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Chart Shows How Trump 2.0 Is ‘Most Brazenly Self-Enriching’ Administration in US History

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Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A Donald Trump coin is pictured alongside Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies in this photo illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Buying Trump’s meme coin is like investing in “a pet rock, except you don’t even get a rock” out of the deal, said economist Steve Rattner.

Since returning to office a little more than a year ago, President Donald Trump has nearly tripled his net worth, driven in large part by investments in his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.

Appearing on MS NOW on Friday morning, economist Steve Rattner broke down how Trump’s net worth has exploded from $2.34 billion in 2024 to an estimated $6.5 billion in 2026.

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“So where did the money come from? He had $4 billion, he and his family, of profits,” Rattner said. “$3 billion of it came from crypto, and I will tell you, there are so many transactions here, so many structures, that made my head hurt trying to understand it.

In addition to the crypto ventures, Rattner pointed to Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner raising money from investors in the Middle East through his investment firm Affinity Partners; increased revenue that came from raising admission fees to his Mar-a-Lago resort; and money he’d obtained from lawsuits against assorted media companies.

Rattner then explained the finances of the Trump meme coin, which he described as investing in “a pet rock, except you don’t even get a rock” out of the deal.

“He sold them initially at $7, it went up to $45, not surprisingly it crashed,” Rattner said.

However, Rattner said that early investors in the cryptocurrency, whom he described as “whale wallets,” managed to profit handsomely from the venture by buying up large numbers of Trump coins and then selling them to retail investors, who were left holding the bag when the coin’s value fell precipitously shortly after its launch.

“Let me just emphasize, it’s not like [the retail investors] got anything,” he added. “All they got, in effect, was like a little note, a little email or something, saying, ‘Congratulations, you own 10 Trump meme coins.’ But there’s nothing they can do with it. They were buying nothing, they were buying air.”

The economist did note that Trump made $600 million in trading fees that investors paid to carry out transactions of the coin.

After his appearance on MS NOW, Rattner posted a photo on social media of a graph he made to document the rise in Trump’s wealth over the last two years.

“[Trump’s] administration,” Rattner commented, “is the most brazenly self-enriching in American history.”

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Continue ReadingChart Shows How Trump 2.0 Is ‘Most Brazenly Self-Enriching’ Administration in US History

Trump Ally Milei Threatened With Impeachment Over Crypto Stunt

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Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (C) attends Donald Trump’s inauguration as the next President of the United States in the rotunda of the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Shawn Thew – Pool/Getty Images)

“Look where you brought us with your madness! You turned Argentina into a casino where the croupier is the president himself,” one opposition politician said.

Argentina’s far-right libertarian President Javier Milei faces legal challenges and calls for impeachment after a cryptocurrency he touted on social media over the weekend rapidly rose and then tanked in value.

Milei first promoted the $LIBRA coin from his personal account on X Friday night, which then skyrocketed in value to $5 apiece, according to Reuters. Within hours, however, the coin’s value plummeted to under $1. Milei deleted his initial tweet five hours after he first posted it, The New York Times reported, writing in a new post that he was “not familiar with the details of the project.”

“We just witnessed one of the fastest and largest destructions of wealth in retail trading history,” noted The Kobeissi Letter, which tracks capital markets, in a social media post. “Argentina’s memecoin, $LIBRA, erased -$4.5 billion of retail capital in seven hours. Truly destructive.”

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In the first 40 minutes after Milei first tweeted boosting the coin, its value rose by more than 2,000%, CoinDesk reported. However, it then began to fall as early investors sold their shares, eventually plummeting 95% from a maximum value of $4.4 billion.

Crypto experts warned the $LIBRA coin, which was developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, could be a “rug pull,” a scam in which a crypto developer launches and inflates a coin only to pull out and leave investors hanging.

“Milei’s participation in the crime of crypto fraud is extremely serious,” the Lower House bloc of the Peronist Unión por la Patria, a center-left opposition group, wrote on social media Saturday. “It’s a scandal without precedent. Our bloc of national deputies has decided to move forward with presenting an impeachment request against the president of the nation.”

Opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro further called Milei’s actions a “scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale” and “requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president.”

On Sunday, Socialist Party lawmaker Esteban Paulón also called for impeachment proceedings.

“If as a president of a country you propose something for private benefit there is an obvious conflict of interest.”

On Monday, Argentina’s benchmark S&P Merval had fallen by 4%, according to Reuters. The incident sparked more than 100 legal complaints, which were assigned to Federal Judge Maria Servini on Monday.

One case was brought by a coalition of lawyers involved in the Right to the City Observatory think tank as well as economist and former Argentine Central Bank President Claudio Lozano. The group accused Milei of fraud, dereliction of duty, and criminal association, according to theBuenos Aires Herald.

An official statement from the president’s office on Saturday said that Milei had met twice with the developers of $LIBRA and had decided to promote the coin “as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who want to launch a project in Argentina to create jobs and obtain investments.”

“Not having been part of any instance of the development of the cryptocurrency, after the repercussions that the launch of the project had and to avoid any speculation and not give it further dissemination, he decided to delete the post,” the statement continued, adding that the president had asked the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate whether he or anyone else in the government engaged in “improper conduct.”

However, the lawyers challenged Milei’s account, according to the Buenos Aires Herald:

In their report, the lawyers dispute Milei’s subsequent claims that he was not aware of the project’s details. They highlight that the president made his post just three minutes after $LIBRA was launched, timing that indicates he knew it was coming before it was announced. They also argue that, as an economist, it is unlikely that he did not understand the details of the project he was sharing.

