“Government Efficiency” is the current watchword, and President Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk to lead an advisory committee called the “Department of Government Efficiency.” The acronym DOGE was inspired by the playfully named cryptocurrency that Musk has long praised and profited from.
While the Musk-led DOGE project aims to make government more efficient (which may be a convenient euphemism for oligarchs who want to further lower taxes and eliminate regulations), meme coins like DOGE are designed to make governments more efficient. may be used to assist in further acts of corruption. efficiently.
On Friday night at Truth Social, President Trump announced a new digital token called $TRUMP.
On Friday night at Truth Social, President Trump announced a new digital token called $TRUMP. His account posted, “My new official Trump meme is here!” It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: Winning! ” On Thursday, President Trump said his administration would consider creating a “national digital asset stockpile,” but the announcement stopped short of creating a stockpile that crypto advocates had wanted Trump to announce. The price of Trump meme coins quickly skyrocketed. Now at $75, 650% more than Friday’s launch price. On Sunday night, John Christian, editor-in-chief of Futurism magazine, claimed that “Mr. Trump appears to have amassed far more wealth in the past 24 hours than he has in his entire life.” After the $MELANIA coin was introduced, the price started to fall on Sunday afternoon. As of Thursday afternoon, $TRUMP price was hovering around $36.
There is substantial evidence to suggest that the Trump family benefited from foreign companies buying up blocks of Trump-owned hotel rooms during the first Trump administration. There’s a damning story about how the Secret Service was collecting golf cart fees to protect Trump during the hundreds of rounds he chose to play at Trump-owned golf courses. Additionally, the Trump family appears to have received the trademark in China around the time President Trump softened his stance on Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. In October 2019, Mick Mulvaney, then acting White House chief of staff, announced the 46th G7 Summit as follows: Speaking at a news conference at Trump’s hotel in Miami, he insisted that was fine, saying that Trump “has been pretty clear since he’s been here that he’s not profiting from being here. ” he said. He “wouldn’t make a profit here.” A lawsuit filed against President Trump alleging he violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause was dismissed as an issue after President Joe Biden took office.
In the era of Trump 1.0, there was constant smoke suggesting that the flames of corruption were raging.
In the era of Trump 1.0, there was constant smoke suggesting that the flames of corruption were raging. But even an alarming summary of facts released by Citizens for Responsibility, Washington’s tireless corruption watchdog group, does not preclude allegations that the Trump family made life-altering profits during his first term. It didn’t work out. But it’s different, and alarming, from his life so far, when he amassed more money than Mr. Trump in 24 hours.
The way Trump made money in his first administration involved spending. Golf carts are not free and require maintenance and storage. Running a hotel is a serious business with real costs.
Ciphers are not real in any meaningful sense. The ongoing costs associated with unleashing code into space are… negligible.
If Trump wanted to make more money this time, he could hardly have come across a better plan than cryptocurrencies. Why should people care about Trump marketing his coin? Several reasons come to mind. First, Trump’s multibillion-dollar wealth tied up in cryptocurrencies will clearly influence how his administration approaches crypto market regulation. Will we fight for the public interest in regulating ransomware, fentanyl, and cryptocurrencies that are important mechanisms for financing terrorism? Could doing so threaten the lucrative digital asset industry, where a huge share is controlled by a small elite?
Second, crypto markets are often thought to be subject to manipulation by “whales”, i.e. large investors. It is extremely worrying that Mr. Trump’s assets are susceptible to manipulation. Consider a whale that might step in to buy at strategic moments and manipulate the value of Trumpcoin to buy influence with the president.
It is undesirable for the president to focus on fluctuations in the value of meme coins.
As NBC News reported, “all owners’ wallets are…visible on the blockchain,” so Trump will understand who came forward on his behalf. But it’s hard to imagine criminal charges (unlike, say, if you gave Trump gold bars). All they have to do is claim that they thought the asset was too attractively priced to part with. For example, could Chinese multinationals have a cause to try to curry favor with President Trump? The TikTok story suggests it’s possible America would be better off if Trump’s wealth was invested in solid mutual funds, boring, traditional wealth management tools. It is undesirable for the president to focus on fluctuations in the value of meme coins.
So for those who care about the public interest, Trump’s emergence as a crypto billionaire has much to worry about. And we need to be careful.
