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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is what a corrupt oligarchy looks like.
Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie 5hThe President, who owns a crypto company and personally profits from it, is using his official position to pressure Congress to vote for a bill that will personally make him more money and shield him from accountability.
This is what a corrupt oligarchy looks like.

___World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture Trump helped launch last year, announced in March that it planned to launch USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.
Stablecoins are among the fastest growing segments of the cryptocurrency industry. They are typically backed by a government-issued currency, like the dollar, or to gold, making them better suited to commercial transactions than more volatile digital assets like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
World Libertys announcement came amid a push by Congress, with strong support by the White House, to pass legislation that supporters say would make it easier for stablecoin companies to operate and grow in the U.S.
Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty Financial co-founder and his father, Trumps special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial with Trump and his sons last year. Under the terms outlined on the companys website, a Trump-owned company has the right to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues from World Liberty Financial after expenses.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. announced it was partnering with the crypto-trading firm Crypto.com to launch exchange-traded funds for investors to purchase... TMTG is the parent company of Trumps social media company, Truth Social.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-social-etf-f11c47a99ea618aa06df4dd47b150800
...Trump's crypto-grifting began before he was even sworn in:
Its time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community, Trump said in a social post late Friday promoting the new tokens. They are marketed with a picture of Trump holding a fist up superimposed over the words FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT, a reference to Trumps response to an assassination attempt at a political rally in July.
In promoting the meme coin, Trump told supporters to Have Fun! The website selling the tokens says they are meant as expressions of support and not an investment opportunity.
Meme coins are a strange and highly volatile corner of the crypto industry that often start as a joke with no real value but can surge in price if enough people are willing to buy them. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency whose mascot is a super-cute dog that muses things like much wow, is perhaps the most well known. Meme coins can be used by scammers looking to make a quick fortune at the expense of unwary investors.
Trump and his family previously helped launch a new venture to trade cryptocurrencies last year. The president-elect has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-meme-coin-token-75bf67ef9e6e54bf455f2f9f03470be3
...not so fast on the legislation:
A faction of Republican hardliners demanding changes to a Senate-passed stablecoin regulation bill joined with Democrats to defeat a procedural step needed to begin consideration of the crypto bills. The loss disrupted a planned legislative press Trump had promoted as Crypto Week.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina warned after the hardliners revolt that making changes to the stablecoin bill risked rejection in the Senate.
If our House members send an amended bill back to us that doesnt fit or isnt already pre-conferenced with the Democrats who helped us pass that bill out, they can expect that bill will never see the light of day, Tillis said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-s-crypto-week-hits-a-bump-after-gop-conservatives-rebel/ar-AA1IFgD4

slightlv
(6,138 posts)in every which way possible, while lining his own personal pockets with all he can grab.
dlk
(12,792 posts)Everything Trump touches dies.
byronius
(7,781 posts)Why, if I were a creepy old racist rapist, this fellow would certainly be my first choice.
cstanleytech
(27,777 posts)Problem with crypto though is that it makes criminal activity including bribery of politicians even harder to detect and track.
BidenRocks
(1,858 posts)Just, no!
patphil
(8,087 posts)Whatever that is.
But whatever that is, it's Trump's newest grift.
He's going to make billions of dollars just flow into his bank accounts, right out of thin air.
At least that's his plan.
I can just see it now. All Federal Employees getting paid in a crypto currency that only vacillates in value by 20% a day.
We're all gonna get rich!
cliffside
(1,068 posts)Full article ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/trump-crypto-lobbying.html?unlocked_article_code=1.W08.doyI.YGNo1KJ-qtYy&smid=url-share
Just over a year ago, while sitting around a table in an ornate meeting room at Mar-a-Lago, David Bailey and a group of top Bitcoin executives made a pitch to Donald J. Trump...
At Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Bailey brought along representatives of several large Bitcoin mining firms an energy-guzzling sector that has drawn noise complaints and environmental concerns. They pitched Mr. Trump on the economic benefits of Bitcoin, before pivoting to a bold request: Could Mr. Trump write a supportive post on his social media site?
The proposed language was included at the bottom of a bullet-pointed meeting agenda, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Trump said he would consider it, Mr. Bailey, who runs the digital currency firm BTC Inc., recalled in an interview. We had no idea if that was going to happen.
That night, Mr. Trump fired off a Truth Social post containing the exact message proposed by the executives: We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!