Most Americans believe Trump’s business interests influencing presidential decisions
A new poll has found that a majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump’s private business interests influence his decisions in office.
The four-day poll, completed on Monday, found that 69 percent of US adults think Trump allows considerations for his financial interests to affect his decisions.
The figure was 90 percent among Democrats and 48 percent among Republicans, compared to 69 percent among independents.
“We have seen nothing like this before; even the first Trump administration did not have as many complex business interests as the second Trump administration,” said Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer for former US president George W. Bush.
Separately, the survey found that 63 percent of Americans believe it was inappropriate for Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency ventures since his return to power.
Earlier this summer, the Trump administration released the president’s financial disclosures, showing he made $635 million in connection with his meme coin and some $594 million from a crypto venture he started with his sons two years ago, World Liberty Financial.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll took place on August 14-17 and featured 1,166 respondents. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Experts have raised corruption concerns as Trump uses his second presidency to grow his personal fortune.
“While Trump’s second term is less than half over, it already looks like the most openly corrupt administration in our history,” said Larry Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission who now teaches law at American University.
Last month, Responsible Statecraft (RS), the online magazine of the Quincy Institute, said in an analysis that brokers representing Trump purchased last year between $9.7 million and $24.3 million in stocks from arms manufacturers and other military contractors profiting from the illegal war of aggression against Iran.
It added that accumulating shares in companies like Palantir, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and RTX took place in 2025 before Trump’s warmongering.

