Trump Corruptly Profits From The Presidency While Raising Prices On Americans
While Trump tells Americans to ration dolls, he's grifting hundreds of millions in crypto projects—selling access to the presidency, rewarding investors, & pushing policies that enrich his family.
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We are witnessing levels of grifting, conflicts of interest, and overt corruption unprecedented in American presidential history.
Trump’s family is making hundreds of millions from crypto projects, blatantly selling access and profiting from the presidency, while telling American families to ration baby dolls because his tariffs will raise prices.
Not only is this incredibly out of touch, but more importantly, it poses conflicts of interest that make Trump’s first term look like child’s play.
Trump is, of course, seeking to profit from the presidency in familiar ways - a planned $1 billion Trump hotel in Dubai, a golf course in Qatar, and a new Trump Tower in Saudi Arabia, to name a few. But the money channel that is cultivating the most unmistakable conflicts is his involvement in crypto, which Trump once called a “scam.”
As President Trump’s net worth skyrockets from money pouring into his crypto projects, he’s simultaneously pushing policies that benefit those same ventures. Trump is also directly selling access to the presidency and rewarding people who invest in his crypto projects. He’s creating an environment where foreign nationals, business leaders, and anyone with means can directly pay for influence over Trump’s moves.
The biggest ways in which Trump is profiting are in his World Liberty Financial and memecoin ventures. World Liberty Financial, which was launched just before the 2024 election and is 60% owned by the Trump family, has taken in at least $550 million in sales of its crypto token. The Trump family is entitled to 75% of that revenue. The sale of Trump’s memecoin $TRUMP, has also generated over $100 million in transaction fees for Trump’s family and their business partners.
Those numbers are according to a bombshell New York Times article that was published last week. This investigative piece exposed the extent to which President Trump is using his crypto ventures to sell access to the presidency and how investments appear to be correlated with presidential favors.
Since that report was published, a new deal was announced that involves an Abu Dhabi-backed fund that will use $2 billion of World Liberty Financial’s new stablecoin, USD1, to finance an investment in Binance. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are tied to stable assets, like the dollar.
The money flowing to the Trump family is staggering, and raises the risk of foreign influence peddling and quid pro quo.
We’ve already seen direct investments in Trump’s ventures lead to favorable Trump treatment and a dinner with Trump being advertised in exchange for purchases of his memecoin.
If any of these payments are from individuals representing interests of a foreign government, this activity would be in blatant violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits foreign payments from state actors. Not to mention the potential for bribery.
Let’s get into the details of this historic corruption.
In a moment where Trump is preaching scarcity and telling Americans to hunker down as his tariffs raise prices, he and his family are taking in unfathomable levels of money. I spoke about this in my recent NewsNation appearance over the weekend.
As I’ve outlined, Trump’s memecoin has generated over one hundred million dollars in fees while his family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, is being used as a vehicle for potential influence peddling. On top of this, Trump is pursuing a crypto policy that will directly benefit himself financially.
Before the election, World Liberty Financial struggled to sell its new cryptocurrency, $WLFI. But after Trump’s win, the money flooded in. Now, we see why.
After taking office, Trump’s Justice Department dismantled the crypto crimes task force, and he announced a US crypto stockpile that directly benefits World Liberty Financial. So, what is World Liberty Financial, exactly?
World Liberty Financial is a Trump-owned cryptocurrency company that creates and markets digital assets. Think of it like a crypto bank—but with far fewer regulations than traditional banks and a direct line to presidential power.
The active partners running World Liberty Financial include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff’s son Zach Witkoff - who was just in Pakistan meeting with its prime minister about World Liberty Financial. Talk about a conflict of interest.
