Author Archives: sterlingcooper

111,000,000 AMERICANS ARE NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE!

Welfare

111 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have a Job and America Spends More Than a Trillion Dollars per Year on a Social Safety Net for Them

Did you know that the number of Americans that are out of work right now is far higher than it was at any point during the Great Recession? I know that sounds crazy, but I will prove it to you in this article. A whopping 111 million Americans do not have a job, and we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year on the social safety net that supports them. Of course we cannot afford to do this, because the national debt has already reached 39 trillion dollars and it is growing at an astounding rate. If we do not fix our economy, disaster is inevitable.

The bureaucrats in Washington keep telling us that the unemployment rate is low even though there are vast numbers of adults all around us that are not working.

The way that they are able to do this is by dumping almost everyone that is not working into a category known as “not in labor force”.

This allows them to keep the official rate of unemployment suppressed even as the labor force participation rate hits an insanely low level…

On the surface, a June drop in the unemployment rate helped provide some upside to what was an otherwise downbeat jobs report — but it was for all the wrong reasons.

That’s because the decline in the jobless level to 4.2%, the lowest in a year, came largely from an exodus of workers from the labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data Thursday.

In fact, the measure of the working-age population either employed or looking for a job slid to 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021. Excluding the Covid-era jobs market, it was the lowest labor force participation rate in exactly 50 years.

Today, there are just over 7 million Americans that are officially unemployed.

That doesn’t sound bad at all.

But they rarely mention those that are considered to be not in the labor force. This is how the Federal Reserve defines that category…

Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. This category includes retired persons, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work.

As you can see from the chart below, the number of people that they have been dumping into that category has grown dramatically since 1990.

Right now, there are 104 million Americans that do not have a job that are considered to be not in the labor force…

When you add the 7 million Americans that are officially unemployed to the 104 million Americans that are considered to be not in the labor force, you get a grand total of 111 million Americans that do not have a job right now.

At no point during the Great Recession did that combined figure ever reach 100 million.

That is how bad things are in the U.S. at this moment.

Of course the 111 million Americans that are not working need to be supported somehow.

Some of them are supported by other family members that have incomes coming in.

But most of them are either partially or totally supported by our social safety net.

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, we spend more than a trillion dollars a year on more than 80 different social safety net programs…

Buying Americans out of poverty is undermining incentives to work, with families living in poverty relying more on taxpayer-funded welfare checks than income from work, according to a newly released report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Costing well over $1 trillion, America’s social safety net encompasses more than 80 federal programs, and is discouraging beneficiaries from seeking income from work.

The report, which was requested by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08), shows low-income families are becoming increasingly dependent on government transfers. In 1979, families living below the poverty line earned about 60 percent of their income from work. In 2021, that number dropped to an all-time low of around 25 percent. The report also shows how the dramatic increase in dependency on government transfers for low-income families was accelerated by COVID-era benefits.

Read that first paragraph again. I had no idea that it was this bad.

If the federal government was not supporting them, tens of millions more Americans would be living in poverty right now.

So what would our society look like if we stopped borrowing gigantic mountains of money to fuel this system?

And each day, even more Americans are losing their places in the middle class because they are getting laid off.

In fact, it is being reported that Microsoft is preparing for yet another round of massive layoffs…

Microsoft is reportedly planning another round of layoffs, expected to be announced as early as next week.

The cuts will impact thousands of roles across sales, consulting, and the Xbox gaming division. Total layoffs will amount to less than 2.5%% of the company’s workforce.

Microsoft employs roughly 220,000 people across the globe. The company eliminated approximately 15,000 positions just last year — 6,000 layoffs in May 2025 and another 9,000 layoffs in July 2025.

But if we just throw the entire country into the “not in labor force” category, we can pretend that the unemployment rate is at 0.0 percent and that everything is just fine, right?

What a joke.

Of course most Americans that are actually working are really struggling these days.

Home prices in the U.S. have risen by about 60 percent since the beginning of the last pandemic, and at this stage housing in the U.S. is more unaffordable than it has ever been before…

Home prices have grown by roughly 60 percent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to JP Morgan data. Mortgage rates are historically high, and have been so since 2022. And the U.S. homeownership rate hit its lowest level since 2019 last year, at 65 percent, according to Census data.

“I think right now the housing market is pretty unprecedented,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Newsweek. “We have the highest home prices that have ever been on record, along with pretty high mortgage rates. The mortgage rates aren’t the highest we’ve seen on record—they exceeded 18 percent in 1981—but they are higher than they have been for the last 10 years or so.

“And so housing affordability has gotten really bad, especially for young people who don’t already own homes. Breaking into the housing market is incredibly tough.”

How are young adults supposed to purchase homes in this environment?

Home prices have risen far faster than incomes have, and this has “put homeownership out of reach for millions of millennial and Gen Z Americans”…

Back in 1975, a typical home cost about 2.4 times as much as the average under-40 household earned in a year, a standard measure of housing affordability, according to a new report from Pew Research Center.

By 2019, that price-to-income ratio had risen to 2.9. In 2024, it reached 3.5.

Over the past decade, home prices have risen much faster than wages. The rising ratio of price to income, coupled with elevated interest rates, has put home ownership out of reach for millions of millennial and Gen Z Americans.

This is one of the biggest reasons why young adults are so angry.

They simply can’t afford to live normal lives.

