WASHINGTON \u2014 One day after President Donald Trump disclosed he took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, he dismissed concerns that he is profiting from the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m profiting because the stock market is going up. Everybody is profiting. Thank you, President Trump,\u201d he told a reporter on the tarmac before leaving for North Dakota on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
One day after President Donald Trump disclosed he took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, he dismissed concerns that he is profiting from the presidency
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\u201cI\u2019m profiting because the stock market is going up. Everybody is profiting. Thank you, President Trump,\u201d he told a reporter on the tarmac before leaving for North Dakota on Wednesday
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Tuesday\u2019s disclosure revealed $526 million from the World Liberty Financial crypto venture the president co-founded with his sons Donald, Eric and Barron and other investors. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type \u201cmeme\u201d coins stamped with his face
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\u201cCertainly, the way he\u2019s going about it, which he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by,\u201d former Trump White House special counsel Ty Cobb told CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett on Tuesday<\/p>\n
The president said he \u201cmade a lot of money\u201d before taking office and replied \u201cI don\u2019t get involved\u201d when asked what message his vast crypto earnings send to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have funds that run the money,” he said.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s disclosure revealed $526 million from the World Liberty Financial crypto venture the president co-founded with his sons Donald, Eric and Barron and other investors. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type \u201cmeme\u201d coins stamped with his face.<\/p>\n
Both the “governance tokens” and meme coins have plunged in value since launching. CNN reported late Tuesday that while The Trump Organization has gained about $2 billion from crypto, investors lost almost the same amount of money.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s earnings have sounded alarms among his critics, including his former special counsel, Ty Cobb, who said he believes the president\u2019s involvement with various crypto ventures is illegal.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, the way he\u2019s going about it, which he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by,\u201d former Trump White House special counsel Ty Cobb told CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months,\u201d added Cobb, who also cited the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Trump and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, negotiated in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is somebody who every day is devoted to the accumulation of wealth and power,\u201d Cobb said of the president.<\/p>\n
Richard Painter,\u00a0a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, posted on X on Wednesday: “He (Trump)\u00a0must be a genius to make that much money investing in crypto, all while he’s working so hard as President. Or perhaps, just maybe, he’s using the presidency for private gain.”<\/p>\n
In a post Tuesday, Painter noted that in 2021 Trump said the cryptocurrency bitcoin “seems like a scam.”<\/p>\n
“President Trump’s latest financial disclosure exemplifies just how broken our ethics laws in this country are,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette,\u00a0interim vice president of policy and government affairs for the\u00a0Project On Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, said in a statement. “Presidents should not be able to profit from an industry they are ultimately tasked with regulating. Trump’s venture into crypto has opened up a huge avenue for foreign actors to essentially buy influence over the president. It is a massive conflict of interest that casts a shadow on the White House.”<\/p>\n
The Domestic Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits presidents from profiting from the office and specifically bars the president from receiving compensation other than a fixed salary. The Constitution does not specifically designate an agency or branch of government to enforce the clause, leaving enforcement primarily to Congress, with potential involvement from federal courts and executive branch agencies, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.<\/p>\n
Following the disclosure, multiple Democratic senators suggested efforts to rein in crypto and the president\u2019s ability to profit from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must stop the President and his family from continuing to profit off crypto,\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n