How Trump made an estimated $2.2 billion last year

This is Fresh Air. I am Terry Gross. President Donald Trump made an estimated $2.2 billion last year, which was the first year of his second term. How did he manage to do that? That's what my guest New York Times reporter Eric Lipton has been investigating.

He's uncovered business deals made by Trump and or his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, that exploit the power of the presidency for self enrichment. Present conflicts of interest and violate norms. Lipton also uncovered conflicts of interest related to Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, as well as Lutnick's two sons. This year, Lipton won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of Times reporters who investigated how the president and his family have profited from White House deal making.

This was Lipton's fourth Pulitzer. Last month, Lipton and four other Times reporters. got something else as a result of their reporting, subpoenas from the Justice Department. The DOJ wanted to know the reporter sources for a story about the luxurious plane donated as a gift to Trump from Qatar. At Trump's insistence that it serve as Air Force One, it had to be retrofitted with security measures it wasn't designed to accommodate, and it had to be finished within a year to meet Trump's deadline of the July fourth sesquicentennial celebration.

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