Last year, the percentage of first-time homebuyers dropped to the lowest level ever recorded…

First-time buyers represented only 21% of all home purchasers in 2025, a record low, according to the National Association of Realtors. The typical age of a first-time buyer climbed to 40, an all-time high.

Meanwhile, virtually everything else is becoming more expensive too.

For example, the price of ground beef is up 13 percent over the past year, and that price of steak is up 16 percent over the past year…

The average price of ground beef was $6.75 per pound in May, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, up nearly 13% from a year ago and just below April’s record high of $6.90. Beef steak prices averaged $12.80 per pound, up 16% from a year earlier and the second-highest level on record.

Tens of millions of Americans are deeply hurting right now, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

This is why I rant about the economy so much.

I hear from so many people out there that are in very real pain.

Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in decades of economic decline, and now we really have reached a breaking point.

 

COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE USA AND WORLDWIDE ARE EXHIBITING THE SAME COMPREHENSION AS 10-YEAR OLDS!!!!

College Students Are Testing at the Level of 10-Year-Olds

Are you smarter than a 4th grader?
A stylized photo illustration featuring a college student on his laptop with his hands placed over his mouth in a gesture of anxiety and difficulty.
Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Shutterstock

Gone are the days of university freshmen reading classical philosophers like Plato or contemporary pedagogues like Ta-Nehisi Coates. These days, incoming college students are lucky if they can get through Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”

According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries — a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and doing math at a level which, in a more functional society, would be alarming for a middle schooler.

The survey, first spotted by the Economist, tested around 160,000 people of all ages, across all 38 member states. It found that across all OECD member countries, a full 8 percent of college students are reading at the level of a ten-year-old, if not worse. While countries like Germany and France rang in at under 5 percent, countries like Poland, Israel, and the United States blew the curve at 21, 20, and 14 percent, respectively.

The numbers aren’t much better when it comes to math. Across OECD countries, 9 percent of college students do math at or below a ten-year-old level. In Italy, the US, and Slovakia, that figure jumps to over 15 percent — only outdone by Israel, where roughly 21 percent of college students were underachieving at the same low benchmark.

It seems there are numerous compounding explanations for these test results: pandemic-era learning gaps leading to lower levels of preparation, declining college enrollment forcing schools to lower admissions standards, and lower levels of public funding for education, to name a few.

The results also coincide with the explosion of large language models like ChatGPT, which by many accounts have carved out a new floor for academic failure in both K-12 and college-level education.

While there’s no denying how complicated the issue is, there is evidence that removing technology from classrooms altogether could offer an immediate boost.

In one classroom in Minneapolis, for example, a literature and English teacher banned phones and laptops, requiring all coursework to be done on pencil and paper. As the school-year started in September, just 46 percent of the students involved said they felt confident about their reading skills. A few months later in February, that number stood at 95 percent.

Though it’s just one classroom, something is clearly off the rails in the education systems of the richest countries of the world — and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more students will be pushed into the world with the reading skills of 4th graders.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 56 BRAVE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?

What Happened to the 56 Signatories of the Declaration of Independence

Today the United States celebrates the 250th—or semiquincentennial—anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

While July 4 marks the day Thomas Jefferson’s revised draft of the Declaration of Independence was adopted, it would take months for the document to be signed by all 56 men who would eventually affix their names to it.

Several key figures in American history—George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, among others—don’t appear among the signatories of the Declaration of Independence at all, having been serving in military roles or other capacities at the time.

None of the 56 signers died as a result of their signature, but before the war was over, five would be captured, 12 would have their homes destroyed, and 17 would lose their entire fortunes. None of the 56 signatories ever renounced the cause of independence of their own free will.

Here’s what happened to the men who pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” to the cause of American independence, on the basis of “self-evident … Truths” that not even a global empire—or a king—could deny.

‘The Sage of Monticello’: Thomas Jefferson

Easily the most well-known of the Declaration’s signatories—as well as its author—Thomas Jefferson enjoyed several benefits later in life from his role in the document’s drafting.

During the war, Jefferson nearly faced capture by the British during his tenure as governor of Virginia, forcing him to flee from his Monticello estate. That led to accusations of “cowardice” that eventually prompted Virginia legislators to launch a formal inquiry, in which Jefferson was acquitted.

Later, Jefferson served in a series of key posts, first as the U.S. ambassador to France, then as secretary of state under President George Washington and vice president under President John Adams.

After he was elected president—an event dubbed the “Revolution of 1800”—Jefferson’s egalitarian vision expressed in the Declaration of Independence came to be viewed as one of the most critical documents of the American founding.

‘The First American’: Ben Franklin

While Jefferson often gets the lion’s share of the credit for drafting the Declaration, Ben Franklin is credited with one critical edit to the document.

Widely recognized as a multi-disciplinary polymath, Franklin has been dubbed “the First American” by history for his early and long-running calls for American colonial unity.

In the preamble to the Declaration, Jefferson had originally written, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable.”

Franklin—who served on the drafting committee—replaced this with the revision: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

Franklin later served as ambassador to France and lead negotiator on the deal to end the war with Great Britain, was the “president”—or governor—of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1788, and served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Shortly before his death in 1790, Franklin made his last political statement with his support of a petition calling on the federal government to abolish slavery.

‘The Atlas of American Independence’: John Adams

John Adams, the future second president, was one of the first delegates to the Continental Congress to call for independence. He was also among the most outspoken in its defense, leading him to be dubbed by some as “the Atlas of American Independence.”

