For the last few months, David Kirkpatrick, over the New Yorker, has been counting.

Adding up a deal here, a deal there. All these deals made by the Trump family for the Trump family.

David started counting after reading this analysis

in the Times, arguing that even though President Trump was certainly monetizing his public office,

the general public didn't seem to care. And this puzzled me, and I began to wonder if a clearer accounting of all that might make more of a difference.

How long did it take you to count up how much money Donald Trump seems to be making off of the presidency?

It took several months, and one of the most striking things to me is that the volume of money he'd made rose significantly over that time.

So like you started out with one number and then it became a different number?

Yeah, I mean, as I was approaching the number, as I was adding things up, there was more and more to add up.

I'm picturing you like, have you ever watched It's a Wonderful Life?

At the end, there's the accountant, she's like counting up money and it just keeps coming.

Yeah, no, that's precisely right. That's precisely.

Picture me in a green eye shade just drowning under numbers.

David made some rules as he went, like the book deals, almost any presidential candidate will get after leaving or taking office.

He didn't count those. Also, if Donald Trump or his companies made financial agreements they could have made, whether he was in the White House or not, David set those aside, too.

So I'm only looking at ways that he is leveraging the presidency or making money that depends

crucially on his being president, having been president,

about to be president.

So how big was the number in the end?

The number I came to was $3.4 billion.

Did that shock you?

It surprised me.

...