Thoughts tagged "Trump administration"

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Mapping Trump’s crypto empire on Last Week Tonight

My newest Citation Needed project made an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver! It’s a work in progress, but you can see the new interactive version of my map of the Trump family’s crypto ventures at map.citationneeded.news.

John Oliver speaking on Last Week Tonight, gesturing to an overlay of my web of the Trump family’s crypto businesses. The subtitles say “keeping track of them have wound up making diagrams like this”.

The map contains hundreds of business entities and links to the Trump family (with more being added!), augmented with data from the president’s most recent financial filings to estimate how much money is flowing in. It will be queryable by other researchers and journalists.

Click any node or connection in the Trump crypto empire map to open its panel and view explanatory annotations and citations. Toggle the income overlay to see financial-disclosure figures from the most recent filings. Search for entities, or filter by category.

A screenshot of the map, with a side panel open showing Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Side panel contents: Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Intermediary Entity When Walter Shaub, then Director of the Office of Government Ethics, called on President Trump to divest from the Trump Organization during his first term, Trump instead transferred his operating businesses to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Many had urged him to use a blind trust. Critics argued the DJT Revocable Trust fell far short of that standard: Trump remained the sole beneficiary, his son controlled the assets, and Trump could revoke the arrangement at any time. Shaub later commented that the arrangement was “meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective” and that “setting up a trust to hold his operating businesses adds nothing to the equation. This is not a blind trust—it’s not even close.” Established 2014 Sources ↗ Stenglein, Christine, "OGE Director warns Trump’s business plan insufficient", The Brookings Institution, January 11, 2017 ↗ Craig, Susanne, and Eric Lipton, "Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied to His Empire", The New York Times, February 3, 2017 ↗ Kravitz, Derek, and Al Shaw, "Trump Lawyer Confirms President Can Pull Money From His Businesses Whenever He Wants", ProPublica, April 4, 2017 ←controlled by Donald Trump Jr. According to a 2024 regulatory filing, Donald Trump Jr. "is the sole trustee and has sole voting and

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The White House says Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick properly divested from Cantor Fitzgerald by transferring leadership to his sons.

Anyway GOP officials called Lutnick about a Cantor-funded PAC planning to spend $1.75M on Ken Paxton and the PAC reversed course, but that’s probably just how independent companies behave when the former owner gets a phone call.

“Scoop: GOP called Howard Lutnick to reverse crypto PAC's Texas move”.
Hans Nichols and Alex Isenstadt in Axios.
Senior Republican officials called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday after a new crypto super PAC seeded by his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, indicated in a FEC filing that it planned to spend $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton in Texas, Axios has learned.

Today the SEC filed a proposed final judgment to settle their lawsuit against Justin Sun and his businesses for $10 million and no admission of wrongdoing.

Sun has spent between $112 million and $233 million on contributions to Trump-linked crypto firms.

Entity: Justin Sun and Tron // Benefit to entity: SEC enforcement case settled for $10 million fine with no admission of wrongdoing, Criminal investigation likely ended, Justin Sun added to World Liberty Financial advisory board, Tron to go public in the US in a $100 million deal brokered via Dominari Securities (where Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are board members) // Benefit to Trump and family: $100 million to purchase $TRUMP memecoins (announced but unconfirmed), $75 million to purchase $WLFI tokens from the Trump family's World Liberty Financial, $37.7 million to purchase $TRUMP memecoins (via HTX), $20 million to purchase shares of the Trump-linked Alt5 Sigma and more $WLFI (announced but unconfirmed), Listed USD1 for trading on HTX

In January, House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins expressing concern over the SEC's "retrenchment from crypto enforcement", citing the Sun case and urging Atkins to hold him accountable.