In February 1778, Adams was nearly captured by British warships while leaving on a diplomatic mission for Paris with his son. Adams took up a musket to fight the British vessels, but it took a mix of skillful navigation and a fortuitous storm to shake the pursuers. Had he been captured, Adams likely would have faced imprisonment in the Tower of London and execution for treason.

In one of the most remarkable coincidences in history, Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826—50 years after the Declaration’s adoption day. Adams’s final words, “Jefferson still lives,” were in fact mistaken: the third president had passed away at Monticello hours earlier.

‘The First Founding Father’: Richard Henry Lee

Less well-known than either Jefferson or Adams, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee was no less instrumental in bringing about independence, authoring the part of the Declaration stating the 13 colonies “are, and of Right ought to be, free and independent States.”

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted this “Lee Resolution.” Adams famously predicted incorrectly that July 2, rather than July 4, would be celebrated as the American Independence Day, and would be commemorated with, “pomp and parade … from one end of this continent to the other.”

During the war, Lee faced military attacks on his property, chronic stress that took a toll on his health, and a severe hit to his finances as the war hit international shipping and the tobacco trade he relied on.

He later served as the first Virginia senator alongside William Grayson, joining the anti-Federalists in opposing a national government. Lee died in June 1794 at age 62.

The Midnight Rider: Caesar Rodney

A lesser-known but critical signatory of the Declaration was Caesar Rodney, who rode 80 miles to Philadelphia while suffering from facial cancer to cast a tie-breaking vote for Delaware’s delegation in favor of independence.

Unanimous support from all colonies was required to authorize the Lee Resolution—meaning Rodney’s vote was critical to final adoption.

Rodney later served as “president,” or governor, of Delaware until 1781, and died in 1784 of facial cancer at age 55.

The First Signer: John Hancock

John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration—the first—was so large that his name became an American idiom for one’s signature.

The Massachusetts revolutionary leader had been serving as president of the Second Continental Congress since May 24, 1775.

Hancock, aside from being the first signer, is the only person who actually signed the document on July 4, 1776.

Hancock was at the head of a massive commercial empire, deriving his wealth partially from inheritance and partially from smuggling. Had American independence failed, Hancock—as well as his family—would have lost everything.

Despite close calls, he made it through the Revolution without facing capture. However, several of his properties were destroyed or occupied by the British during the conflict, while Hancock expended nearly half of his personal wealth financing the cause of independence.

He later served as the first governor of independent Massachusetts, and died in 1793 at 56.

The Last Signer: Thomas McKean

Like several other delegates to the Second Continental Congress, Thomas McKean of Delaware left to join the Revolution as soon as he cast his ballot in favor of independence.

This meant that he was ultimately unable to sign the documents until months—or, by some estimates, years—later. While historians are confident that McKean is the final signatory, the exact date is disputed, with estimates ranging from early 1777 all the way to 1781.

McKean took part in key battles during the conflict, assisting in the defense of New York City and Delaware. By 1781, McKean was serving as president of the Continental Congress, making him the civilian authority directing the Battle of Yorktown, which ended the war.

After the Revolution, McKean served as chief justice and governor of Pennsylvania. During the War of 1812, he led a civilian defense group against the British, taking up arms one final time before his death in 1817 at the age of 83.

The One Who Renounced His Signature: Richard Stockton

While none of the 56 signers ever willingly renounced their support for the Declaration, historians think that signer Richard Stockton of New Jersey renounced his signature under coercion and following a long period of captivity by the British.

Imprisoned by the British, Stockton signed a parole agreement in which he reneged on his signature and pledged not to take part in the war. Under the agreement, Stockton resigned his seat in the Continental Congress.

Later, Stockton reaffirmed his loyalty to the United States before his death at age 50 in 1781.

The Fighters

Like McKean, several signers went on to take part in the conflict.

These included Rodney, Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut, Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia, and William Floyd of New York.

Others who left Philadelphia to join the conflict were taken as prisoners of war during the Revolution.

One of these was George Walton, who was wounded and captured during the Battle of Savannah. Despite spending months in British custody, Walton survived and was eventually freed, going on to serve as a governor, chief justice, and U.S. senator for Georgia.

Three others—Thomas Heyward Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge—were taken prisoner during the Battle of Charleston. All three survived months of captivity at St. Augustine, Florida, with Heyward becoming the last of the three to die at age 62 in 1809.

Homes Looted, Occupied, or Destroyed

Many other signers faced consequences related to their properties and estates. Some of the most prominent of these included Lee and Hancock.

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In New York, meanwhile, signer Francis Lewis had his property destroyed by the British, who captured his wife during the attack. Held in captivity for months without a change of clothes or adequate food, Elizabeth Annesley Lewis was ultimately freed under a prisoner exchange negotiated by Washington, but died shortly thereafter from the stress of the ordeal.

Also in New York, signers William Floyd, Philip Livingston, and Lewis Morris had their vast estates occupied by the British during the war, with the properties being used as barracks or stables.

Signer John Hart of New Jersey was also forced to flee from his home—and his wife’s deathbed—when Hessian troops attacked his farm and mills.

The Longest-Lived Signer: Charles Carroll

In 1832, Charles Carroll of Maryland knew that he was dying.

