Most Americans Think Trump Is Profiting From the Presidency Illegally or Unethically, Poll Finds

13 Oct 2026, 20:49 by Rebecca Schneid · TIME

Most Americans think that Donald Trump is profiting off the presidency either illegally or unethically, according to a new AP-NORC poll. The findings, published Tuesday, also illustrate that the President is perceived as prioritizing his business ventures above the country.

According to the poll, which surveyed 2,140 adults from Sept. 24 to 28, 4 in 10 respondents believe he has done something illegal and another 18% see his actions as unethical but not illegal.

A majority of respondents (56%) also said Trump has prioritized his personal business interests “a lot,” while only 23% said he has prioritized the country overall. Just 11% say he has prioritized “people like them,” while half of respondents said Trump has not prioritized people like them at all.

Republicans were much more likely than Democrats or Independents to say that the president prioritized the country overall; however, they were not without criticism. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans said Trump had done something illegal; most said he had done nothing wrong or that they did not know enough to judge.

“It's fairly unprecedented how much wealth increase this President has gotten in the past two years,” Raymond La Raja, a professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and the co-director of the UMass Poll, tells TIME.

He points to last year, when a business tied to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) invested half a billion dollars into Trump’s crypto ventures, raising conflict-of-interest questions from watchdog organizations and lawmakers. According to his latest annual financial disclosure from June 30, Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from these ventures last year alone.

“It's really a structural conflict-of-interest that he is regulating policies that directly benefit his family—and it's also incentivizing not just Americans, but foreign entities, like the United Arab Emirates, to invest in his family's projects,” he says. “So that's really worrisome.”

A separate UMass Amherst poll, conducted in August, points to broader concerns about government corruption. It showed that 75% of respondents noted a “great” amount of corruption in the federal government. Another 53% ranked the presidency as the “most corrupt institution in government”—above the Supreme Court, Congress, and the federal bureaucracy as a whole.

A majority of respondents (54%) said it was “definitely” corrupt for a public official to use their office to benefit themselves or their family financially, even if doing so was legal. Another 29% said it was “probably” corrupt.

Why Trump’s wealth and the economy could matter in the midterms

La Raja argues that the amount that constituents care about a politician’s enrichment or find it “unethical” often depends on how the country is doing overall.

“If you look at other countries when there's some time when there's somebody who's perceived as corrupt, people are more likely to tolerate it if the economy is booming,” he says, pointing to countries like Hungary. “But when the promise of prosperity is not showing up for the electorate, then they start to say, ‘What's going on?’ And that's when corruption looms larger.”

Just 28% of 2,275 respondents approved of Trump’s handling of jobs and the economy, according to a Financial Times/Focaldata poll released Tuesday. Consumer prices were up 3.4% in August from a year earlier, the latest figure available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Two sources of price pressure have been Trump’s tariffs and the U.S. war with Iran. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that tariffs added 2.9 percentage points to consumer goods inflation by February 2026. The war has also driven up fuel prices, raising costs for industries that rely heavily on diesel.

“[Trump] promised a better economy, and now inflation is up,” La Raja says. “There’s a war, and importantly, the war is linked to inflation.”

The AP-NORC poll comes less than a month before the midterm elections, where the Republican Party is looking to hold onto its majorities in the House and the Senate. Experts are viewing the midterms not just as a referendum on Trump, but whether Republican candidates’ connections to Trump will help—or harm—them on Election Day.

“Presidential approval often serves as a political anchor in midterm elections—meaning dissatisfaction with Trump could extend to Republican candidates down the ballot, particularly among independents and suburban voters,” Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, tells TIME. “Even Republicans who are personally popular may find it difficult to separate themselves from perceptions of the President.”

According to Rottinghaus, concerns around “presidential self-enrichment” are not unique to Trump. In fact, a 2023 AP-NORC poll asking respondents about former President Joe Biden’s handling of his son’s overseas business deals invoked similar concerns about conflict-of-interest that fell along partisan lines.

“But Trump's extensive business interests have made the issue particularly visible,” Rottinghaus continues. “Historically, voters have often judged presidential ethics through a partisan lens, with supporters more willing to excuse questionable conduct and opponents more likely to interpret it as evidence of broader problems with presidential accountability.”

How much income did Trump report in 2026?

Supporters are being told that the President took a financial hit by returning for a second term.

“There’s no financial gain like the past Presidents have had. It’s cost him to be in office,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told attendees at an Oct. 1 rally in Durant, Oklahoma.

According to his 927-page financial disclosure for 2025, Trump’s total reported revenue was $2.2 billion. In comparison, his total reported revenues for 2024 were closer to $622 million.

That spike can largely be attributed to the $1.4 billion windfall he received from his family’s crypto venture, including more than $550 million from World Liberty Financial token sales—nine times the amount he earned from the same token sales in 2024.

Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, has also capitalized on his second term by expanding its real estate, golf, and licensing footprint in the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia and Qatar—two countries that have become crucial to U.S. foreign policy, especially amid the war with Iran. These deals alone garnered around $14 million, according to filings from July 2026.

The overlap between Trump’s business interests and the presidency could extend beyond his time in office.

His representatives have proposed building a retreat for future presidents on land beside Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The club would pay for the lodging and provide government access free of charge, while Trump’s family business would continue to operate the adjoining golf course. Local officials are considering the plan, which could make the private club a destination for influential political visitors long after Trump leaves the White House.