Trump Family’s Cryptocurrency Ventures Draw Scrutiny – PBS News Hour, Season 2025
Recent reporting has revealed significant financial ties between the Trump family and a growing number of cryptocurrency ventures, raising ethical questions about potential conflicts of interest and campaign finance regulations. PBS News Hour’s Liz Landers reports on the scale of these investments and the concerns they are generating.
The Trump Association is involved with World Liberty Financial, a company utilizing digital tokens. In early August, ALT5 Sigma, a Nasdaq-listed company, purchased $750 million worth of World Liberty’s digital tokens, WLFI. The Trump family company is positioned to receive up to 75 percent of revenue from sales of the WLFI token after expenses.
According to analyses, the Trump family and its partners have generated over $300 million in fees from the sale of various cryptocurrency coins, including “Trump” and “Melania” meme coins. however,these coins have experienced significant value declines; the “Trump” coin has fallen approximately 90 percent from its peak in January,while the “Melania” coin has dropped 99 percent.
Experts note the ease with which such tokens can be created. “creating a meme coin really doesn’t take much,” explained Zeke Faux. “You’re selling like a made-up token that doesn’t do anything for real money. So its pretty much pure profit.”
The ventures are attracting attention from international investors. Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire previously facing SEC charges for securities fraud, has invested over $75 million in World Liberty Financial.Notably, the SEC paused its case against Sun just weeks after these purchases.
david Yaffe-Bellany of The New York Times highlights a potential loophole in campaign finance laws. “With crypto, none of those rules exist,” he stated.”And so people who are based in foreign countries and are banned from donating to the political process in the U.S. have this new route for directing money toward the president.”
When questioned about the possibility of foreign governments using these investments to gain influence, a World Liberty Financial spokesperson stated the company is ”a private financial technology company and not in any way a political entity.”
The White House responded to concerns with a statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asserting that “The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest.” The statement further claimed the governance is “fulfilling the president’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans.”
Forbes estimates the president’s net worth has increased by $3 billion in the last year, with cryptocurrency identified as the primary source of this growth.