The SEC Can Still Act to Hold Justin Sun Accountable One case offers the SEC an opportunity to demonstrate to Americans that the SEC still has their back. In February 2025, as part of its efforts to shut down cases holding crypto fraudsters accountable, the SEC asked the court to stay its enforcement action against Justin Sun, founder of the Tron Foundation, SEC v. Sun, et al., Case No. 1:23-cv-02433-ER (S.D.N.Y.). Unlike the other cases detailed above, this case has not yet been dismissed. The SEC’s request to stay the Sun litigation, and subsequent efforts to settle the matter, may have been unduly influenced by Sun’s relationship with the Trump family, including his significant financial contributions to their businesses.19 So that investors harmed by Sun‘s fraudulent activities may be made whole, I ask the to SEC revisit its request to stay its litigation against Sun and renew that action. 
The SEC’s failure to hold Sun accountable suggests that it may be part of a pay-to-play scheme orchestrated by Sun. Specifically, as recently as September 5, 2025, Sun made statements on X suggesting he intended to purchase an additional $10 million worth of $WLFI tokens from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a Trump family business, in an apparent effort to persuade WLF that he is committed to the project, that they should unlock his 545 million $WLFI tokens, and to otherwise curry favor with the Trump family. We are also concerned that a settlement favorable to Sun could undermine U.S. securities regulation and threaten the integrity of U.S. markets by a person and entities located in the People’s Republic of China. On the heels of President Trump’s pardon of Binance founder, CZ, the SEC must continue to pursue material securities fraud matters, including those involving crypto, to protect American retail investors. We ask that the SEC request that the Court lift the stay and that the SEC litigate the case consistent with the facts alleged in its complaint. Alternatively, should the SEC determine that a settlement would be the best outcome for harmed investors, we ask that such a settlement reflect the strength of the SEC’s case and be consistent with the relief it would have obtained had it litigated the case to a favorable judgment. The SEC’s Strong Case Against Justin Sun The SEC’s complaint, filed on March 22, 2023, alleged unlawful conduct spanning several years. The SEC alleged that Sun “engineered the offer and sale of two crypto asset securities called ‘TRX’ and ‘BTT’” to the investing public starting in 2017, but never filed a registration statement for these offerings.20 Sun’s conduct, however, extended beyond registration violations to securities fraud. As the SEC detailed in its complaint, “Sun directed the manipulative wash trading of TRX to create the artificial appearance of legitimate investor interest and keep TRX’s price afloat.”21 Under Sun’s direction, the SEC alleged, employees conducted “hundreds of thousands of TRX wash trades” between accounts that Sun ultimately controlled, with no change in beneficial ownership of the tokens and “no legitimate economic purpose.”22 The SEC claimed that these manipulative trading activities generated a false impression of a liquid market, allowing Sun to sell approximately $31 million worth of tokens to unsuspecting investors.23 The SEC’s complaint also alleged that the scheme was made worse by Sun’s orchestration of an unlawful celebrity promotion campaign.24 The SEC detailed allegations that Sun paid multiple celebrities (who had millions of online followers) to promote TRX and BTT on social media “without disclosing that they had been paid.”25 According to the SEC’s complaint, Sun publicly lied about these arrangements, falsely claiming on Twitter in February 2021 that, “If any celebrities are paid to promote TRON, we require them to disclose,” even as “Sun himself arranged the payments to celebrities and knew those payments were not disclosed.”26 

Chair Atkins has suggested that the crypto cases his agency has dropped were merely over "registration issues" that were "red herrings" from the Biden admin. But the complaint against Sun also alleged serious fraud.

The Commission also alleges that Sun violated the antifraud and market manipulation provisions of the federal securities laws by orchestrating a scheme to artificially inflate the apparent trading volume of TRX in the secondary market. From at least April 2018 through February 2019, Sun allegedly directed his employees to engage in more than 600,000 wash trades of TRX between two crypto asset trading platform accounts he controlled, with between 4.5 million and 7.4 million TRX wash traded daily. This scheme required a significant supply of TRX, which Sun allegedly provided. As alleged, Sun also sold TRX into the secondary market, generating proceeds of $31 million from illegal, unregistered offers and sales of the token. “This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “As alleged, Sun and his companies not only targeted U.S. investors in their unregistered offers and sales, generating millions in illegal proceeds at the expense of investors, but they also coordinated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create the misleading appearance of active trading in TRX. Sun further induced investors to purchase TRX and BTT by orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweets.”

In July, shortly after Sun announced his plan to purchase another $100 million of the $TRUMP memecoin, the Sun-involved and -themed SUNDOG memecoin posted a meme showing its corgi mascot holding puppet strings attached to the White House.

Tweet screenshot: SunDog @SUNDOG_TRX You never truly know who’s pulling the strings… 🤫 [AI-generated image of a corgi dog with a collar depicting the Tron logo, paws raised above the White House, with strings attached to the paws like a marionette] 2:30 AM Jul 24, 2025

Even when there’s no accountability, the record matters. Credit to the Wikipedia editors maintaining this page.

