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More Trump crypto corruption

It’s a perverse time to be a writer, let me tell you. Imagine being a reporter on the scene when The Great Chicago fire devastated the city in 1871. As the flames overtook everything the sense of exhilaration couldn’t be ignored, and my god the imagery, the details, the smells and sounds of such destruction. You could make that copy sing.

So it is with Les Folies Trump. After initially dismissing Bitcoin, it’s surprising Trump’s circus has pulled up outside the crypto tent. As usual, Trump can’t help but demand attention – either for his lies, his in-plain-sight corruption or his stupidity. Just this week, Trump’s son Eric spoke at a crypto event in Abu Dhabi where he declared his father was “going to be an unbelievable ally to the industry,” according to Bloomberg News.

That’s cool and all, as long as the president-elect and his family don’t stand to earn millions of dollars through their governmental power and influence. As we wrote last week, that exact corruption is already going on in public view, related to the Trump family crypto project World Liberty Financial. To recap, a Chines businessman Justin Sun – who founded the Tron ecosystem and is under active investigation by the SEC --  bought $30 million in World Liberty Financial digital tokens, the exact amount needed to trigger payments to the Trumps valued at $15 million.

At least World Liberty, with its WLFI coin, is solving a problem in crypto with innovative design and foresight, right? Well, if anyone knew what it was, maybe? I don’t know.

I like investing $30 million into vaporware as much as the next guy, but it’s a real tell when the crypto trade press throws shade. As CCN wrote yesterday, “The project is still unknown. WLFI said it focuses on stablecoin payments, borrowing and lending services, and liquidity pools, but no further details have been provided.”

Trump also owns a lot of Ether, has earned at least $7 million from an NFT project that depicts him in hero porn set ups and owns a large stake in the memecoin TROG.

Up next, he’s surrounding himself with advisers who have similar conflicts of interest. Bloomberg has the receipts. “Other members of Trump’s administration are deep in the digital asset ecosystem. Venture capitalist David Sacks, who’s set to serve as artificial intelligence and crypto czar, hasn’t said he’ll give up his role at his firm Craft Ventures,” the news agency reported. “That means Sacks, in theory, stands to run an investment firm with stakes in virtual asset projects like crypto index fund firm Bitwise, while also influencing the industry’s fate in his capacity advising the president.”

A part of the U.S. Constitution was written to specifically bar this sort of activity by office holders. The Emoluments Clause, Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8, written by men with direct experience with kings monarchies and dictators. In researching this I was surprised and then not surprised to see the only court decisions concerning the Emoluments Clause feature President Donald Trump as the defendant (they both got tossed for lack of standing where both the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, as well as members of Congress, were judged to be unfit to bring legal action against a president.)

As if crypto didn’t present enough opportunities for foreign governments, individuals and business interests to corrupt Trump, he also owns a publicly-traded social media company that received vital early funding from Chinese interests and was later rescued by Russian investors linked to Vladimir Putin. I wish I was making this up.

If that’s not your style, buy 100,000 Trump Bibles; heck you can get an autographed copy for $1,000.

It’s good to know the courts were tested about Trump’s first kleptomaniacal run through, yet the decisions are hard to understand. Congress has the power of oversight of the other two branches of government; how is that not enough cause to allow a Senator to accuse the president of violating the Emoluments Clause? Those cases should be tested in a higher court.

The graft has already begun, and Trump isn’t even in office yet. We know what’s to come, and it’s not okay to let this continue. I hope the courage to doggedly fight Trump’s self-enrichment as president is there when it’s needed. Holding the highest office in the land should be an honor, not a way to line your pockets. – Matthew Leising, editor in chief, Decential Media

Have you read the definitive history of Ethereum? No? Well then get your copy of Out of the Ether while you can.