Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said President Donald Trump’s personal financial gains while in office illustrate what Schiff has called “the cost of corruption” to ordinary Americans facing high living expenses. Schiff made the comments in a video posted to X, continuing a recurring series of statements he has made on the subject throughout 2026.
Schiff: “He Can’t Be Bothered to Worry About Your Cost of Living”
“While the president is enriching himself and his family, he is doing nothing to address the problems of the American people,” Schiff said. “The way I view it, this is the cost of corruption, and the cost of corruption is the president could care less about bringing down the cost of your food or your housing or your gas. He’s too busy focused on improving his own economy. His personal economy is doing great. He’s made more money in the first year of his administration than the rest of his life put together, 10 times, and he can’t be bothered to worry about your cost of living, and he tells you so.”
Official Disclosure Shows Trump Reported More Than $2 Billion in 2025 Income
According to a 927-page financial disclosure Trump’s office filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on July 1, the president reported more than $2 billion in personal income for 2025, his first year back in office. More than $1.2 billion of that total came from cryptocurrency-related ventures, according to the disclosure, including more than $635 million from sales of the $TRUMP meme coin and more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial, a crypto company Trump’s sons co-founded in 2024.
Disclosure Also Detailed Real Estate, Legal Settlement and Licensing Income
Beyond cryptocurrency, the disclosure showed golf, resort and hotel revenue rose to more than $500 million for the year, including $77 million from Mar-a-Lago alone, up from $50 million the prior year. Trump also reported more than $80 million in income from legal settlements with media companies including ABC, CBS, Meta and YouTube, and more than $50 million from licensing the Trump name to overseas property developers, an overseas licensing practice the Trump Organization had not pursued during Trump’s first term.
Trump’s Reported Net Worth Nearly Tripled Since Taking Office
Trump’s overall estimated fortune grew to roughly $6.5 billion, according to an analysis of the disclosure, up substantially since he began his second term in January 2025, driven in large part by the rise of his cryptocurrency ventures alongside his existing real estate holdings.
Schiff Has Separately Tied War Costs to His Broader Affordability Argument
Schiff has connected his corruption messaging to the war with Iran on other occasions, saying in June that Americans had paid roughly $60 billion more for gasoline because of the conflict and criticizing a proposed $300 billion reconstruction plan discussed at the time. Independent tracking by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated the war’s Strait of Hormuz disruptions added more than $85 billion in extra fuel costs nationally as of early September, or roughly $640 per household, with national average gas prices up from $2.98 a gallon in late February to more than $4.09 by mid-August, according to AAA data cited by the Center for American Progress.
White House Has Denied Any Conflicts of Interest
A White House representative said in response to the disclosure’s release that “neither the president nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest.” Trump has said his assets are held in a trust managed by his children and that he does not direct specific investment or business decisions. The White House’s own disclosures page notes that financial disclosure reports for executive branch officials are available to the public upon request.
Schiff Has Delivered Recurring “Cost of Corruption” Addresses Since Taking Office
Schiff’s Sept. 5 remarks continue a series of Senate floor speeches and social media videos he has delivered since shortly after being sworn in to finish the term of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In a May 2025 floor speech documented on his official Senate website, Schiff said of the administration’s first 114 days: “If your last name is Trump? These 114 days have been just about the greatest deal of all time. New airplanes from your friends in the Gulf, new hotel deals, new golf courses, new meme coins, new towers, new income is flowing into the Trump family.” He returned to the theme in a July floor speech counting down what he called the administration’s “top 10” self-enrichment schemes.
Schiff Has Proposed Legislation Targeting a Specific Justice Department Fund
Beyond public statements, Schiff has pursued targeted legislation. According to Senate Democratic leadership, he introduced two bills aimed at the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund”: one would bar payouts from that fund, including through the congressionally approved Judgment Fund, in lawsuits brought by the president or vice president, retroactive to January 2025; the other would prevent the fund from making payments to the president, vice president, lawmakers, congressional staff, political appointees or senior executive branch employees.
Schiff Cited Consumer Losses From Meme Coin Alongside Personal Profit
In earlier installments of the series, Schiff said Trump’s meme coin generated “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the president personally while causing “hundreds of thousands of Americans” to lose a combined roughly $2 billion in value on their purchases, a claim based on publicly reported cryptocurrency trading data rather than the disclosure itself.
House Oversight Democrats Estimated Larger Total Including Unrealized Gains
Separately, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released an official committee report in January estimating that Trump and his family had generated nearly $2.25 billion in what the report called “risk-free profits” from foreign payments and other sources since Trump’s return to office, a figure Garcia’s committee said could reach as much as $9.7 billion when including unrealized cryptocurrency holdings.
Schumer Introduced Bill to Create Independent Anti-Corruption Office
Senate Democrats have paired the messaging campaign with legislation; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act in late July, which would establish what Senate Democrats described as the nation’s first independent federal bureau dedicated to investigating corruption across the executive branch. The bill has not advanced in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Gallup Poll Found Record Share of Americans See Corruption as Widespread
A Gallup poll released Sept. 2 found 89% of U.S. adults said government corruption is “widespread,” a 10-point increase from the prior year and the highest level recorded in 20 years of polling on the question. The increase was driven substantially by Democrats and independents: 91% of Democrats and 90% of independents said corruption was widespread, up from 76% and roughly 78%, respectively, in 2025, while 83% of Republicans agreed, a figure Gallup noted has stayed comparatively steady and, unlike Democrats’ views, does not appear closely tied to which party controls the White House.
Schiff Has Made Corruption a Central Theme Since Joining the Senate
Schiff, who was elected to the Senate in 2024 after a long career in the House, has made oversight of Trump’s business dealings a recurring focus of his public statements and Senate floor speeches throughout his first term, framing the issue as directly connected to the affordability concerns he says are driving voter frustration ahead of the midterms.