The only Catholic signer of the Declaration, Carroll had by then been the sole remaining signatory of the document for around six years.

He gained the accolade on July 4, 1826, following the deaths of Adams and Jefferson, who were among the final three living signers. Franklin had passed more than 40 years earlier.

By 1832, Carroll was well-used to the questions he received from young people and reporters, who were set on preserving as much of the early Republic as possible during the twilight years of the 1820s.

Before his death, Carroll played a key role in welcoming the new era of American life, laying the first stone of the B&O railroad, one of the first steps toward the transcontinental railroad that would take decades yet to be completed.

Carroll’s passing was commemorated in the papers and on the streets of the blossoming American republic, whose citizens recognized that with Carroll’s passing, the first generation of the United States was truly over.

Commenting on his status near the end of his life, Carroll wrote, “Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings. … I do hereby recommend to the present and future generations the principles of that important document … and pray that the civil and religious liberties they have secured to my country may be perpetuated.”

WHAT ARE THE TOP COUNTRIES FOR WEALTH MIGRATION?

These Are The World’s Top Destinations For Wealth Migration

Countries are increasingly competing to attract wealthy individuals alongside businesses and skilled workers. For many governments, internationally mobile wealth represents a source of investment, entrepreneurship, and long-term economic growth.

This graphic, via Visual Cspitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, ranks the world’s most competitive destinations for wealth migration using data from The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2026, which evaluates countries across 12 factors including tax policy, investor pathways, regulatory quality, and overall business environment.

The Most Competitive Countries for Wealth Migration

Below, countries are measured by their competitiveness for attracting internationally mobile wealth.

Singapore leads globally, ahead of New Zealand and the Cayman Islands. Europe also performs strongly, with the Netherlands, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece all appearing in the top 15.

Singapore’s position reflects its combination of low taxes, political stability, and business-friendly policies. Together, these strengths have made it one of the safest countries for investors, and a magnet for wealth across Asia.

Small Countries Stand Out

One of the clearest patterns is the strength of smaller economies. Overall, 11 of the 16 most competitive countries have populations under 10 million.

Many of these countries have spent decades building investor-friendly ecosystems. Singapore offers a globally connected financial hub, Cyprus provides attractive residency pathways, and Switzerland combines political stability with an established private banking industry.

Rather than relying on domestic market size, many of these countries compete by offering predictable regulation, efficient tax systems, strong legal institutions, and straightforward pathways for investors to establish residency or relocate wealth.

The U.S. Falls Behind

Despite having the world’s largest economy, the U.S. faces several structural challenges in attracting wealth.

Citizenship-based taxation, fiscal complexity, longer investor processing times, and political polarization are among the factors weighing on its score. By contrast, many higher-ranked countries offer simpler tax regimes, making them more attractive to internationally mobile wealth.

Unlike most countries, the U.S. taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, a feature that can increase tax burdens for internationally mobile individuals.

Why Countries Are Competing for Wealth

Countries are increasingly competing for more than businesses and skilled workers. They are also competing for private capital.

In 2025 alone, nearly 1 million people globally became millionaires, highlighting the growing pool of internationally mobile wealth.

High-net-worth individuals often relocate with businesses, investment capital, and philanthropic spending. As global wealth continues to grow, attracting even a relatively small number of affluent residents can have an outsized economic impact, particularly for smaller countries..

PUTIN’S $100 MILLION YACHT (DOES HE REALLY SPEND TIME ON THAT?) ESCAPING TO THE ARCTIC

A £100m superyacht believed to be owned by Vladimir Putin is fleeing Europe to avoid Ukrainian drone attacks.

The 82m Graceful is traversing the coast of Norway on course to reach the northern Russian port of Murmansk in the coming days, according to maritime intelligence data and satellite imagery analysed by The Telegraph.

It is sailing under the escort of two Russian naval vessels and under the watchful eye of Nato.

The yacht has been pictured sailing with anti-drone nets covering its deck.

It is being shadowed by a heavily armed Russian I-class destroyer, the Severomorsk, as well as a 7,500-ton Russian salvage and patrol ship, the Voevoda, in the latest demonstration of Putin’s growing paranoia.

The convoy is being monitored by Nato, while German and Danish Navy patrol ships shadowed the vessels on their voyage through the Baltic, according to a senior Nato source.

The Graceful superyacht being shadowed by a Russian destroyer (right) and a salvage and patrol ship – Frank Behling

Putin is understood to have taken numerous trips aboard the yacht, including a 2021 voyage in the Black Sea with Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, according to US government filings.

The vessel is equipped with both saltwater and freshwater pools, a helipad, gym, and secure government communications systems.

It was relocated from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, to the Russian shipping enclave of Kaliningrad 17 days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The luxury yacht reportedly has anti-drone nets covering its deck – Frank Behling/Kieler Nachrichten

Four months later, the US designated the yacht as blocked property under sanctions, forcing the vessel to rename itself the Kosatka, meaning “Killer Whale” in Russian.

The yacht went into hiding until last week when it re-emerged for the first time in four years.

Its automatic identification system broadcast its journey through the Danish Strait before going dark upon entering the North Sea on Monday.

The accompanying Voevoda continued to broadcast its location as it headed northbound past the Norwegian coast. The convoy is understood to be on course past the northern city of Tromsø before final docking in Murmansk.

John Foreman, Britain’s defence attaché to Moscow until 2022, said: “They don’t want to take any chances. Moving it further away from the Ukrainians after they pummelled Kronstadt.”

