Tag Archives: Crypto

Daily Beast: Trump Turns Presidency Into His Cash Cow With $600M Haul

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President Donald Trump has already made a small fortune off his second go-around as commander in chief.

An annual financial disclosure shows the Republican president’s crypto ventures, golf clubs, and resorts, as well as the large fees he collects from garish MAGA-branded merch, have helped him rake in more than $600 million in income last year, Reuters reported.

Overall, Reuters calculated that Trump’s combined assets totaled $1.6 billion, with his income feeding into the Trump Organization trust operated by his three eldest children—which some said allows him to skate the Constitution’s Emoluments clause, which bars the president from benefitting financially from the office.

Trump Turns Presidency Into His Cash Cow With $600M Haul
Financial disclosures reveal the MAGA president is raking in the dough from crypto, golf clubs, and licensing fees.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-turns-presidency-into-his-cash-cow-with-600m-haul

Raw Story: White House claim puts Trump ‘potentially outside the immunity shield’: attorney

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An attempt by White House press secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to blow off ethical and legal concerns about Donald Trump’s crypto dinner on Thursday night might come back to haunt her boss.

Thursday afternoon [Bimbo #1] Leavitt lectured reporters in the Brady Briefing Room about the dinner which was to include foreign investors at a Donald Trump golf resort in Virginia, telling NBC’s Garrett Haake, “Well, as you know, Garrett, this question has been raised with the president. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner, it’s not taking place here at the White House. But certainly I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it.”

[Bimbo #1] Leavitt’s claim of “personal time” caught the ear of multiple Trump critics.

On X, The Bulwark’s Tim Miller pointed out, “President’s don’t get ‘personal time.’ There’s not like a magic suit you wear when you are doing official business and one where you are just Donald from Queens.”

Conservative lawyer and ardent Trump opponent George Conway took the next step and suggested, “Actually, it’s fine. If Trump is saying he’s doing something on his ‘personal time,’ then obviously that means he’s not acting within what the Supreme Court calls ‘the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,’ which, in turn, means he’s not immune from criminal prosecution.”

Oops! You probably shouldn’t run your mouth so much, Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt, but I understand that’s all you do, and you do it so exceptionally well. 😀

White House claim puts Trump ‘potentially outside the immunity shield’: attorney

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-immunity-2672194246

The Hill: Democrats rip Trump ahead of meme coin dinner: ‘Orgy of corruption

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However, the announcement of the dinner last month, which urged investors to load up on $TRUMP to secure one of 220 spots at the “intimate private dinner,” has sparked a new level of backlash. 

“Donald Trump’s dinner is an orgy of corruption,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday. “That’s what this is all about. We are here today to talk about exactly one topic: corruption, corruption in its ugliest form.”  

“Donald Trump is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto, and he’s doing it right out there in plain sight,” she added. “He is signaling to anyone who wants to ask for a special favor and is willing to pay for it exactly how to do that.” 

Democrats rip Trump ahead of meme coin dinner: ‘Orgy of corruption’

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5314955-trump-meme-coin-dinner-criticism

USA Today: Trump’s crypto dinner: Black ties, a Chinese billionaire and ethics questions

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Referencing Trump’s business moves while in office, an ethics expert said, “His is one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency I’ve ever seen.”

President Donald Trump dined with 220 investors who plowed a combined $148 million into his crypto venture, boosting the growing crypto industry and inviting a torrent of criticism about the ethical implications.

Black-tie dinners with the wealthy are nothing new for Trump. But this event, which took place on the evening of May 22 at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, stood out among the annals of presidential dining.

The dinner with the president was a reward for making the leaderboard in a contest to be among the top purchasers of the $TRUMP meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency. The top 25 buyers spent more than $111 million and were granted a private VIP reception with Trump, while the top four also received a limited edition Trump Tourbillon watch that sells for $100,000.

This is corruption and influence-peddling at is finest. King Donald is for sale!

Trump’s crypto dinner: Black ties, a Chinese billionaire and ethics questions
Trump hosted a black-tie dinner at his Virginia golf club for 220 investors who gave a combined $148 million to his crypto venture.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/22/trump-crypto-dinner-ethics-meme-coin/83787117007

Telegraph: ‘It’s open season for corruption’: How Trump turned the White House into a cash cow

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Naked profiteering by the US president and his family has triggered alarm bells in the Maga movement

Most.

Corrupt.

President

Ever!

Donald Trump caught his first sight of the so-called “palace in the sky” in February as he climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Boeing 747-8.

The Qatari plane was parked at Florida’s West Palm Beach International Airport, and offered a chance for the president to see what a newly refitted Air Force One could look like, easing his frustration with the long-delayed Boeing project.

In the event, it appears to have been more of a test drive. His administration’s plan to accept the $400m (£300m) luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which he is expected to use after his presidency, is the latest example of what many view as an increased disregard for ethics in Washington under his second term.

During his first term in the White House, foreign governments buying meals and block-booking rooms at Trump hotels set alarm bells ringing.

