Polls show most Americans believe Trump is profiting from the presidency illegally or unethically

A new poll finds Americans see the president focusing more on his own business interests than on people like them.

According to the poll, which surveyed 2,140 adults from September 24 to 28, 4 in 10 respondents believe he did something illegal, and another 18 percent see his actions as immoral but illegal.

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

Republicans were far more likely than Democrats or independents to say that the president puts the country as a whole first. However, they were not without criticism. Only 1 in 10 Republicans say Trump has done anything illegal. Most said he had done nothing wrong or that they didn't know enough to judge.

"It's relatively unprecedented how much wealth this president has had in the last two years," Raymond La Raja, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-director of the UMass poll, told TIME.

He points to last year, when a business linked to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) invested half a billion dollars in Trump's cryptocurrency investments, raising questions of conflicts of interest from watchdogs and regulators. According to his latest annual financial disclosure from June 30, Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from these investments last year alone.

"It's really a structural conflict of interest that he's setting policies that directly benefit his family — and also encouraging not only Americans, but foreign entities like the United Arab Emirates to invest in his family's projects." So this is really worrying.

A separate UMass Amherst poll, conducted in August, points to broader concerns about government corruption. It found that 75 percent of respondents cited a "great" amount of corruption in the federal government. Another 53 percent ranked the presidency as the "most corrupt institution in government," ahead of the Supreme Court, Congress and the federal bureaucracy as a whole.

Most respondents (54%) said that using public office for financial gain for oneself or one's family is "definitely" corrupt, even if it is legal. Another 29 percent said it was "probably" corrupt.

Why can Trump's wealth and economy matter in the midterms?

Laraja argues that the extent to which institutions value a politician's enrichment or consider it "immoral" often depends on the country's overall performance.

"If you look at other countries, when someone is seen as corrupt, if the economy is booming, people tolerate it more," he says, referring to countries like Hungary. But when the promise of prosperity doesn't appear to voters, then they start saying, "What's going on?" And that's when corruption becomes bigger."

Only 28 percent of 2,275 respondents approved of Trump's handling of jobs and the economy, according to a Financial Times/Focal Data poll released Tuesday. Consumer prices rose 3.4 percent 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 US war with Iran. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that the tariffs will add 2.9 percentage points to consumer goods inflation by February 2026. The war has also raised fuel prices and increased costs for industries that rely heavily on diesel.

"[Trump] promised a better economy and now inflation is up," Laraja says. "There is a war, and most importantly, the war is related to inflation."

Brandon Rottenhaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told TIME: "Presidential approval often serves as a political anchor in midterm elections — meaning that dissatisfaction with Trump can spread to Republican candidates in the election, particularly among independent and suburban voters. "Even Republicans who are personally popular may find it hard to separate themselves from the president's ideas."

"But Trump's vast business interests have made this particularly visible," Ruttenhaus continues. "Historically, voters often judge presidential ethics through a partisan lens, with supporters more inclined to justify questionable behavior and opponents more likely to interpret it as evidence of broader problems with presidential accountability."

How much will Trump earn in 2026?

Fans are told that the president has suffered a financial loss by returning for a second round.

Homeland Security Secretary Marquin Mullin told attendees at an Oct. 1 rally in Durant, Oklahoma, "There's no financial benefit like past presidents. It's cost him."

According to his 927-page financial disclosure for 2025, Trump's total reported income was $2.2 billion. In comparison, his total reported earnings for 2024 were nearly $622 million.

This increase can be largely attributed to the $1.4 billion in revenue he received from his family's cryptocurrency investments, including more than $550 million from the World Liberty Financial token sale — nine times the amount he received from the same token sale in 2024.

Trump's family business, the Trump Organization, has also invested in his second term by expanding its real estate, golf and concessions in the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia and Qatar - two countries that have become vital to US foreign policy, especially amid the war with Iran. According to July 2026 filings, those deals alone brought in about $14 million.

The overlap between Trump's business interests and the presidency could extend beyond his presidency.

His representatives have proposed building a sanctuary for future presidents on land next to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The club will pay for lodging and provide free government access, while the Trump family will continue to operate the nearby 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.