President Trump was once a loud skeptic of cryptocurrency — one who called it a haven for drug dealers and scammers. But over the past few months, he’s emerged as the industry’s biggest cheerleader.A New York Times investigation shows how much the president and his family have profited from that transformation.Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The Times, discusses what happens when the country’s top crypto policymaker is himself a crypto entrepreneur.Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: The rise of Trump’s crypto firm.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What transformation did President Trump undergo regarding cryptocurrency?
What exactly does World Liberty Financial do?
They lay out some of these ambitions in something they call the gold paper, which on the title page has this large portrait of Donald Trump with gold paint splashed across it. Trump's face is on every single page of this document that details their ambitions. And, you know, they start off by just introducing this token that certain types of investors can buy in October of 2024.
And just to be clear, Eric, that token, that's separate from the Trump meme coin we've been talking about, right?
That's right. It's very different from the meme coin. This is a token that gives buyers a say in the governance of this new financial institution. And it can't be bought and sold very rapidly. It has all kinds of rules around it. But the Trump family from the start was going to own billions of these tokens more than anyone else.
Got it. OK, so what happens when they release this token into the market?
It's actually quite a flop, and they way underperformed their target of having $300 million in sales. They only attract a fraction of that total. But Trump then wins the election, and from the night of the election, the money starts to pour in, where suddenly... There are people that want to try to influence Trump.
There are people who see him as a winner and someone that's likely going to have a successful cryptocurrency venture. And it goes from having a hard time raising money to raising $550 million in token sales. Wow. So that's a startling number. And as reporters at The New York Times, it opens up a bunch of questions for us. Who are these people? Why are they buying the token?
And what types of conflicts of interest is this going to create when President Trump is back in office and appointing the regulators who are going to oversee his own business?
We'll be right back.
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