President Donald Trump went toe-to-toe with CBS News’ Ross Douthat on Sunday night’s “60 Minutes,” brushing aside questions about his personal fortune and telling the correspondent he should have invested in the market.
Douthat, the former New York Times conservative columnist who recently joined “60 Minutes,” spent a substantial portion of the sit-down pressing the president on a Forbes estimate that his net worth has climbed by roughly $3 billion since he returned to the White House in January 2025.
“Well, so did everyone’s,” Trump shot back as Douthat raised the figure.
Douthat countered that his own net worth had not grown by $3 billion, prompting the president to quip that the CBS correspondent should have owned stock.
Trump insisted he pays little attention to his finances, saying he devotes almost no time to his net worth, doesn’t care about it and already has far more money than he ever expected to have. He added that he wasn’t even sure how much it had grown.
The exchange quickly grew heated, with the two men repeatedly talking over each other as Douthat pressed for an explanation of how the president’s wealth had risen so sharply.
Douthat then turned to World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company tied to the Trump family that has drawn investment from people connected to the government of the United Arab Emirates. Trump confirmed he is a co-owner but said his sons run the business.
The CBS correspondent suggested that if former President Joe Biden’s family had similar arrangements with foreign investors, Trump would likely be raising concerns about corruption. Asked why his own situation was any different, Trump said it was because he knows nothing about the business. Pressed on whether foreign investors might believe they were buying influence with his administration, the president said he didn’t know.
“Why not just divest?” Douthat asked, suggesting Trump could step away from the company entirely and let his family run it however they wanted.
Trump pushed back, asking how someone could divest from cash, and described his investment portfolio as computer-driven trading across tens of thousands of stocks that he does not personally direct. ABC News previously reported more than 21,000 securities transactions in 2025, with the president’s investment accounts valued at a minimum of $858 million.
The president’s critics were quick to pounce. Forbes senior editor Dan Alexander, who calculates Trump’s net worth for the magazine, disputed the president’s explanation in a lengthy 29-post thread on X. Alexander noted that Trump was worth $4.3 billion in the fall of 2024 and pointed to the family’s crypto ventures and overseas licensing deals as major drivers of the increase. Forbes currently pegs Trump’s net worth at around $7 billion.
The president’s finances have drawn scrutiny before. In July, a reporter confronted Trump at Joint Base Andrews about the $1.4 billion his family reportedly brought in from its cryptocurrency venture in 2025.
The interview also covered the GOP’s losses in last week’s midterm elections, which Douthat called a historic defeat. Trump repeated his argument that he was not on the ballot.
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