Trump’s business has expanded since 2016 — and so have his potential conflicts

As president, Trump could shape policy on cryptocurrency and social media, two industries in which he has new financial interests.

Former president Donald Trump told cryptocurrency fans at a national bitcoin conference this summer that if elected to a second term, he would turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet” and adopt policies “written by people who love your industry.”

Less than one month later, he began plugging his newest business venture: a cryptocurrency enterprise.

during his first term in office, Trump’s portfolio of hotels and golf courses was a constant source of controversy and litigation, much of it over spending at his properties by foreign governments and corporate interests with an interest in White House policy.

Now Trump is not only the chief hypeman for and a top financial beneficiary of a crypto company that is actively seeking investors, but also the founder of a social media platform and the majority owner of its publicly traded parent company

Both ventures open up new avenues that people — including those seeking to influence White House decision-making — could use to enrich Trump personally. Few rules would restrict investors seeking to win Trump’s favor, whether they be citizens of the United States or another nation.

Trump, his company and his campaign have not made any commitments about how he would handle his business interests in a second term.

Nearly all presidents since the 1970s have put their assets into a blind trust.

[Trump did not.]

essentialsaltes said:

Now Trump is not only the chief hypeman for and a top financial beneficiary of a crypto company that is actively seeking investors

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A Chinese national, charged with fraud by the SEC, just invested $30 million in Trump's cryptobusiness​

Sun now represents more than half of total outside investment.

essentialsaltes said:

Now Trump is ... the founder of a social media platform and the majority owner of its publicly traded parent company

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Donald Trump Controls a Publicly Traded Company. Now He Will Pick Its Regulator.​

There have been internal concerns that Trump Media could be misleading investors, a source said. But with its largest shareholder about to be president, experts doubt the SEC is up to the job of investigating Truth Social’s parent company.​

Last month a major shareholder of a publicly traded company took to social media to complain that people — perhaps short sellers — were spreading lies that could hurt his firm’s stock price.

“There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors,” the post read. “I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t typically take its marching orders from shareholders on social media. But in this case, the poster was Donald Trump, who’s just weeks away from being inaugurated and gaining the power to appoint the head of the SEC.

essentialsaltes said:

A Chinese national, charged with fraud by the SEC, just invested $30 million in Trump's cryptobusiness​

Sun now represents more than half of total outside investment.

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SEC Drops Charges Against Chinese Billionaire After He Pumps $30 Million Into Trump’s Crypto Scheme​

Justin Sun is celebrating avoiding a fraud investigation by posting handshake emojis on X.

Around the same time he bought the [art?] banana for $6.2 million, Sun “invested” $30 million into WLF. It pushed the coin into the threshold it needed to release cash into Trump’s pocket and netted the President around $18 million. Sun came on to WLF as an advisor. Then he dumped another $45 million into the company. According to Bloomberg, that means Trump has received around $56 million in total “fees” from Sun related to WLF.

When it charged Sun, the SEC also charged eight celebrities they said were involved in the scheme, including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soula Boy, and Lil Yachty. Several of the celebrities, including Lohan, agreed to pay $400,000 to settle the SEC investigation.

[So it seems possible Sun has also come to some perfectly legitimate settlement arrangement, but given the apparent conflict of interest and lack of transparency in the Trump Administration, you can imagine what Jordan and Comer would have to say if the Biden crime family were involved in something like this.]

Trump and Co’s extraordinary conflicts of interest in his second term​

Bitcoin, internet, EVs, private dinners for hire – the list of pay-for-play and quid quo pro goes on, and on … and on

The $Trump meme coin is an ethics regulator’s waking nightmare. There is little transparency around who is channelling money into it, and even less around the potentially nefarious motives of investors.

The same might be said about the Trumps’ other big crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, which was launched last September by Trump’s sons. The president himself is listed by the company as its “chief crypto advocate”.

Over the past few months Trump’s second son, Eric, has been frenetically traveling the globe in search of real estate deals, throwing to the winds the pledge Trump made in his first administration to eschew any foreign business transactions.

In his second administration, Trump has made no such promise.

The Guardian invited the White House to comment on complaints that the president has blurred his public duties with his family’s personal profit-making activities to a degree never before seen in the US. A White House spokesperson replied with a statement which they asked us to print in its entirety, so here goes:

“There are no conflicts of interest. President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. It is shameful that the Guardian is ignoring the GOOD deals President Trump has secured for the American people, not for himself, to push a false narrative. President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”

“By giving over to your son, you are immediately raising questions about how separate you are going to be from the success of this business,” said Caputo of the Campaign Legal Center. “Will you be focused on what’s best for the public, or will you be guided in your decision-making by what would most benefit your family?”

Take other key figures in Trump’s cabinet, which is packed with so many banking and energy billionaires that it ranks as the richest presidential cabinet in modern history. Lutnick, the commerce secretary, who has a personal fortune of about $2.2bn, has been involved in various accusations of conflict of interest since he encouraged Fox News viewers to “buy Tesla”.

Last month, Lutnick divested himself of his Cantor stake, but he did so by transferring his ownership to his two sons. Cantor is now controlled by Brandon Lutnick, 27, and Kyle Lutnick, 28.

Or take Robert F Kennedy Jr, the vaccine-skeptic health secretary. Under intense pressure from Democratic senators, he agreed to divest his 10% stake in any payout from an ongoing lawsuit in which he is engaged against Merck over its HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Government officials are not allowed under federal law to participate personally in official matters in which they have a financial interest. So what did Kennedy do? He transferred his stake in the case to one of his adult sons.

[Dr. Oz's] fellow co-founder of ZorroRX, however, is still listed as the firm’s head of medical affairs. That’s his son, Oliver Oz.

Trump bought more than $100 million in bonds since January, filings show​

The documents, released late Tuesday, show that Trump began the bond-buying spree one day after he was sworn in on Jan. 20 and that it includes debt sold by companies, local governments and entities that could be directly affected by his sweeping agenda.

The active trading by a president of the United States is unprecedented, and it puts Trump in a direct position to benefit — or lose out — if any of the entities that own the bonds he has purchased succeed or fail.

Trump’s direct ownership of bonds from three of the country’s banking giants also comes as he considers an eventual replacement of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and weeks after he nominated one of his top aides, Stephen Miran, to a seat on the Fed’s board. The Fed can directly affect a bank’s profit by lowering or raising interest rates, along with myriad regulatory actions.

[Also] chipmaker Qualcomm, mobile provider T-Mobile USA, Home Depot and UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest private health insurance company. [And Meta]

Typically, presidents divest their financial assets before or shortly after they enter office, but Trump has rejected that precedent and retained most of his empire since his first term.