In a post addressed to Milei directly, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner heavily criticized the current president for painting himself as an expert yet claiming innocence of the scheme.

“Weren’t you the ‘best president in history’? Weren’t you the ‘genius of the economy’? From self-proclaimed ‘global leader’ to CRYPTO SCAMMER,” de Kirchner wrote.

“Look where you brought us with your madness! You turned Argentina into a casino where the croupier is the president himself,” she continued. “THAT IS YOUR MARKET FREEDOM… that of the casino. Your mask has fallen off.”

While experts say impeachment efforts are unlikely to succeed, the incident could harm Milei in the upcoming midterm elections.

“It is extremely serious if confirmed, especially in terms of a president’s powers to promote something private,” left-wing Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told Reuters. “If as a president of a country you propose something for private benefit there is an obvious conflict of interest.”

The scandal drew comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump, who also launched a meme coin shortly before taking office, the value of which also first rose and then fell dramatically. Milei has expressed support for Trump in the past, while Elon Musk has taken inspiration from Milei’s chainsaw-wielding approach to government for his ideologically-driven anti-government effort Department of Government Efficiency.

Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue ReadingTrump Ally Milei Threatened With Impeachment Over Crypto Stunt

Crypto Billionaire Trump Already ‘Cashing In On the Presidency’ With Meme Coin

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A smartphone displays a post from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Truth account announcing the $TRUMP meme coin on January 19, 2025. (Photo: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“We now have a president-elect who, the weekend before inauguration, is launching new businesses along with promises to deregulate… those sectors in a way to just blatantly profit off his own presidency.”

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump faced a flood of criticism throughout the weekend for launching a cryptocurrency token as the world prepared for his Monday inauguration and policies expected to benefit the industry that helped Republicans take control of the White House and Congress.

“It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office,” Campaign Legal Center executive director Adav Noti told The New York Times. “It is beyond unprecedented.”

Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also contrasted Trump’s move with behaviors of past presidents, telling Politico, “It is absolutely wild.”

“After decades of seeing presidents-elect spend the time leading up to inauguration separating themselves from their finances to show that they don’t have any conflicts of interest, we now have a president-elect who, the weekend before inauguration, is launching new businesses along with promises to deregulate… those sectors in a way to just blatantly profit off his own presidency,” said Libowitz.

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The president-elected announced the $TRUMP meme coin, hosted on the Solana blockchain, via his Truth social media platform and X—owned by Elon Musk, his ally and the richest person on the planet—on Friday, declaring that “it’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”

He linked to a website that explains “there are 200 million $TRUMP available on day one and will grow to a total of 1 billion $TRUMP over three years.” It also states that “Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP’ and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

Forbes reported that “the remaining 80% of tokens that have yet to be publicly released are owned by the Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, a company formed in Delaware on January 7, according to state filings, and both companies will receive an undisclosed amount of revenue derived from trading activity.”

The president-elect’s son Eric Trump, who helps run Trump Organization, told the Times that “this is just the beginning.”

“I am extremely proud of what we continue to accomplish in crypto,” he said in a statement. “$TRUMP is currently the hottest digital meme on Earth.”

In an article simply headlined, “Donald Trump, crypto billionaire,” Axios noted that by Sunday morning, “Trump’s crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough—with his other assets—to make him one of the world’s 25 richest people.”

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Responding to Axios‘ report, Wa’el Alzayat, who served as a Middle East policy expert at the U.S. Department of State for a decade, said that “when I was in government I couldn’t accept a lunch over $20. Now anyone can give our next president millions.”

Predicting that “this is going to end VERY badly for everyone except Donald Trump and his cronies,” journalist Jeff St. John said that “it is a scandal and an outrage.”

The meme coin announcement came as “the elite of the crypto world” gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first-ever Crypto Ball.

The president-elect did not attend the event, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the nominees for commerce and treasury secretary, Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, were there. Reporting on the gala, Reuters pointed out that the Trump “courted crypto campaign cash with promises to be a ‘crypto president,’ and is expected next week to issue executive orders aimed at reducing crypto regulatory roadblocks and promoting widespread adoption of digital assets.”

Trump is no stranger to ethics scandals. As Mother Jones detailed:

The meme coin is just the latest in a bizarre line of grifty, super-weird takes on “merch.” Last February, Trump showed off gold “Never Surrender High-Tops” for $399 at Sneaker Con, which had Fox News applauding his appeal to Black voters. In March, he began endorsing the $59.99 “God Bless the USA Bible,” which includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and handwritten lyrics to the chorus of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” (Trump’s inaugural committee has confirmed that he will not be using one of these Bibles to swear the presidential oath of office on Monday.) In August, Trump released a new round of his “baseball card” NFTs.

S.V. Dáte, a senior White House correspondent at HuffPost, highlighted Sunday that during the Republican’s first term, “Trump’s D.C. hotel was a convenient way for foreign and domestic lobbyists to put cash directly into his pocket.”

“This crypto thing is next level. Anyone on the planet can put money directly into his pocket. Huge,” Dáte added. “The efficiency here is a thing of beauty. With a hotel, you have all the costs of owning the property as well as paying cleaning staff, front desk staff, and so on. This selling of fake money is almost pure profit.”

The Trump Organization sold the D.C. hotel in 2022, but The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that his “real estate company is in talks to reclaim” the property.

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingCrypto Billionaire Trump Already ‘Cashing In On the Presidency’ With Meme Coin