PublicSquare, an online marketplace on whose board Donald Trump Jr. — the eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump — sits, faces the threat of being delisted. The company marketed itself to MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters with conservative, patriotic branding but failed to win over consumers. As losses mounted and its stock plunged 99%, renewed attention on the large payments Trump Jr. collected has fueled growing criticism.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the 20th that "an 'anti-PC' (political correctness) online marketplace collapsed while President Trump's allies pocketed millions of dollars."
Founded in 2021, PublicSquare positioned itself as a conservative marketplace, arguing that large online retailers such as Amazon place too much emphasis on progressive values like diversity and the environment. Businesses that pursue conservative values could register on the platform, which then connected consumers looking to buy their products.
But PublicSquare drew little response. From its listing through late July this year, its cumulative losses reached about $160 million (approximately 221.1 billion won), and it remains in the red. Its stock has plunged 99% from its 2023 listing price. The company canceled a TV program it had produced to draw conservatives to the marketplace and sold off a diaper brand it had aimed at anti-abortion consumers. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) recently notified the company that it faces the risk of delisting, according to reports.
Behind PublicSquare's decline, analysts say, lie the large consulting fees paid to President Trump's allies, led by Trump Jr. In 2024, the company's general and administrative expenses came to about $43.3 million, nearly double its total revenue that year. In 2025, Trump Jr. collected more than $500,000 (approximately 700 million won) in consulting fees alone. By contrast, then-Chief Executive Mike Seifert earned an annual salary of $300,000, less than that. Trump Jr. was the only PublicSquare director recorded with a board attendance rate below 75% last year. On paper, his attendance was only about 60%.
Companies run by Nick Ayers, a veteran of Trump's first administration, and Omeed Malik, a close associate of Trump Jr., also collected $650,000 and $400,000, respectively, from PublicSquare for consulting and other services. The Journal noted that the company "enriched President Trump's family and political allies while inflicting losses on ordinary investors who bet on its business prospects."
PublicSquare said this year that it would abandon the marketplace business entirely and pivot to a fintech company offering credit services, including buy-now-pay-later financing for gun purchases.
Conflict-of-Interest Criticism Persists Over Trump Profiting From Power
Criticism that President Trump uses his influence to generate enormous profits has been raised persistently. The New York Times reported that since returning to the White House, Trump has earned as much as $1.4 billion (approximately 2.17 trillion won) through cryptocurrency investments, including the "$TRUMP" meme coin that bears his name, while most ordinary investors have lost money.
According to Trump's 2025 annual financial disclosure filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in total income from the family's cryptocurrency business.
The largest source of income was World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform co-founded by Trump, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and his second son Eric Trump. The Trump family earned more than $520 million from selling cryptocurrency tokens through the venture and took in more than $250 million more from selling its stake in World Liberty, reporting combined income of about $800 million.
It is not only the cryptocurrency business. On July 23 last year, Trump bought shares of Broadcom, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia — on the same day the White House announced eased regulations on the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Four of the six stocks subsequently rose, with Apple and Broadcom surging more than 30%. But under the STOCK Act, which requires securities transactions of more than $50,000 to be reported within 45 days on a periodic transaction report, these transactions were not disclosed there and instead came to light belatedly in the annual financial disclosure.
