59% of Americans Believe Trump Has Done Illegal or Unethical Things to Profit From Presidency

New Fox Poll shows voters' #1 concern is government corruption

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams

Donald Trump has made over $2 billion since returning to power last year, and polling results released October 13 show a majority of Americans believe he has not only prioritized himself and his inner circle, but also engaged in illegal or unethical behavior to cash in on his control of the White House.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research surveyed 2,140 US adults from September 24-28 and found that 56% of Americans across the political spectrum believe that Trump has prioritized his personal business interests “a lot” since 2025. Another 19% said he has prioritized those “some.”

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As for prioritizing the business interests of his friends and family, 54% said he has done so a lot, and 19% said some—figures published just days after an analysis estimating that companies backed financially by the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have scored more than $6 billion in contracts from the US Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, as Americans struggle with the high cost of everything from gasoline and groceries to healthcare and housing, and with the midterm elections just weeks away, only 23% of those polled said the president has prioritized the country a lot, and 19% said some. Even worse, 11% said he’s prioritized “people like me” a lot, and 18% said some.

Trump—whose approval rating has recently plummeted to record lows, fueling GOP fears about losing majorities in both chambers of Congress next month—disclosed in July that he pocketed at least $2.2 billion, over half of which came from his family’s cryptocurrency grift.

That “completely unprecedented” windfall generated allegations of corruption—as have Trump’s stock trading disclosures since then, despite White House attempts to stress that his “stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions.”

AP-NORC found that 59% of Americans across the political spectrum believe Trump has done something illegal (41%) or unethical but not unlawful (18%) to profit from the presidency. That includes 89% of Democrats, 50% of independents, and 32% of Republicans.

“His wealth increases,” 87-year-old retiree Barbara Thaxton, an independent from Summerfield, Florida, told the AP, “but the people in the country are just barely getting by.”

Last week, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the “Trumpflation Tracker,” a tool that she said shows “families across the country exactly how much of a price they are paying for Trump’s and Republicans’ failed economic agenda.”

According to Warren’s tracker, during Trump’s second term, gasoline prices have soared 43.7%, healthcare costs are up 14.6%, residential electricity prices are 12.7% higher, childcare has risen 7.6%, and rent has jumped 5.1%. The tool suggests the average US household is paying thousands of dollars more due to GOP policies, from the president’s illegal war on Iran and tariffs to cuts in his party’s 2025 budget package.

“So much for Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ of economic opportunity,” retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in response to the tracker. “Inflation is up more than 5% since he returned to the White House. Whether it’s the president’s tariffs, war with Iran, or cuts to healthcare and food assistance, his administration is making it harder for you to afford the basics.”