Since returning to office a little more than a year ago, US President Donald Trump has nearly tripled his net worth, driven in large part by investments in his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.

Appearing on new US cable TV channel MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) late last week, economist Steve Rattner broke down how Trump’s net worth has exploded from $US2.34 billion ($A3.25 billion) in 2024 to an estimated $US6.5 billion ($A9.02 billion) in 2026.

“Where did the money come from? He had $4 billion – he and his family – of profits,” Rattner said.

“US$3 billion of it came from crypto, and I will tell you, there are so many transactions here, so many structures, that it made my head hurt trying to understand it.”

In addition to the crypto ventures, Rattner pointed to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner raising money from investors in the Middle East through his investment firm Affinity Partners – increased revenue that came from raising admission fees to his Mar-a-Lago resort – and money he’d obtained from lawsuits against assorted media companies.

Rattner then explained the finances of the Trump meme coin, which he described as investing in “a pet rock, except you don’t even get a rock” out of the deal.

“He sold them initially at US$7, it went up to US$45. Not surprisingly, it crashed,” Rattner said.

However, Rattner said early investors in the cryptocurrency, whom he described as “whale wallets”, managed to profit handsomely from the venture by buying up large numbers of Trump coins and then selling them to retail investors. Those investors were left holding the bag when the coin’s value fell precipitously shortly after its launch.

“Let me just emphasise, it’s not like [the retail investors] got anything,” he said.

“All they got, in effect, was like a little note, a little email or something saying, ‘Congratulations, you own 10 Trump meme coins’. But there’s nothing they can do with it. They were buying nothing, they were buying air.”

Rattner also noted that Trump made $600 million in trading fees that investors paid to carry out transactions of the coin.

After his appearance on MS NOW, Rattner posted a photo on social media of a graph he made to document the rise in Trump’s wealth in the past two years.

“[Trump’s] administration,” Rattner said, “is the most brazenly self-enriching in American history.”