JD Vance and Melania Trump Also Had Sharp Earnings Increases in 2025

 

JD Vance and Melania Trump Also Had Sharp Earnings Increases in 2025

 

But the revenue brought in by the vice president and the first lady paled in comparison to that of President Trump.

 

Andrea Fuller

By Andrea Fuller

Andrea Fuller is a reporter specializing in data analysis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/us/politics/vance-melania-trump-financial-disclosures.html

July 2, 2026

 

As President Trump took in a staggering haul from his cryptocurrency and real estate empire last year, earnings for the vice president and first lady also sharply increased, federal disclosures show.

 

However, each earned a fraction of the minimum $2.2 billion that Mr. Trump reaped.

 

All told, Mr. Vance earned between $1.4 million and $7.4 million in 2025, including his investment income. That was up from a range of roughly $213,000 to $1.3 million the prior year, though the form does not reflect his salary as a U.S. senator.

 

The bulk of Mr. Vance’s income came from royalties and advances associated with his autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy,” published in 2016. He earned between about $1.2 million and $5.2 million from the book, compared with less than $100,000 in 2024.

 

The financial disclosure indicates that Mr. Vance sold his stake in a fund called Rise of the Rest, which brought him at least $100,000. Mr. Vance helped launch the investment fund in 2017 with AOL co-founder Steve Case at the venture firm Revolution.

 

The form does not show any income for Mr. Vance’s wife, Usha. She stepped down from her job at a law firm during the 2024 campaign.

 

The income of the first lady, Melania Trump, surpassed that of the vice president, with her business earnings totaling between roughly $17.3 and $18.2 million last year. She took in less than $1 million in 2024, federal disclosures show.

 

The bulk of her revenue came from a $10.7 million licensing agreement related to the “Melania” movie, which was acquired and promoted by Amazon. The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has multiple business interests that could be affected by administration policies. Last year, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit claiming that it tricked customers to sign up for its Prime membership program.

 

The first lady also earned $6 million from sales of her memecoin and roughly $500,000 from the publication of her autobiography, “Melania.”

 

Eric Lipton and Tyler Pager contributed reporting.

 

Andrea Fuller is a data journalist at The Times, using data analysis to make sense of complex topics.