Mr. President, pay for your own monuments

President Donald Trump has always understood that buildings outlast presidents. His name has gone up on towers, casinos, and golf clubs around the world. Now, in his second term, he is reshaping Washington itself — a grand ballroom where the East Wing of the White House once stood, a triumphal arch across the Potomac, a renovated Kennedy Center, and a championship golf course on public parkland at East Potomac.There is a simple way for the president to make these projects truly his rather than the public’s tab. He should pay for them himself, with the fortune he has made from crypto while in office.The numbers are not speculative, but they need careful reading. A Reuters investigation estimated that the Trump family has made at least $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures since he returned to the White House, led by World Liberty Financial, which the president co-founded with his sons, and the $TRUMP memecoin. More than 1 million investors lost roughly the same amount on the other side of those trades. That $2.3 billion is the family’s total. The president’s own share is spelled out in his annual financial disclosure, released this summer, which reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income for 2025 alone, with family members due a portion of some of it. Trump’s children run the businesses day-to-day, but he remains the beneficiary of the trust that receives the money. Even by the narrowest count, the president personally has well over $1 billion to work with.That money did not come from real estate or television. It came from ventures that trade on the Trump name at the very moment that name belongs to the sitting president, whose administration sets the rules for the industry. Supporters call it smart business. Critics call it the most lucrative conflict of interest in modern American politics. Either way, it is money that exists because he is president.Taxpayers are picking up the bill The ballroom was initially pitched at $200 million and funded by private donors. A cost estimate prepared for the administration by its contractor, reported by the Washington Post, now puts the total at up to $600 million, with more than half coming from taxpayers. The White House disputes that split, saying Trump and donors are covering about $400 million. Even by the administration’s own account, the public is on the hook for a share of a room most Americans will never enter.The private money raises its own questions. A Washington Post investigation found $330 million in donations to the ballroom, including $5 million from Ripple, whose case with the Securities and Exchange Commission was dropped in 2025. An industry that depends on this administration’s regulators is helping to pay for the president’s ballroom.The arch planned for Arlington, modeled on the Arc de Triomphe, has drawn roughly $15 million in federal funds through the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Kennedy Center renovation carries a $257 million price tag, and the president has said it will not go forward unless his name can go on the building. At East Potomac, he has announced the course will close on Nov. 15 for about 15 months, yet no one has said what the redesign will cost or who will pay.The deal is right there Here is the offer any good dealmaker would recognize: Trump donates his own crypto earnings, the share reported on his disclosure rather than his sons’ disclosures, to fund these projects in full. His family is welcome to chip in. The ballroom, the arch, the Kennedy Center, and the golf course go up without another dollar from taxpayers, at a time when the administration has sought deep cuts to arts and humanities grants for local communities.This comes as farmers absorb the cost of trade wars and families brace for winter heating bills. Every public dollar spent on gilded rooms and ceremonial arches is a dollar that could have helped the farmers who feed the nation or the families struggling to stay warm. The sums may be small by Washington standards, but the message about whose needs come first is not.He would not even walk away empty-handed. Gifts to the U.S. government for public purposes generally qualify as charitable contributions, so a donation of this size would bring him a substantial tax deduction, spread over several years under the limits the tax code sets. A president who never tires of describing himself as a builder would become the first in generations to build his monuments with his own money.Two hurdles first The first is the money itself, which may not stay his to give. A shareholder lawsuit filed this year accuses him of illegally profiting from foreign crypto deals, and presidential immunity covers official acts, not memecoin sales. If those profits are ever found to be improperly gained, he would be surrendering them, not donating them. The cleaner choice would be to pay with the fortune he built before taking office. Few expect him to make it.The second is that a gift of a building is never one-sided. Andrew Carnegie did not put up libraries wherever he pleased. Each town had to request one, supply the land, and commit to paying for its upkeep. A president cannot simply fund federal projects on his own terms, either. Congress decides how federal money and land are used, and Washington’s public spaces are subject to review boards and approvals. Any donation would have to be negotiated with Congress and the agencies that hold the land, and lawmakers would be right to insist on it.A win-win, several times over Clear those hurdles, and this becomes the rare deal in which everyone comes out ahead.Taxpayers win twice: Not another public dollar goes to ballrooms, arches, or fairways, and fewer go to years of congressional hearings and court fights over where his crypto fortune came from. The country wins, because public money stays free for what matters most: the farmers who feed the nation and the families struggling to heat their homes. And the president wins, with a tax deduction now and his name on his monuments with no asterisk attached.A test of generosity Trump has made a point of donating his presidential salary since his first term. That gesture was worth $400,000 a year. This one would be worth far more, and would mean far more.The president likes to say that he is not a politician but a businessman who gets things done. Here is a chance to prove it. He has the money. He has the projects. All he needs is the will to put his name on both the bill and the building.Bottom line: At the very least, he should stop asking the American public to foot the bill. This is one way to do it.If these projects are truly his gift to the nation, he should make them one.Karen Lehmann is a Washington, DC–based journalist, photographer, and columnist who writes on American politics, public policy, Israel, and culture. She blogs for The Times of Israel and is a columnist for Man and Culture. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, JNS, the LA Jewish Journal, and the Pittsburgh Chronicle, among others.