Just a week ago, Ukrainian long-range drones struck the strategic Russian Kronstadt naval base on Kotlin Island, around 12 miles east of St Petersburg.

The attack in the Gulf of Finland hit one of Moscow’s few modern warships, the RFS Boiky, in a clear demonstration of the Russian navy’s vulnerability far from the battlelines in Ukraine.

The superyacht features saltwater and freshwater pools, a helipad, gym, and secure government communications systems – Newsflash

Satellite imagery analysed by The Telegraph reveals an unusually bare Kronstadt naval base following the Ukrainian attacks. Images from June last year appear to show at least nine more vessels docked in the port when compared with images of the base on Wednesday.

In November, a similar attack hit the Kremlin’s Gepard-class frigates Tatarstan and Dagestan, along with a number of small missile ships, while sailing in the Caspian Sea, almost 1,000 miles from Ukraine.

With the realisation that Russia’s air defence was unable to prevent recent strikes, Putin is moving his prized assets out of the Baltic and back home to safety.

PRESIDENT TRUMP MAKES $2.2 BILLION…

How President’s Personal Income Surged Last Year

President Trump’s personal income surged to more than $2.2 billion in the first year of his second term.

Unlike other presidents who generally have divested themselves of holdings or established blind trusts, Trump put many of his assets into a revocable trust overseen by Donald Trump Jr., who also co-heads the real-estate and hospitalityfocused Trump Organization with another of the president’s sons, Eric Trump.

Though Trump is best known for his real-estate empire, income from those businesses was dwarfed by his crypto-related ventures, which brought him more than $1 billion last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of his 900-page federal disclosure form.

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he didn’t talk to the people who managed his money and he was doing well because the stock market was hitting records.

See how Trump’s income and assets changed:Crypto

Among the largest windfalls recorded in the filings is $263 million in earnings connected to the sale of equity in World Liberty Financial, the president’s cryptocurrency business.

It marks the first formal disclosure of a secret $500 million deal that Eric Trump signed with a group of investors led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirates royal.

The deal, which granted the U.A.E. investors 49% in the president’s cryptocurrency business, was first reported in January by the Journal. Shortly after it was signed, the Trump administration signed a framework deal allowing the U.A.E. access to tightly guarded U.S. artificial-intelligence chips.

Overall, Trump brought in a total of $798 million from World Liberty Financial and a related stablecoin business. Trump’s licensing agreement with Celebration Coins, the company behind his memecoin business, brought in $635 million in royalties.

The two largest cryptocurrencies promoted by the president—$ WLFI and $TRUMP— have collapsed in value since they were created, leaving many individual investors with steep losses.

Trading

Trump’s investment accounts ballooned, too—to at least $858 million from at least $237 million. In addition to his trust, investment and cash accounts, Trump disclosed four new investment accounts.

Trump disclosed more than 20,000 trades across last year, or on average, more than 50 trades a day. His accounts went big on tech stocks, with more than $70 million in holdings across the Magnificent 7 tech stocks, including more than $10 million apiece in Apple, Nvidia and Alphabet.

Trump’s advisers also expanded his stockholdings to include nearly every company in the S&P 500 index. Some analysts say the moves resemble common trading strategies designed to mitigate capital-gains taxes.

The report released Tuesday showed the president’s stake in Truth Social parent Trump Media was still valued at more than $50 million. A tumbling stock price, however, shrank the value of those holdings by $2.4 billion last year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Real estate

The president’s hospitality business also brought in more money. He reported more than $525 million in hotel and golfrelated income, and $49 million from other real-estate income.

At his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, which has boosted initiation fees and become a hub for donors and favor-seekers, Trump’s income jumped to $77 million in 2025 from $50 million in 2024. His earnings from an entity linked to Trump National Doral climbed to $122 million from $110 million during the same period.

The president also paid off some large real-estate debts in 2025, including a mortgage of more than $50 million on the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street.

A Trump Organization spokeswoman said the disclosures showed the organization’s financial strength and “a level of financial transparency unmatched in presidential history.”

TRUMP RAKES IN THE BIG DOLLARS, WHILE HIS FOLLOWERS LOSE!

Trump Made $1 Billion on Crypto Deals While His Fans Lost a Fortune

Roughly two-thirds of investors in the president’s memecoin are currently in the red

Donald Trump speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.

Donald Trump speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Liam Kennedy for WSJ

Morten Christensen made a big bet on digital tokens sold by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial last year, hoping that a surge in value might be enough to help him retire.

Instead, the value of those tokens tanked. While Christensen and many like him lost big, the president made a fortune, netting $800 million from that crypto project, according to a financial disclosure he filed this week.

“In crypto, people say a game is a game,” the digital-asset entrepreneur said. “He played a better game than I did.”

It has been clear for some time that President Trump’s forays into the crypto world have been lucrative, but the stunning disclosure that those ventures earned him some $1.4 billion last year underscored the different reality the president is living in from many of the investors who have embraced digital assets alongside him.

The president raked in cash by issuing new assets—World Liberty tokens and memecoins. But those who bought them at high prices had to suffer as their value went belly up, part of a wider crash in crypto. Political followers and crypto true believers who bought into the Trump brand were left holding the bag. A crypto summer for the president was a crypto winter for them.