World Liberty Financial has taken in money from foreign investors in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and more - according to The New York Times exposé I cited earlier in this piece. This growing influx of foreign money is seemingly bypassing campaign finance law. These payments are very difficult to trace, but The New York Times tried and narrowed down the locations:
“An analysis performed for The Times by the forensics firm Nansen, drawing on crypto industry data, showed that many of the investors were based abroad in places like Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
Federal law prevents foreigners from donating to presidential campaigns or inaugural funds, but World Liberty’s coin sale offered a new, legal way to back Mr. Trump.”
Who knows what these investors are seeking from the Trump Administration. This raises questions about whether US policy is now for sale to the highest bidder.
Trump has since taken direct action that has benefited individuals who have invested in World Liberty Financial.
In one particular case of brazen corruption, we have Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, founder of crypto company Tron. Sun was facing an SEC fraud lawsuit from the Biden Administration. After Trump won in November, Sun purchased a total of $75 million in $WLFI coins.
In February, the Trump Administration's SEC asked a federal judge to pause the case against Sun. As of right now, Sun’s case is still paused as the SEC looks for a “potential resolution.”
Is that a coincidence? I think not.
Sun is just one example of individuals who have faced US scrutiny and have invested in World Liberty Financial. Another example shows a pardon issued to a World Liberty Financial collaborator. From The New York Times:
“Other World Liberty partnerships have shown how Mr. Trump is mixing his official role with his business. In December, the company announced that it would use technology designed by a startup based in Lisbon, Ethena Labs. It also bought more than $5 million of Ethena’s cryptocurrency.
One of Ethena’s investors is Arthur Hayes, a crypto entrepreneur who pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in 2022 and was sentenced to six months of home detention. Last month, Mr. Trump granted Mr. Hayes a pardon. (A spokesman who represents both Ethena and Mr. Hayes declined to comment.)”
The conflicts keep piling.
Just this week, HuffPost reported that an international trucking logistics firm called Freight Technologies Inc. purchased $20 million worth of $TRUMP coin. The firm released a statement claiming this purchase was “an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the U.S.”
You can’t get any clearer than that. This trucking company made a purchase of Trump’s memecoin because they felt it would directly influence Trump’s policy positions. There’s a reason this perception exists.
In yet another overt example of selling direct access to the presidency, there is a May 22 dinner that will host the top 220 holders of $TRUMP for a dinner with President Trump in DC. Its website is even hosting a leaderboard tracking the top coin holders. There is no other way to frame that than people directly buying access to the president.
We will surely see more examples of this, especially as Trump builds out his planned crypto stockpile.
In February, Eric Trump promoted the cryptocurrency Ether, telling his X followers, “It’s a great time to buy Ether. You can thank me later.” He later deleted the tweet and reposted, removing the thank me later part. The New York Times has a screenshot of the original. Now we know why he said, “Thank me later.”
In March, President Trump announced a US crypto reserve that would include, you guessed it, Ether, which rose by 13% on the news. From The Times:
“The spike had an immediate beneficiary: World Liberty. Over the previous few months, the company had bought $240 million worth of Ether, according to Arkham, a crypto data firm.
The day the president announced the crypto reserve, the value of World Liberty’s Ether stash rose by $33 million, assuming it had not sold any of its holdings. That gain was later lost as Ether declined in value.”
On top of this, Trump is pursuing legislation that would benefit stablecoins. As I mentioned earlier, World Liberty Financial is creating its own stablecoin called USD1.
Senate Democrats have begun calling for investigations into this blatant corruption; we’ll see if the effort yields anything.
In April of last year, I wrote an article headlined “Trump Re-Election Risks American Kleptocracy,” and warned that if elected, his second term could bring an avalanche of authoritarian overreach, self-enrichment, cronyism, and foreign influence peddling.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out.
As American families brace for higher costs and economic volatility, the Trump family is amassing insane levels of wealth—fueled by foreign investors, crypto speculation, and proximity to presidential power.
Democrats need to message this, journalists need to continue covering it, and the American people need to be informed of this historic corruption.
Thanks, Ahmed. It’s mind boggling that they are being so blatant with this grift. I’m glad you have an even bigger megaphone this year. Keep spreading the news!