Deaths, detentions and deportations of American citizens in the second Trump administration

Also:

House Oversight Democrats have published a Web3 is Going Great-style “Trump Family Digital Grift” counter.

This goes with their recent staff report, “Professionalized Corruption: How Donald Trump is abusing power and accepting digital kickbacks from foreign and criminal interests to cash in on the presidency like never before”.

The report cites some of my writing on Trump’s USD1 stablecoin.

Trump Family Digital Grift Profits $2,255,399,364.28 Total Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth $8,712,974,364.28 Trump Family Digital Grift Profits from Foreign Interests $437,004,026.96 While Americans struggle to buy groceries and pay rent, Donald Trump is making his family richer through digital grift schemes— collecting profits through digital wallets and granting pardons to the highest bidders. While Trump and his family are using the White House to make billions, we are tracking every cent. As of January 2026, our Committee’s analysis shows that these schemes have contributed to an estimated $2.25 billion in realized profits for Trump from foreign payments, corrupt oligarchs, and others. This total rises to as much as $9.7 billion when the value of Trump’s digital assets is factored in, with as much as $436 million coming from foreign interests. President Trump should be serving the American people—not his own pockets.

If anyone was still pretending this isn’t just about excluding trans kids from public life, the Trump administration just opened a Title IX investigation into a Maine school district because a trans student is on a co-ed cheerleading squad.

“​Newport co-ed cheerleading team is at center of Trump transgender athlete crackdown​”.
Billy Kobin and Emily Duggan in The Portland Press Herald.
The U.S. Department of Education announced a slew of Title IX-related investigations this week that include 2 school districts in Maine.

The full CBS interview with Trump about the pardon of Binance's Changpeng Zhao is shocking. "Why did you pardon him?" "I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim ... They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That's my opinion. I was told about it."

NORAH O'DONNELL: Looked at this, the government at the time said that C.Z. had caused "significant harm to U.S. national security", essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay, are you ready? I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. And what I wanna do is see crypto, 'cause if we don't do it it's gonna go to China, it's gonna go to-- this is no different to me than AI. My sons are involved in crypto much more than I-- me. I-- I know very little about it, other than one thing. It's a huge industry. And if we're not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So I am behind it 100%. This man was, in my opinion, from what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence. But this man was treated really badly by the Biden administration. And he was given a jail term. He's highly respected. He's a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That's my opinion. I was told about it. I said, "Eh, it may look bad if I do it. I have to do the right thing." I don't know the man at all. I don't think I ever met him. Maybe I did. Or, you know, somebody shook my hand or something. But I don't think I ever met him. I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.

"I know nothing about it because I'm too busy." He talks about how his sons are in the crypto industry, and how his son and wife published bestselling books. "I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this."

NORAH O'DONNELL: The government had accused him of "significant harm to U.S. national security"-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That's the Biden government. NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Allowing U.S. terrorist groups to, you know, essentially move millions of dollars around. He pled guilty to anti-money laundering laws. That was in 2023. Then in 2025 his crypto exchange, Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And then you pardoned C.Z. How do you address the appearance of pay for play? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, here's the thing, I know nothing about it because I'm too busy doing the other-- NORAH O'DONNELL: But he got a pardon-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can only tell you that-- NORAH O'DONNELL: He got a pardon-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Norah, I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are, because it's probably a great industry, crypto. I think it's good. You know, they're running a business, they're not in government. And they're good-- my one son is a number one bestseller now. My wife just had a number one bestseller. I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this. I know nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by government. When you say the government, you're talking about the Biden government.

"[You're] not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?"

"I'd rather not have you ask the question."

NORAH O'DONNELL: So not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can't say, because-- I can't say-- I'm not concerned. I don't-- I'd rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, "Can I ask another question?" And I said, yeah. This is the question-- NORAH O'DONNELL: And you answered-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn't have to answer this question. I'm proud to answer the question. You know why? We've taken crypto-- NORAH O'DONNELL: But just generally speak-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. We're number one in crypto in the whole world. Other people wanna be. They're fighting like hell to be. But we're number one in crypto because I'm the president. Biden wanted to also, at the very end, you know, he totally switched his thing.
“Read the full transcript of Norah O'Donnell's interview with President Trump here.”
Norah O'Donnell in CBS News.