Roughly two-thirds of investors in Trump’s memecoin are currently in the red, according to crypto data provider Nansen, which tracks 1.48 million crypto wallets that bought the token since its January 2025 launch. Many fans spent a few thousand on Trump coins while the biggest spenders shelled out millions for the token. Nansen’s analysis of 26,663 wallets shows that 85% of World Liberty’s $WLFI token buyers in the secondary market are underwater.

Trump, who in 2021 described bitcoin as a “scam” threatening the U.S. dollar, now leads a White House that has pledged to make America the “crypto capital of the world.” As his administration lightened regulation of the notoriously boom-and-bust sector, the Trump family’s sprawling crypto business reached into nearly every corner of the industry, drawing conflict-of-interest concerns from ethics watchdogs. Bitcoin prices also plunged.

That has frustrated some of the president’s most ardent supporters and crypto industry allies alike. On Trump Media-owned Truth Social, where many users discuss Trump-linked investments alongside rocket-ship emojis, some individuals on Wednesday turned cynical.

“My investment is trash now,” one user said of WLF tokens.

But in the crypto market, where memecoins can quickly evaporate in value and “rug pulls” are a constant threat, other investors are resigned to their losses.

Vincent Deriu, a 28-year-old consultant and crypto enthusiast in New York, said he initially bought the $TRUMP token at launch and accumulated more to secure a spot at the inaugural memecoin dinner. After selling roughly half of them toward the end of 2025, he still owns more than 8,000 coins.

“No one forced anyone to go and invest in any of these tokens. People purchased it at their own risk,” said Deriu. “More politicians should take note, and they should be more transparent about how they’re making money in their business ventures.”

Days before his inauguration, Trump launched his memecoin, $TRUMP, which surged to a peak market capitalization of nearly $15 billion before plunging 97% to about $400 million today. In September 2024, Trump and his sons helped launch World Liberty Financial, the family’s flagship crypto venture.

That project subsequently released a dollar-pegged stablecoin shortly before Trump signed the Genius Act into law, establishing a regulatory framework for such dollar-pegged tokens.

White House officials say those actions don’t constitute conflicts of interest. “Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged—or will ever engage—in conflicts of interest,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”

The surge in Trump’s crypto earnings last year came in addition to booming income from his family’s traditional hotel business and golf courses, as well as swelling holdings in stocks such as Nvidia and Meta, disclosures show.

Trump played down the windfall, attributing his earnings to a stock market that has repeatedly notched records in recent months. “You know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market is going up,” he told reporters Wednesday. “We’re all profiting. I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash.”

The disclosure could complicate already turbulent negotiations over legislation that would establish rules regulating various cryptocurrencies, a priority for many crypto companies that have spent millions of dollars on lobbying.

Many Democrats and some Republicans are insisting that the bill include provisions barring the president and elected officials from profiting from crypto activities that would benefit from the regulations they oversee—a sticking point that could become more intractable following the disclosure.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.), a sponsor of the bill who is negotiating with the White House and Democrats on the ethics language, said the legislation will include strong provisions and is the best way to address the concerns. The bill would need some Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate. It already has passed the House.

“That needs to be resolved, or else I don’t think they’re going to have the votes,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.), one of the Democrats who has indicated he would support the bill if the ethics provision is included, said after the legislation was approved by the Senate Banking Committee in mid-May. Gallego said Tuesday on X that Trump is making billions off the presidency while raising costs for working people.

Christensen, the founder of airdropalert.com and owner of a “substantial sum” of WLFI tokens, also bought $TRUMP memecoin to secure invitations to Trump’s memecoin events. While he was surprised by Trump’s windfall last year, he harbored no bitterness toward the president.

“It looks like it was a great monetization vehicle for him and his family, and he’s taking care of his own,” Christensen said.

THE GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR IS BORING!!!!

Trump’s Great American State Fair is a sad state of affairs

Deflated visitors describe event on National Mall as ‘unnecessarily vanilla’ and a ‘disgrace’

 An image from the fair's opening day on June 25 shows one visitor lain low by the festivities
An image from the fair’s opening day on June 25 shows one visitor lain low by the festivities  Credit: Getty Images

 17 years at The Telegraph, Robert has covered the UK’s major news events and has reported widely abroad

Published

Who knew that Kansas ranked fourth in the US for sunflower production, or that Georgia has been number one for poultry farms since 1951? Or that Montana’s official state sport is rodeo?

There are endless facts to be gleaned from four hours trudging around the Great American State Fair, and some of them are vaguely interesting. If this sprawling event had been the dream child of Alan Partridge, nobody would raise an eyebrow.

But this is Donald Trump’s contribution to America’s 250th birthday celebrations, and the result is often achingly, numbingly dull.

What’s missing is all the things Mr Trump is known for: pizazz, glitz and showmanship. Instead, what the great American public is being served up is the one thing he doesn’t do so much of: facts, endless facts.

The Great American State Fair occupies a great chunk of the National Mall, nestled between Washington’s World Cup Fifa fan zone (which is exciting) and the Washington Monument.

There are tents and booths for everything, including the 50 states – but also a stall for Mr Trump’s own social media platform Truth Social (where you can sign up and get a red tick), another for SpaceX and a tent for US steel.

In the Wyoming booth, bison hair (or is it fur?) is available for stroking while the Florida display (widely recognised as the most exciting experience on offer) includes as its chief draw an artificial putting green that’s about 5ft by 3ft.

