Republicans Look The Other Way As Trump Profits Off Crypto Cash Grab
WASHINGTON — Republicans pursued corruption allegations against former President Joe Biden doggedly for years, hauling in everyone who did business with the president’s family for depositions before Congress — even his son’s art dealer.
Now that Donald Trump is president, there’s no appetite within the GOP for scrutinizing the myriad conflicts of interest presented by his business entanglements, including Trump enriching himself by selling a cryptocurrency coin.
“I’ll talk to you only about the pardons,” House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told HuffPost when asked about Trump’s new cryptocurrency, referring instead to Biden’s controversial preemptive pardons for members of his family. Comer led Republicans’ impeachment inquiry against Biden and blasted his son’s art career as a presidential conflict of interest.
Two days before being sworn in as president, Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin that instantly created huge sums in new wealth for him, an unprecedented presidential venture that sparked ethical concerns and even backlash from some in the crypto community. First lady Melania Trump followed suit shortly after with her own meme coin, named $MELANIA, that also surged in value.
The values of both coins have plummeted in the days since their launch, but not before unnamed traders made huge sums of money over the weekend selling before the price drop. Those who invested and held on to the currency — including some Trump supporters — could do little but bemoan their financial losses.
“Donald Trump, in his last presidency, called crypto a scam and wanted to end it overall. Now he’s figured out how to profit personally from it, and he’s all in favor,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost. “The point of government is not to help rich people get richer. The point of government is supposed to be to make the economy work better for working people. Obviously, that is not Donald Trump.”
Experts on good government criticized Trump’s crypto enterprises, which also include a trading platform known as World Liberty Financial, since anyone can essentially put money in the president’s pocket by purchasing $TRUMP.
“I’m just basically waiting and hoping to see when the public says, ‘Enough is enough,’ with the president just appearing like he’s profiting from the presidency,” Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told HuffPost. “What’s going to be that straw that breaks the camel’s back where they say, ‘OK, just focus on your day job and not having these other side hustles.’”
Payne said the president’s coin offering presents an opportunity for people seeking a certain government policy to curry favor with the president and that it also creates the appearance of a conflict of interest regarding the federal government’s oversight of the crypto industry.
Meme coins are cryptocurrencies that originate as an internet meme, and even crypto’s biggest boosters admit they’re not good for anything except high-risk financial speculation. Some in the crypto world have criticized Trump’s venture and warned it would make the public even more turned off by crypto.
“Now, on the cusp of getting some liberalization of crypto regulations in this country, the main thing people are thinking about crypto is, ‘Oh, it’s just a casino for these meme coins,’” Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and partner at the crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, told The Associated Press. “It does the opposite of validating us, it makes it look completely unserious.”
It’s a surprising turn of events after the industry hailed the second Trump administration as a golden dawn for crypto, which faced dozens of civil complaints from the Securities and Exchange Commission under Biden for violating investor protection rules.
Most Republican senators this week dismissed the issues raised by Trump’s meme coin, saying that those who invest in such currencies ought to think well and good before risking their livelihoods.
“I believe in free markets. Sometimes you profit, sometimes you don’t,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “The markets treat everybody as a big girl or a big boy, and you make your decision … at some point you can’t protect people from themselves.”
But Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a top bitcoin advocate in Congress, said she had concerns about meme tokens in general and scenarios in which investors wind up holding worthless tokens after developers have taken their money.
“It depends on who made the money and what they’re going to do with it, right? I think it’s the kind of thing that we probably need to pay attention to,” Lummis told HuffPost when asked about Trump’s meme coin.
“I mean it’s very free enterprise, if you think about it,” she added. “I wrestle with it. There’s something about it that makes me a little uncomfortable with it.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), meanwhile, said Trump selling cryptocurrency likely violated the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which established a strict prohibition on foreign gifts and payments to U.S. government officials. Anyone anywhere in the world can purchase Trump’s coin, which ultimately benefits his bottom line.
“When you’re Donald Trump, the means of self-enrichment seem to be endless,” Blumenthal said.
Trump has also raked in profitsfrom other branded merchandise, including Bibles, shoes and NFTs during his time on the campaign trail last year.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Rather than probe the president’s apparent conflict of interest, Republicans have signaled their intention to retain their focus on Biden. Several lawmakers have talked about bringing in Biden family members for questioning after the former president’s eleventh-hour pardons before leaving office.
“The pardon doesn’t mean you can’t ask people questions,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. “I think we want to discourage this use of the pardon power.”
