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Poll Finds Improper Profits
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 63% of respondents in the US said it was not “appropriate” for President Donald Trump and his family to earn money from cryptocurrency investments while in office, while 69% of Americans said Trump’s business interests influence his policy decisions.
“63% of the respondents said it wasn’t appropriate for Trump and his family to earn money from crypto”
The poll results showed sharp partisan splits, with 69% of Republicans polled saying it was appropriate and 92% of Democrats responding negatively, according to Reuters’ reporting on the survey of 1,166 people conducted between Aug. 14-17.
The poll also tied public concern to Trump’s crypto earnings, with a June report from the US Office of Government Ethics disclosing that Trump had earned $1.4 billion from investments related to crypto in 2025, including through his family’s World Liberty Financial company and his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP).
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly repeatedly said there were “no conflicts of interest,” as the White House dismissed requests for comment on Trump’s crypto investments.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online over four days starting on the 14th, and it reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all respondents and plus or minus 5 percentage points for Democratic, Republican and independent groups.
Ethics Experts: Unprecedented
Presidential ethics experts told Reuters that the confluence of business and politics in the White House was unprecedented, with Richard Painter saying, “We have seen nothing like this before.”
Painter added that even the first Trump administration did not have as many complex business interests as the second, framing the current situation as worse than during Trump’s first term.
The poll’s findings could weigh on Trump as he expressed confidence in winning at least the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections, while Reuters reported that Democrats regularly highlight alleged corruption ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the next two years of his term.
Reuters also reported that Trump has countered the allegations by saying he has not been involved in the day-to-day management of the family business and that his investments are managed independently.
In the same Reuters/Ipsos polling, 69% of Americans—including two-thirds of independents and nine in 10 Democrats—said they thought Trump’s private business interests were influencing his presidential decisions, reinforcing the ethics concerns raised by Painter.
Crypto Regulation Push
While the poll sharpened scrutiny of Trump’s crypto ties, Reuters reported that Trump spoke about crypto at a White House press conference attended by many C-suite executives and industry leaders and pushed lawmakers in the Senate to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.
“The legislation is scheduled for a cloture vote on Sept. 15.”
The legislation was described as expected to establish clear roles for US regulatory agencies to oversee digital assets, and Reuters said the bill was scheduled for a cloture vote on Sept. 15.
Reuters also reported that Trump urged lawmakers to approve a “fair version of the Clarity Act,” while the SEC proposed long-awaited rules on Tuesday that would exempt certain token offerings from securities regulations and the CFTC planned to discuss cryptocurrency regulation at a meeting on Thursday.
The same Reuters coverage said many Democrats, and some Republicans, would not vote for a bill without a strong clause prohibiting politicians, including Trump, from profiting from their own cryptocurrency investments.
In parallel, the White House said there were “no conflicts of interest,” as Trump’s administration continued to pursue crypto-friendly policies through the SEC and CFTC amid the legislative stalemate.