The department of defense, which deployed a couple of marines to paint children’s faces with camouflage, was the big hit among the federal departments, laid out in a row of pre-fab buildings. The office of personnel management’s booth was not, it’s fair to say, a crowd pleaser.

“This is all so weird,” said Amy Cohen, 65, a university administrator from Virginia, “I am really sad and disappointed that what could have been an extraordinary celebration of the many, many things that make the United States a wonderful place was attenuated, reduced and flattened.

“It’s like reading a social studies textbook from the seventh grade. There’s so much vibrancy in the country, and this is unnecessarily vanilla. And there aren’t a lot of people here.”

Trump supporters weren’t convinced either. Holly Lewis, 57, a travel agent from Richmond, Virginia, said: “I grew up with state fairs in Iowa, and this is really disappointing.” She was sitting in a chair at the Maine stall with her daughter Dani, 26.

Besides the chairs, there’s nothing other than a backdrop with a few facts printed on such as: “Maine is the largest producer of blueberries.”

Several states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont, have boycotted the event, which was opened by Mr Trump on June 25 and which will run until July 10.

Holly Lewis and her daughter, Dani, pictured at the American State Fair
‘This is really disappointing’: Holly Lewis and her daughter, Dani, pictured at the Great American State Fair 

“This should have been the highlight of my life,” said Mrs Lewis. “This should have been like the World Exposition. But most of the states are a bit of a disappointment. It would have been really good if Fifa had run this. This feels like a silent protest.”

The fair’s organisers – the Freedom 250 committee set up to oversee the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations – declined to reveal attendance records.

But the area is huge, and crowds do seem sparse. A gymnast doing tricks with hoops on a podium drew a crowd of maybe 30 people spread out on the grass. Arizona had clocked up 3,000 visitors to its display on the first Sunday of the fair. But its booth was one of the better ones.

“I think we would have had a lot more people if Trump wasn’t president,” said Wiley Larsen, who was counting visitors through the Arizona booth. He’s a Trump voter – “I think he’s doing a lot of great things,” he said – but recognises the president’s divisiveness.

Out on the Mall, the fair’s centrepiece is a Ferris wheel that’s 110ft high (the London Eye is four times the height), although its operation has been reportedly disrupted by power outages which also resulted in melted ice cream.

A rodeo ring has also been constructed in which a cowboy rides a bucking bronco or bull once a day. “It’s not a real rodeo,” one of those involved in its construction whispered.

Then there’s a scaled-down replica of the president’s planned 250ft victory arch, which online critics have likened to a miniature Stonehenge in the spoof documentary This is Spinal Tap! Others said it looked like it had been bought from the bargain website Temu.

A scaled-down version of the president's proposed 'Arc de Trump' has been ridiculed online
A scaled-down version of the president’s proposed ‘Arc de Trump’ has been ridiculed online Credit: Getty Images

Ari Drumm, 58, a salesman who had flown in from Florida, blamed TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome – for the no-show states and the no-show crowds. “It’s a disgrace,” he said. “We should be together in this. We should be 50 united states and this is not very unified.”

He wore a t-shirt with Maga emblazoned on the front, and as he walked off, the slogan on the back became clear. Beneath photographs of the president and JD Vance, the writing on the back of the t-shirt said: “The Outlaw and the Hillbilly cleaning up America one liberal at a time.”

Ari Drumm, 58, flew in from Florida for the American State Fair with his wife
Ari Drumm flew in from Florida with his wife for the Great American State Fair Credit: Robert Mendick for The Telegraph

Mr Trump opened the fair with what one Trump watcher called “notably tame remarks”, sticking to a script and declaring: “Tonight, as we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” he said.

But he has been stung by the criticism since its opening. “Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it?”

Joe Biden or Barack Obama could never have created such a show, Mr Trump insisted.

On that, he is probably correct.

BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD AT RECORD HIGH!!! HOW IS YOUR PLAN TO JOIN THEM?!

The World Now Has 3,302 Billionaires and They’re Getting Richer

— The number of billionaires has jumped almost 13.1% to a record 3,302 in the past year, driven by substantial growth in the US and Asia, according to UBS Group AG.

Billionaires increased their total assets by 25% in the year to April 2026, out-pacing the overall rise in the world’s wealth, Switzerland’s biggest bank said in its Global Wealth Report released Tuesday.

The bank recorded 18 individuals with wealth situated between $50 and $100 billion and a further 19 with assets above $100 billion, 15 of which are based in the US.

The report showed that global personal wealth jumped 10.8% in 2025, its sharpest acceleration since 2017, eclipsing gains of 4.6% in 2024 and 4.3% in 2023. There were nearly a million more millionaires created during the year, with growth across all markets tracked by UBS.

Because the data is measured in dollars, some of the increase is explained by the relative fall in the US currency last year flattering the value of assets held elsewhere.

Despite what UBS described as a “broad uplift in living standards” bolstered by rising non-financial assets such as real estate, the data revealed deepening economic disparity, as median wealth fell in the majority of global markets.

“In countries where there is a lot of participation in the equity market, this is leading to an increase in wealth,” UBS economist James Mazeau said at a media conference.

SENIOR HOUSING PAYS OFF BIG FOR THIS OWNER, NOW WORTH $160 BILLION MARKET VALUE

Sunrise at East 56th in Manhattan is one of Welltower’s properties.© Julian Rigg/WSJ

Shankh Mitra, chief executive of the senior-housing company Welltower, made one of commercial real estate’s most daring bets in 2020.

