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Who Gained the Most During Trump’s First Year? Billionaires and Corporations.

28 45
21.01.2026

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The first year of Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president has been a most profitable one for the Trump family and its inner circle. By now, much has been reported about the web of conflicts — the unapologetic ethical morass — that defines the second Trump administration and the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures, foreign business deals, military contracts, and more.

But beyond the Trump clan itself, major industries and their billionaire leaders who rule over us all — from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, Big Oil to Big Crypto — have profoundly benefited from the administration’s first year. Many of these corporate actors have cozied up with Trump through piles of campaign and inauguration contributions, as well as donations to his White House ballroom project.

They’ve been the big winners over the past year, raking in billions from a policy agenda overseen by Trump and his administration stacked with billionaires and industry-friendly regulators.

Wall Street and its coterie of financial oligarchs have been prime beneficiaries of Trump’s first year. This is especially true of big banks, which saw their stocks skyrocket by 29 percent in 2025.

The bullishness around banks springs largely from Trump’s lax regulatory regime. This includes the weakening of antitrust oversight, to the glee of big banks profiting from ramped-up mergers and acquisitions, and the appointment of corporate-friendly regulators to key financial cabinet and oversight roles.

The Trump administration has looked to erode regulatory oversight rules of banks that were created after the 2007-2008 financial crash. It’s attempting to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was created in 2010 to protect consumers from financial industry abuses. It’s also looking to loosen scrutiny of all but the biggest banks and relax corporate disclosures required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In August, Trump signed an executive order opening up millions of 401(K) retirement accounts to riskier and less regulated private equity and cryptocurrency investments. Trump has also attacked the so-called “debanking” of conservative-aligned industries like cryptocurrency, firearms, fossil fuels, and private prisons, which many argue present ethical and financial risks to lenders.

“The deregulatory bonanza alone makes it the best time in a generation to be a banker,” said The New York Times.

One major beneficiary of these policies is Jamie Dimon, the longtime billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the U.S.’s biggest bank.

Dimon — who appears to be chumming up with Trump after years of tension — raked in around $770 million in 2025 through a “combination of salary, bonuses, dividends, stock grants and appreciation in his allotment of the bank’s shares,” whose value rose 34 percent last year, according to The New York Times.

Other bank executives — at Citi, Goldman Sachs, Capital One, and more — have also massively cashed in.

Trump-aligned asset managers and private equity and hedge fund billionaires have also benefited from the administration’s first year.

After opposing Trump for years, mega-investor Jeff Yass, the........

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