New fundraising platform tied to Trump's son stands to profit off Trump library

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on Jan 23, 2026

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MIAMI —The Florida-based conservative fundraising platform PSQ Impact landed a giant client this week — Donald Trump’s presidential library foundation — despite having just launched last month.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., could stand to benefit from the deal.

He’s one of the largest shareholders on the Board of Directors for the new platform’s parent company, Public Square, according to the most recently available public filings.

PSQ Impact announced Thursday the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation — the nonprofit arm running the president’s legacy project — would use its platform for digital fundraising.

The company’s pricing page lists a 3.5% processing fee for payments. A client like Trump’s foundation could mean a profit boon for the fledgling company.

Trump Jr. benefitting from the arrangement would be “yet another disturbing example” of the Trump family monetizing the presidency, according to Michael Beckel, the research director at Issue One, a bipartisan organization seeking to reduce the influence of money in politics.

“It makes you wonder if PSQ Impact would have landed this contract without having a member of the Trump family on its board,” Beckel said in an email. “If companies think they can land lucrative business contracts by retaining members of the president’s family, that raises serious concerns.”

Neither Trump’s library foundation nor Public Square responded to a request for comment.

Trump Jr. has been on Public Square’s board of directors since 2024, but has a much larger stake in the company than most of the other directors, according to the company’s 2024 Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Trump Jr. was compensated with company stock worth more than $2.8 million for being on the board in 2024, almost 10 times as much as the next highest-paid board member. He was granted more than half a million shares in the company that year, filings show.

He owns a 1.3% stake in the company, as of the company’s 2024 annual reports filed last spring. The 2025 annual reports are not yet available.

“If Donald Trump Jr. is in a position to financially benefit from this arrangement, that’s even worse,” Beckel added. “If that’s the case, every donor who gives through this platform would not only be helping fund Trump’s legacy through his presidential library but also helping line the pockets of the Trump family.”

The directors of Trump’s library foundation — which include his other son, Eric Trump — told the Internal Revenue Service they plan to raise almost $1 billion dollars over the next three years while Trump is still in office.

While it’s unlikely all of those funds would go through the digital fundraising platform, if a sum that high were processed through PSQ Impact, that could spell a windfall worth millions of dollars for the new company.

PSQ Impact was launched last month as a new arm of the “America First” conservative financial technology company Public Square and is run by Trump advisor and conservative influencer Alex Bruesewitz. It’s designed to be a competitor with the GOP’s fundraising giant WinRed – promising the “lowest fees in the industry.”

Public Square’s stock price saw a small spike Thursday after the announcement of its deal with Trump’s library foundation.

There are Internal Revenue Service restrictions that prevent nonprofit foundations — like Trump’s library foundation — from certain work with “disqualified persons,” including family members of foundation officers. But their definition of family members does not include siblings, like Donald Trump Jr. is to Eric Trump.

“Whether or not it is permissible under IRS rules, to the public it appears like the Trump family using the charity to enrich themselves,” campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel said.

Trump’s foundation has previously received special treatment from the IRS, nonprofit attorneys told the Miami Herald, when it received expedited approval during the government shutdown last fall.

Kendric Payne, the senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, said the deal appears to be the latest in a long line of examples of the Trump family using the presidency for personal profit.

“Since the moment that the president was elected and before he took office, there have been many instances where his companies have sought to profit from the presidency,” Payne said. “That began with World Liberty Financial and his crypto interests and it also includes the Trump organizations, real estate deals around the world.”

Trump’s net worth has more than doubled since he took office, according to Forbes. A New York Times editorial board analysis put his estimated profits from the presidency at more than $1.4 billion.

Trump’s team is planning to build a high-rise in downtown Miami after Miami Dade College transferred prime property on Biscayne Blvd. to the state to give away for the project.

That free land deal puts few limitations on Trump’s team, only requiring the foundation to begin construction on “components of a Presidential library, museum, and/or center” within five years.