The Paper Trail: July 7, 2026

Trump’s Massive Crypto Windfall; SCOTUS’s Troubling Milestone; Freedom 250 Donors Allegedly Cheated

July 7, 2026

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Trump pulled in at least $2 billion after returning to the White House

President Trump reaped a stunning windfall in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, according to his 2025 financial disclosure report. All told, the president pulled in at least $2.2 billion, a figure that also includes his real estate assets and licensing deals.

(Ben Protess et al., New York Times)

Trump cashed in with 327 stock purchases just before he sent the market soaring by pausing tariffs
(Rhian Lubin, The Independent)
Crypto brought Trump a huge windfall, even as many investors lost big
(Eric Lipton, Andrea Fuller, and David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times)

Trump is rearming America. His sons are invested in the companies selling it weapons

Since their father won a second term, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have links to investments in at least 10 defense firms that have collectively received $3.7 billion in federal funds since January 2025.

(Akayla Gardner, MS NOW)

Plan to ease rules on mailing guns could help company Trump Jr. has stake in
(Perry Stein, Washington Post)

As America turns 250, a Trump adviser’s firm rakes in federal cash

Event Strategies, which arranged the January 6, 2021, rally on the Ellipse, has received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts to organize 250th anniversary events, often without completive bidding. Justin Caporale, a partner at the company, also works as a Trump adviser who helped plan the events.

(Dan Friedman, Mother Jones)

The Trump administration will use the same company that tried to renovate the Reflecting Pool to repair it — “because they did a fantastic job”
(Steve Peoples, Fortune)

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$1.5 trillion Pentagon budget benefits top contractors

If the Pentagon gets the fiscal 2027 budget it wants, dozens of weapons programs — some of which have elicited concerns about their cost, feasibility, reliability, or effectiveness — will see at least a doubling of their current funding levels. In addition, contracting giants like Lockheed Martin and Huntington Ingalls Industries will be the main beneficiaries, despite DOD rhetoric about doing more business with smaller, nontraditional contractors.

(Nick Schwellenbach and Neil Gordon, Project On Government Oversight)

How to Cut Half a Trillion Dollars from the Pentagon Budget Request and Strengthen National Security
(Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Center for Defense Information at POGO)
Lockheed Martin is covering the cost of Trump’s White House helipad
(Jenna Monnin, NOTUS)

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