Nobody has gone further than Donald Trump in using the power of his office to profit personally. This authoritarian step has set a staggering precedent in American history, lament many of the critics. Since his election, Trump’s family businesses have allegedly raked in hundreds of millions of dollars. Such arrangements force policymakers to ask fundamental questions about the propriety of blurring the lines between private gain and public good. During his time in the White House, the former president combatively touted his resorts and their shamelessly ostentatious merchandise. He simultaneously engaged in many other cryptocurrency projects, where the lines between his public office and private business became cloudy.
From day one of his presidency, Trump has unapologetically—and loudly—laid out his vision. To make the United States of America the “crypto capital of the world.” He has promised to roll back regulatory scrutiny of the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector. His aim is to spur more innovation and economic opportunity. This promise is consistent with the behavior of Trump’s relatives. Instead, they’ve been focused on lining up highly lucrative private sector concessions and contracts across the globe. His sons have traveled all the way to the Middle East to win fabulous new development contracts. In the meantime, his daughter and son-in-law are teaming up with the government of Albania to develop a fabulous Mediterranean island casino resort.
One of Trump’s cryptocurrencies, called TrumpCoin, has become one of the family’s most profitable investments. Since January, it has perhaps conservatively generated at least $320 million. A foreign country’s sovereign wealth fund dumped an astonishing $2 billion into what was supposed to be the other crypto. This singular investment allows the Trump family and their business partners to turn around and reinvest that capital, with projected annual interest as high as $80 million.
High-profile investors are clearly still betting on Trump’s cryptocurrency endeavors. Justin Sun, a billionaire investor originally from China, disclosed that he has invested nearly $200 million in Trump’s various crypto projects. At the same time, a United Arab Emirates-controlled sovereign wealth fund deposited $2 billion for Trump’s stable coin, USD1. This massive investment was personally brokered by Changpeng Zhao, founder of the international crypto exchange Binance, who has been in legal trouble in the past.
The financial entanglements do not stop there. And then, as the crowning irony, Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia golf club of his top 220 investors in his new meme coin, $Trump. He even dangled a VIP White House tour for the top 25 fundraisers. This event is a perfect illustration of the inextricable mix of Trump’s political and business dealings.
Critics have been sounding the alarm about the ethics of Trump’s moves since the election. Senator Jeff Merkley described the situation as “the Mount Everest of corruption,” while political analyst James Thurber pointed out that “he is president and is supposed to be working in the public’s interest.” He went on, saying that rather than prioritizing the public good, Trump seems intent on further enriching himself with private enterprise.
Harrison Fields, a representative from Trump’s administration, defended the former president’s actions by asserting that “the Trump administration is fulfilling the president’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the planet by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans.”
In response to questions about his investments and business dealings, Trump remarked, “I don’t care about investing. You know, I have kids and they invest in it, because they do believe in it.” He further asserted that his focus has been on creating a powerful industry rather than solely on personal investment: “We’ve created a very powerful industry. That’s much more important than anything that we invest in.”
Trump’s maneuvering between his current status as a businessman and former president. The public attentively watches the effect of his stunts. Legal experts like Hilary Allen suggest that Trump’s presidency has blurred ethical boundaries: “The difference now is he has realized that it can be his scam… Because crypto assets can be made out of thin air, he has found a way of creating an unlimited supply of assets to offer to people who want to give.”