Yet now the president has created even more opportunities for those looking to curry favour with him – and his children. From pay-to-dine cryptocurrency schemes, a new social media platform that carries advertising and the expansion of their property empire, it has never seemed easier for the Trump family to line their pockets.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/18/trump-turned-white-house-cash-machine

Intelligencer: Donald Trump Is a Crook, But He’s Their Crook

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What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption. No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge. He would be able to use the plane while in the White House and transfer it to his presidential foundation when he’s out of office. Trump’s inaugural committee also gobbled up $239 million from wealthy business interests who are desperate to curry favor with such a nakedly transactional president. The amount far outstrips the $107 million Trump raised for his committee back in 2017, and since there is no way to spend so much cash on dinner and events, it appears Trump might have a slush fund for the rest of his life.

And then there’s his crypto hustle ….

Donald Trump Is a Crook, But He’s Their Crook
What explains the president’s untouchable corruption.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/qatar-plane-trump-corruption.html

Mediaite: Trump Confronted on Air Force One by NY Times Over $2 Billion Crypto Deal

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President Donald Trump was confronted aboard Air Force One by New York Times White House reporter Jonathan Swan over a $2 billion foreign deal that’s being paid for with Trump crypto.

Trump is currently on a four-day swing through the Persian Gulf region with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which has been dogged by the controversy over his eager acceptance of a $400 million “flying palace” from Qatar to serve as Air Force One.

The trip has also drawn attention to Trump’s family businesses, including the cryptocurrency firm World Liberty Financial.

That company’s USD1 currency was selected by state-owned UAE firm MGX to pay for a $2 billion investment in Binance earlier this month. The deal was announced by WLF co-founder Zach Witkoff, son of Trump Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff.

Trump plays dumb:

JONATHAN SWAN: An Emirati government-backed firm did a $2 billion deal using the Trump digital coins. How did that deal come about?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know anything about it. I really don’t know anything about it. But I’m a big crypto fan, I will tell you. I’ve been that from the beginning, right from the campaign. I’m a believer in crypto.

Trump Confronted on Air Force One by NY Times Over $2 Billion Crypto Deal
Trump was confronted aboard Air Force One by New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan over a $2 billion foreign deal that’s being paid for with Trump crypto.
Trump Confronted on Air Force One by NY Times Over $2 Billion Crypto Deal

The Register: DOGE worker’s old creds found exposed in infostealer malware dumps

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Developer and journalist Micah Lee reported last Thursday that he found a whopping 51 data breach records and four infostealer log dumps associated with DOGE employee Kyle Schutt on data breach tracking service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) – which is unnerving as Schutt has access to sensitive government data at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

As Lee pointed out, 51 breach records on HIBP is a lot, but excusable because while Schutt’s info was found in records associated with a 2013 Adobe breach, the 2016 LinkedIn breach, and Gravatar’s 2020 breach, none of those incidents involved Schutt’s personal machines.

What is attributable to a lapse of security hygiene, however, are the four infostealer logs that link to Schutt. Such logs contain usernames and passwords stolen by infostealer malware, suggesting one or more of Schutt’s computers were compromised at some point.

DOGE worker’s old creds found in malware data dumps
Infosec in brief: PLUS: Celsius scammer sent to slammer; Death-by-hacking victim warns you’re never safe; and more

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/doge_cyber_experts_creds_found

Manila Times: Trump family Gulf empire grows

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Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s Gulf visit next week, his son Eric was promoting his crypto firm in Dubai, while Don Jr. prepared to talk about “Monetizing MAGA” in Doha.

Last month, the Trump Organization struck its first luxury real estate deal in Qatar and released details of a billion-dollar skyscraper in Dubai whose apartments can be bought in cryptocurrency.

In a monarchical region awash with petrodollars, the list of Trump-related ventures is long and growing. However, the pres-idential entourage is not the only party cashing in, analysts say.

“Gulf governments likely see the presence of the Trump brand in their countries as a way to generate goodwill with the new administration,” said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

If the president chose, he could hopscotch the region from one Trump venture to another when he visits Saudi Arabia, Qa-tar and the United Arab Emirates next week on the first foreign tour of his second term.

Asked whether Trump would make visits or meetings linked to his own business interests or that of his family, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “ridiculous” to “even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit” and that he had “lost money for being president.”

LOL! The only person in Washington, D.C., who tells more lies than King Donald is Bimbo #1 Karoline Leavitt.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/05/12/business/foreign-business/trump-family-gulf-empire-grows/2110755

CNBC: 58 crypto wallets have made millions on Trump’s meme coin. 764,000 have lost money, data shows

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  • 58 wallets have made over $10 million each from President Donald Trump’s meme coin, totaling $1.1 billion in profits, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said.
  • 764,000 wallets of mostly small holders have lost money on $TRUMP, according to the firm.
  • The $TRUMP event, set for May 22 at Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., includes a reception for the 25 wallets with the largest balance, along with a White House tour.

About 764,000 wallets that purchased President Donald Trump‘s $TRUMP meme coin have lost money on the investment, according to fresh data shared with CNBC by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Most of the wallets that lost money held smaller amounts of the token, according to the firm’s on-chain analysis. …

Chainalysis said that while around 2 million wallets have bought into the token, 58 wallets made more than $10 million apiece, totaling roughly $1.1 billion in gains.

58 crypto wallets have made millions on Trump’s meme coin. 764,000 have lost money, data shows
Interest in the $TRUMP meme coin spiked more than 50% after the project’s website promised the top 220 holders a seat at a dinner with the president.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/trump-meme-coin-crypto.html