--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Welcome to Today Explained. I'm Sean Rameswaram.
--:-- Noel King: I'm Noel King.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today, we're talking about the president's trip to the Middle East and the ethical concerns that come with it.
--:-- Noel King: But if you really want conflicts of interest, take a look at his crypto projects.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's right. We're going to talk about the president's billion-dollar crypto portfolio.
--:-- Noel King: And we're going to have a guest, Will Gottsagen, who writes about crypto for The Atlantic.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Will, welcome to the show.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So, let's start with the president's trip to the Middle East. What's the big deal about this trip?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, the president's kids, Eric and Don Jr., have been crisscrossing the region, making deals and golf courses and hotels and villas.
--:-- Noel King: And that's not even the crux of Trump, Inc. anymore. It's crypto.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: That's right. The Trump brand has been gold for him for his entire career, but he's found something to really turn it into a digital goldmine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: [chuckles] Digital goldmine.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: [laughs] Yeah. Eric and Don Jr. are sort of on the crypto press circuit right now.
--:-- Noel King: Yeah, you know, Maria, I never thought I'd fall into the world of crypto until every bank started canceling us for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than the fact that my father was in politics.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: [laughs] That's right. Both have kind of managerial director positions on some of these Trump-affiliated crypto companies that have been making Trump money in recent years.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So, how much money is being made here?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, initially, when Trump coin was introduced, it accounted for almost 89% of his total net worth within that first weekend.
--:-- Noel King: That's crazy.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Yeah. It's since crashed, as these meme coins tend to do. But there was such a massive boom right after that introduction that I think it was tens of billions of dollars that were basically instantly printed into life.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's a lot of money.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Yeah. And it's not just Trump coin. There's a whole ecosystem of Trump-affiliated crypto companies that are making money.
--:-- Noel King: And how does that go for him? How does he ramp it up? And who's doing it? Is it Trump ramping it up or is it Eric and Don Jr.?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, that's an interesting question because so much of the value of these companies, and it's not just World Liberty Financial, it's sort of the Trump meme coin. There's a whole, there's American Bitcoin, which is a Bitcoin mining firm. That's a more recent venture.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So, are there specific instances in which he's used the pulpit of the presidency to promote his meme coin or his crypto interests?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Oh, constantly. He's constantly posting on Truth Social, like, if not directly by my coin, I don't think he'd be so silly as to say my coin because that makes the link even more explicit than it already is.
--:-- Noel King: But he's constantly posting about, you know, promotional events tied to the coin.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: There's a Trump coin gala that I think has generated over a hundred million dollars in terms of like extra people or people have spent over a hundred million dollars trying to get entry to the gala.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's a lot of money.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Yeah. And it's not just the gala. He's also been promoting his NFTs, which are basically like digital collectibles tied to the Trump brand name.
--:-- Noel King: And how has Trump re-entering office complicated his crypto side hustle?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, there's a huge amount of like security risk that comes with it, right? I mean, specifically from Trump, the meme coin, the fact that crypto is anonymous basically means that anyone can invest.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And that's a problem because...
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Because it's a shortcut around campaign finance laws. I mean, when you're buying into something that directly enriches the president, because Trump coin is so much of Trump's net worth, you're kind of getting his ear.
--:-- Noel King: And who's watching the hen house, if anyone?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, I think to understand that question, you have to sort of go back and look how crypto has been regulated over the past sort of throughout the Biden presidency.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And what did we learn from that?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, Biden had appointed Gary Gensler as the head of the SEC, and he was largely seen as a pretty, pretty kind of lefty, pretty aggressive regulator, especially when it came to crypto.
--:-- Noel King: And what happened when Trump took office?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, as soon as he's inaugurated, basically he rolls back a huge amount of the investigations that were kicked off by Biden's SEC, Gensler's SEC, Lena Khan's FTC.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And what does that mean for crypto?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: It means that it's a total free-for-all. I mean, there are still regulations that the rules really haven't changed that much. It's just how they're enforced. And they're being enforced a lot less harshly than they were during the Biden administration.
--:-- Noel King: And what does that mean for the president's crypto side hustle?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, it means that he can basically do whatever he wants, right? I mean, he's got a huge amount of power and influence, and he's using it to enrich himself.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And that's a problem because...
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Because it's a conflict of interest, right? I mean, the president is supposed to be working for the American people, not enriching himself.
--:-- Noel King: And what's the bigger picture here?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, I think it's a sign of a much larger problem, which is the corrupting influence of power. I mean, when you've got a president who's using his power to enrich himself, it's a sign that the system is broken.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And what can we do about it?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, I think we need to start by holding the president accountable. I mean, we need to demand that he disclose his financial interests and that he stop using his power to enrich himself.
--:-- Noel King: And what's the takeaway from all of this?
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Well, I think it's that the president's crypto side hustle is just a symptom of a much larger problem. I mean, it's a sign of a corrupt system that's broken and needs to be fixed.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Will, thanks for joining us on the show.
--:-- Will Gottsagen: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening.
--:-- Noel King: And thanks for supporting Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: If you want to support the show, you can become a Vox Member at vox.com/members.
--:-- Noel King: And if you want to learn more about the topics we discussed today, you can check out our show notes at vox.com/today-explained-podcast.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And if you have any questions or comments, you can email us at
[email protected].
--:-- Noel King: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Bye for now.
