As millions tuned in to watch UFC fights on the White House lawn Sunday, the octagon was plastered with logos for World Liberty Financial—the Trump family crypto venture—and Truth Social, the social media company where the president is a major shareholder. WLFI served as presenting partner for a $250,000 bonus pool paid in its USD1 stablecoin, while Truth Social sponsored a bout and was promoted on air as “the real voice of President Trump.”
Trump's most recent annual financial disclosure, filed in June 2025 and covering income from 2024, shows he personally made more than $57 million from WLFI token sales that year alone. He also still holds a roughly 40 percent stake in Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, a company whose stock price has lost more than 70 percent of its value since its 2024 peak.
Trump’s promotion of his companies likely does not break the law. The main statute barring federal officials from participating in matters where they have a financial stake, 18 U.S.C. § 208, covers virtually every executive branch employee, but explicitly carves out the president and vice president. Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, told Fortune that a Treasury secretary in Trump's position, with a financial interest in a company that benefited from an official act, would very likely have committed a felony. But the president faces no equivalent restriction, by design.
Trump's self-promotions were displayed alongside dozens of paid corporate sponsors, including Meta, Crypto.com, Anduril, Polymarket, Scotts Miracle-Gro, and more. A number of these companies have regulatory matters pending before the administration, and sponsoring a presidential event is a visible way for a company to show its willingness to play along with officials.
Anduril, the defense-tech company founded by Trump campaign donor Palmer Luckey, has been one of the big winners under the administration. The Army awarded it an enterprise contract worth up to $20 billion consolidating its drone and counter-unmanned aircraft systems work, Space Force added a $1.8 billion satellite contract in April, and the company is developing space-based interceptors for Trump's “Golden Dome” system.
The DOJ and CFTC both closed investigations into prediction market Polymarket last year without bringing charges, clearing the way for its U.S. relaunch in May. Trump's son Don Jr. then joined Polymarket's advisory board after his venture firm, 1789 Capital, invested millions in the company. The CFTC has since intervened in the litigation, arguing that states lack authority to regulate federally supervised prediction markets and that the agency holds exclusive jurisdiction—a position Trump has endorsed on Truth Social. A CFTC rule cementing federal preemption is currently being reviewed by the White House.