Welltower spent more than $40 billion over the following six years to acquire tens of thousands of senior-housing units, while many rivals retreated when the pandemic caused senior-facility occupancy rates to plummet. Welltower now owns more than 2,500 senior-living communities, the most of anyone in the industry.

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That move is paying off as these properties fill up again. Welltower’s market value has increased close to sevenfold to about $160 billion since 2020, making it the world’s largest publicly traded real-estate company.

Mitra has been well compensated for the turnaround. He received a compensation package valued at $821 million last year, according to The Wall Street Journal’s annual analysis of executive pay using data from MyLogIQ. That was the biggest pay package for any public-company CEO in America, save for Elon Musk.

While that payout is contingent on Welltower’s stock continuing to climb, the magnitude of Mitra’s compensation is sparking a backlash.

Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, recommended that shareholders vote against the pay package, describing the awards as being of “extraordinary value.”

Jonathan Litt, founder of activist hedge fund Land & Buildings, said that the compensation plan gives management too much credit for gains driven largely by the aging of the baby boom generation and the industry’s recovery from the pandemic.

Litt, who has disclosed a short position in Welltower, said in a report that the compensation plan encourages “growth for growth’s sake” by rewarding executives for expanding the company’s market value through acquisitions.

Welltower said that the compensation plan for Mitra and other executives was needed to “secure the long-term retention of the company’s exceptional leadership.”

Five years ago, such a pay package in the senior-housing industry would have been unthinkable. The business had been weakened by years of overbuilding, then battered by the pandemic as thousands of elderly residents died. Move-ins slowed and labor costs soared.

Today, senior housing is one of commercial real estate’s hottest sectors. The oldest members of the baby boom generation are reaching the age where many need the different levels of care that Welltower and others provide: independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing.

Occupancy at U.S. senior-housing communities fell from 87.4% at the end of 2019 to a pandemic low of 78.2% in the first quarter of 2021. This year occupancy continued to rebound, climbing to 89.9% in the first quarter, according to NIC MAP, an industry data source. Occupied units stand at a record 1.05 million.

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Analysts give Mitra high marks for redefining Welltower’s relationship with senior-housing operators. Welltower is a landlord and relies on operators such as Sunrise Senior Living and Atria Senior Living to run the communities, hire caregivers, market apartments and care for residents.

Mitra used Welltower’s clout to secure exclusive partnerships with some of the industry’s strongest operators while giving them better data, technology and incentives to improve performance. He also rewrote contracts so Welltower participated more directly in the gains when its operators filled more apartments and increased rents.

“They have the best operator relationships among all of their peers,” said Michael Stroyeck, an analyst with real-estate-analytics firm Green Street.

Welltower also gained an edge by concentrating on the industry’s most lucrative segment: upscale communities serving affluent seniors. Mitra sold many of the company’s low-growth healthcare properties like medical office buildings while buying senior housing in high growth areas such as Southern California, South Florida and the Toronto metro area.

One example of a high end Welltower property is Sunrise at East 56th. Located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, it looks more like an upscale boutique hotel than a retirement home.

The 17-story community offers chef-prepared meals, a fitness studio, salon, theater and concierge services. Monthly rents begin at more than $15,330 and can exceed $20,000, depending on the apartment and level of care.

Mitra, 45 years old, had a varied career before Welltower. He was born in India and received an engineering degree there. In the U.S. he worked at Fidelity Investments and Citadel before joining Welltower’s finance division in 2016.

When Mitra took over as CEO in 2020, Welltower shares traded in the low $40s. Today, they trade above $200.

Looking at it another way, Green Street estimates that Welltower shares trade at roughly 115% to 125% above the value of its underlying real estate, compared with premiums of about 35% to 55% for many of its senior living REIT peers. That allows Welltower to raise money by selling stock on especially favorable terms to finance additional acquisitions.

These metrics help explain why Welltower’s board was willing to award him one of the richest compensation packages in corporate America. The package followed months of deliberations by Welltower’s board, which enlisted compensation consultants, law firms and spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours” designing the plan, Mitra said on an earnings call.

But Welltower investors disagreed. About 80% of shares voting opposed the company’s advisory “say-on-pay” resolution, one of the biggest rebukes of last year’s executive compensation by shareholders.

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Mitra’s regular compensation for 2025 actually was pretty modest for a major U.S. company. His annual base salary was $1.3 million, and he earned a cash bonus of about $6.5 million for the company’s 2025 performance.

The real payday comes from a one-time, 10-year stock award whose value depends largely on Welltower continuing to meet ambitious performance goals. If the company does, Mitra will gradually receive shares over the next decade that were valued at $821 million when the award was granted.

Focusing on retaining Mitra and his management team, Welltower’s board also granted roughly $170 million in long-term equity awards to other top executives.

“Make no mistake, this is a team game,” Mitra said on another earnings call.

Critics fault the award in part because too much compensation depends on Mitra remaining at Welltower, rather than continuing to meet demanding performance goals. Roughly half of the package eventually vests based primarily on time, they say, while the performance hurdles are concentrated in the plan’s first five years.

“That’s disappointing,” said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, a compensation consulting firm. “At these magnitudes, half of it time-based just seems too much.”