calculations. In December 2025,","author":"@unusual_whales"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/2114137612852342820","name":"[forbes.com](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2026/10/19/trumps-golf-empire-is-a-billion-dollar-tax-shelter/), [apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"@unusual_whales"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792885135673-money-segment-trump-s-billion-dollar-golf-tax-shelter","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/money","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792885135673-money-segment-trump-s-billion-dollar-golf-tax-shelter","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792885135673-money-segment-trump-s-billion-dollar-golf-tax-shelter and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Bill","text":"Forbes just dropped a number that's going to make every taxpayer's jaw hit the floor."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Trump pulled in about one and a half BILLION dollars in crypto income last year."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And somehow turned his golf courses into a billion-dollar tax shelter. That's the part I want to talk about."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Unusual Whales flagged it. Forbes did the math. Total income, at least two point two billion dollars, up from six hundred twenty-two million the year before."},{"host":"Adam","text":"The crypto number's the thing. Six hundred thirty-five million from that Celebration Coins thing. Over five hundred million more from World Liberty Financial."},{"host":"Bill","text":"A meme coin and a crypto firm tied to his sons and Witkoff's kids. You can't make this up."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And the tax bill? Forbes projects it at over five hundred million dollars. What does he do? Conservation easements on the golf courses."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Donate the development rights, keep the property, write it off. It's legal, and it's also exactly what every rich guy with a good accountant does."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Legal doesn't mean it smells good. Forbes called it, and I'm quoting, 'legerdemain.' That's a polite word for a magic trick."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Hold on. Conservation easements aren't some Trump invention. Land trusts have been doing this for decades. You give up the right to build condos, you get a deduction. The land stays green."},{"host":"Adam","text":"But we're not talking about a family farm, Bill. We're talking about a guy who made one point four BILLION in crypto and needed to park a deduction somewhere."},{"host":"Bill","text":"So what? The IRS signed off on the deduction. If you don't like the tax code, blame the people who wrote it, not the guy who read it."},{"host":"Adam","text":"I'll blame both. The code is a mess, and Trump's entire empire is built on gaming it. This is the same playbook from the eighties."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The crypto windfall is the real story though. The guy launched a meme coin named after himself while running for president. That's not a tax strategy — that's a brand monetization on a scale nobody's ever seen."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And it worked. Two point two billion in one year. PolitiFact already shot down his claim that stock market gains were the driver. It was crypto, overwhelmingly."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Which raises a question I can't stop thinking about. If the president can make a billion dollars off a token he launched, what exactly is the line between governing and grifting?"},{"host":"Adam","text":"I think the line's still there — he has to disclose it, and he did. But it's real murky. You're the crypto guy, Bill. Defend the coin."},{"host":"Bill","text":"I don't defend celebrity meme coins! I think they're lottery tickets with extra steps. But the guy made money. Other people bought them. Nobody held a gun to anyone's head."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Come on. The guy's the president. If Gary from accounting launches a coin, nobody buys it. Trump launches one, a million people pile in because they think he's endorsing their financial future."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And if they made money, they're geniuses. If they lost money, it's a scam. That's how retail thinks about every trade, Adam. The president didn't change human nature."},{"host":"Adam","text":"He exploited it. That's my point. When the most powerful man in the world sells a token with his face on it, he's using the office as marketing."},{"host":"Bill","text":"He's also the most famous man in America and has been since the eighties. His name was a brand long before he took the oath. I don't like it, but I can't pretend the office made him famous."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Fair. The fame came first. But the office made it dangerous."},{"host":"Bill","text":"You know what's genuinely interesting? The legal settlements. Eighty-eight million from Meta, ABC, CBS, YouTube, Twitter. That's the free speech battles paying out in actual cash."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Which he rolled into the same pile. Everything's income when you're Trump."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Anyway, the Forbes piece is worth reading. The golf stuff alone is a masterclass in high-net-worth tax planning. Legal, but very, very creative."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Speaking of things that sound creative until you look closer — Peter Schiff is making headlines again."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Schiff says Bitcoin is going to crash to seventy-five thousand dollars. His words: 'It's going to be a very long weekend for Bitcoiners.'"},{"host":"Adam","text":"The man has predicted Bitcoin's death more times than I've had hot dinners. But give him this: when bitcoin dips, he's first out with the victory lap."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Bitcoin's around eighty-two, eighty-three thousand right now per the price dashboards. So seventy-five thousand is what, a nine percent drop?"},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's not a crash. That's a Tuesday. What's his actual argument, or is it the usual bitcoin-has-no-intrinsic-value speech?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"It's the usual. Gold good, bitcoin bad. He's been saying the same thing since bitcoin was a thousand dollars."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And bitcoin's up what, eighty times since then? The man has the worst bear case in finance."},{"host":"Bill","text":"But he's not wrong that leveraged traders get wiped on long weekends. Thin liquidity, no ETF market open, stop losses cascade."},{"host":"Adam","text":"He's right about the mechanics and wrong about the conclusion, which is his whole brand."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Different corner of the world entirely. There's a Telegram market feed saying the Houthis are claiming strikes on Saudi Arabia — Riyadh airport, an Aramco site in Yanbu, a couple of other targets."},{"host":"Adam","text":"The Houthis claim a lot of things. These are all unconfirmed right now. Saudi state media hasn't verified any of it, as far as I've seen."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Yanbu's a big one if true — that's the Red Sea industrial port for Saudi oil shipments. A hit there would move crude prices Sunday night."},{"host":"Adam","text":"If true. That's the word that matters. Right now we've got claims on Telegram, with no confirmation from the Saudis and no independent verification."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And oil markets will do the same. They don't price in unverified Telegram posts — until a shipping source or a Reuters photo confirms it."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Which hasn't happened yet. So file this under 'watch it' until there's confirmation. The energy markets have been jumpy enough this year without phantom strikes."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Meanwhile, on the lighter side, the crypto roundup accounts are at full volume. One account screaming that bitcoin whales keep buying despite the price struggle."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Whales always buy the dip. That's the least surprising headline in crypto. The claimed one billion seventy million into ETFs in three days is more interesting."},{"host":"Bill","text":"If it's real — that number's from a roundup account and I haven't seen it confirmed on any exchange data. ETF flows get revised constantly."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Right. The price drops while money supposedly flows in. That's a red flag that the flow number is either wrong or being offset by selling in other venues."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And then the same account lists bitcoin ETFs losing six hundred thirty-five million in a day. The roundup accounts are just reprinting whatever flows across the tape."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Which is why I ignore them until the fund issuers file the actual daily reports."},{"host":"Bill","text":"You know what the most honest headline of the day was? One of those price dashboards just listed today's numbers. Bitcoin eighty-two seven fifty-nine. Ethereum two four thirty-eight and change. Solana one oh five."},{"host":"Adam","text":"There's something refreshing about a post that just gives you the numbers and stops talking."},{"host":"Bill","text":"No narrative, no 'here's why you should panic.' Just prices. I respect it."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Same here. That account's just a thermometer. It doesn't tell you the patient's dying."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And speaking of patients — Schiff's still at the bedside, checking the pulse every five minutes."},{"host":"Adam","text":"He'll be checking it at seventy-five thousand, and at a hundred thousand, and at a hundred fifty. It's what he does."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Anyway, the one thing I'd leave you with tonight: the Trump money story isn't about whether it's legal. It's about what it tells you about how the game is played."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Two point two billion in income, a nine-hundred-page disclosure, and a golf course deduction that erases half the tax bill. If that doesn't make you want to hire a better accountant, nothing will."}]}