Donald Trump, ever the businessman, is making billions on bitcoin, as he wields his power as President of the United States to legitimise cryptocurrencies.

The bottom line cost of being Albo, PM of Australia is $7 million! However, this is small beer to what President Trump is costing and creating for the Trump family’s wealth.

More on that in a moment because the wealth this US President is creating in office is historically staggering. The Prime Minister of Australia’s counterpart is a multi-billion dollar bionic man!

The Daily Telegraph ran with the headline HE’S NOT BIONIC, BUT ALBO’S OUR $7M MAN” but this really is chicken feed!

Here’s what Albo costs the public purse:

1. PM’s salary $662,102.

2. Maintaining the PM’s official residences – The Lodge in Canberra and Kirribilli House in Sydney – comes to $2.5 million.

3. Annualised parliamentary expenses $3.7 million.

What are these parliamentary expenses? Try car travel, overseas travel for the PM and his staff, family travel expenses and phone bills.

It’s a solid chunk of change, but as I’ve said, this is peanuts compared to the money Donald Trump is amassing in his second stint as US President.

Even by local standards, $7 million is paltry. As the AFR pointed out, Macquarie’s CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, who’s universally seen as a great corporate leader, has earnt a lot more than the leader of Australia. How much?

Try this: “Wikramanayake has earned $144 million in salary since becoming the Macquarie CEO in 2018. Together with the value of shares not subject to any performance hurdles, she has collected a total of $295 million. Once performance shares yet to vest are included, her total pay package is estimated to have reached $413 million.”

Again, this still looks like a pittance compared to the money Donald Trump’s tribe is building in power.

Before becoming president, Donald Trump created Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) which now holds US$2 billion worth of Bitcoin. This company trades on the Nasdaq and is up 95% since listing in 2021 and has been as high as US$94. It’s US$19.40.

The following wealth-building facts were revealed by Kevin Breuninger on CNBC:

1. Trump’s stake in TMTG is around US$2.3 billion.

2. Bitcoin accounts for most of Trump’s wealth on paper.

3. Once a bitcoin sceptic, he now wants the US to be the crypto capital of the world.

4. He plans to sign a presidential order for the US to have a “strategic bitcoin reserve”, which is great news for bitcoin speculators.

5. The Trump family has a majority interest in World Liberty Financial, which will be a ‘sort of’ crypto banking platform, where the general public will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto.

And on Friday, the President signed a bill passed by Congress last week called the GENIUS Act, which is an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act. Put simply, atablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are backed by assets considered to be reliable such as a national currency or a commodity.

Stablecoins are typically used to transfer funds between different cryptocurrency tokens. Importantly, the Act requires stablecoins to be backed one-for-one by US dollars or other low-risk assets.

It’s a platform to make cryptocurrency more acceptable and useable going forward. In a sense, President Trump is doing the spadework to make cryptocurrencies more mainstream, which is fantastic for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (and their investors).

For those who might think the President’s involvement in Bitcoin and his efforts to make cryptocurrency more mainstream is a conflict of interest, this is what Breuninger reported on the subject:

This week I interviewed famous Australian investor Mark Carnegie, who has been an early enthusiast about cryptocurrency. Carnegie made the point to me that powerful forces in the US are backing the future of cryptocurrencies, and this was a strong pointer about the outlook for these new-age digital currencies.

There’s old US saying that “anything is legal as long as 100 businessmen say it is!” All this has made me less sceptical about bitcoin’s future, though it doesn’t mean its price can’t fall when, say, recessions threaten or tech stocks get dumped.

This long-term chart of much-loved gold shows you can lose money on this most precious metal for a long time, if you buy at the wrong time.

One final point about Trump and his money-making habits. When he discovered his appeal as a media star in the TV show The Apprentice, he used this to escalate the brand Trump. Hotels, resorts and other product and service providers paid to use his name.

However, now he has the brand-enhancer of being President of the USA, the value of whatever the Trump name is added to, brings with it fans and believers who think this guy walks on water.

I doubt whether he’ll be seen as a great president, though he will be regarded as the most innovative. But as a business brain and brand developer, he has even put the great Sir Richard Branson with his Virgin brand to shame.