BForbes just dropped a number that's going to make every taxpayer's jaw hit the floor.
BTrump pulled in about one and a half BILLION dollars in crypto income last year.
AAnd somehow turned his golf courses into a billion-dollar tax shelter. That's the part I want to talk about.
BUnusual 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.
AThe crypto number's the thing. Six hundred thirty-five million from that Celebration Coins thing. Over five hundred million more from World Liberty Financial.
BA meme coin and a crypto firm tied to his sons and Witkoff's kids. You can't make this up.
AAnd the tax bill? Forbes projects it at over five hundred million dollars. What does he do? Conservation easements on the golf courses.
BDonate 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.
ALegal doesn't mean it smells good. Forbes called it, and I'm quoting, 'legerdemain.' That's a polite word for a magic trick.
BHold 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.
ABut 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.
BSo 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.
AI'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.
BThe 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.
AAnd 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.
BWhich 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?
AI 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.
BI 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.
ACome 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.
BAnd 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.
AHe 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.
BHe'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.
AFair. The fame came first. But the office made it dangerous.
BYou 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.
AWhich he rolled into the same pile. Everything's income when you're Trump.
BAnyway, the Forbes piece is worth reading. The golf stuff alone is a masterclass in high-net-worth tax planning. Legal, but very, very creative.
ASpeaking of things that sound creative until you look closer — Peter Schiff is making headlines again.
BSchiff says Bitcoin is going to crash to seventy-five thousand dollars. His words: 'It's going to be a very long weekend for Bitcoiners.'
AThe 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.
BBitcoin's around eighty-two, eighty-three thousand right now per the price dashboards. So seventy-five thousand is what, a nine percent drop?
AThat's not a crash. That's a Tuesday. What's his actual argument, or is it the usual bitcoin-has-no-intrinsic-value speech?
BIt's the usual. Gold good, bitcoin bad. He's been saying the same thing since bitcoin was a thousand dollars.
AAnd bitcoin's up what, eighty times since then? The man has the worst bear case in finance.
BBut he's not wrong that leveraged traders get wiped on long weekends. Thin liquidity, no ETF market open, stop losses cascade.
AHe's right about the mechanics and wrong about the conclusion, which is his whole brand.
BDifferent 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.
AThe 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.
BYanbu'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.
AIf 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.
BAnd oil markets will do the same. They don't price in unverified Telegram posts — until a shipping source or a Reuters photo confirms it.
AWhich 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.
BMeanwhile, on the lighter side, the crypto roundup accounts are at full volume. One account screaming that bitcoin whales keep buying despite the price struggle.
AWhales 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.
BIf 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.
ARight. 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.
BAnd 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.
AWhich is why I ignore them until the fund issuers file the actual daily reports.
BYou 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.
AThere's something refreshing about a post that just gives you the numbers and stops talking.
BNo narrative, no 'here's why you should panic.' Just prices. I respect it.
ASame here. That account's just a thermometer. It doesn't tell you the patient's dying.
BAnd speaking of patients — Schiff's still at the bedside, checking the pulse every five minutes.
AHe'll be checking it at seventy-five thousand, and at a hundred thousand, and at a hundred fifty. It's what he does.
BAnyway, 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.
ATwo 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.