Unheard of. Three days before his nomination, Donald Trump is launching a new cryptocurrency called $ Trump. “It is time to celebrate everything we represent: victory!” He proclaims on X. This “Same corner”, These digital currencies based on a viral image on the web (in this case that of the president), has no intrinsic value and its price fluctuates according to the craze generated via social networks and the media. It is therefore subject to enormous volatility and very speculative. The Trump currency quickly climbed to 75 dollars, an increase of 760 % compared to the starting price, promoting all the tokens at 74 billion. A fortune, at least on paper, for the president and his partners who hold 80 % of the stock.
“It seems that Trump has accumulated more wealth in the last twenty-four hours than throughout his life,” Jon Christian summed up on the Futurism site. Since then, the token has lost three -quarters of its value, especially after launch three days later by Melania, his wife, on his own cryptocurrency. The valuation of the entire Trump corner Today reached $ 17 billion, much more than that of his wife’s motto (1.2 billion). The couple also touched, according to an investigation by New York Times, Nearly $ 100 million in transaction costs.
A Trump derivative product cascade
During his first mandate, Donald Trump openly exploited his position in the White House to get rich, in defiance of all the rules. Eight years later, “the efforts to monetize your presidency are much larger and much more bold,” said Richard Painter, former ethical issues in the George W. Bush administration. Everything is good to earn money. The electoral campaign may be finished, it continues to launch a multitude of heterogeneous derivative products which bring it millions.
In his online store, there is a tricolor sports bra, a pickleball racket (tennis variant), a cold meats, a “bling pocket” encrusted with crystals for 550 dollars … from its election In November, some 168 new articles were sold according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an organization of fight against public corruption. The billionaire promotes it every day by bombing his supporters of email. For Valentine’s Day, for example, he proposed, for 75 dollars, a photo of him dedicated and a mug for 40 dollars with the slogan: “I ♥ ️ Wake up knowing that Trump is again my president”. He took advantage of his success in the elections to inflate the membership rate at his Mar-A-Lago golf club: he now amounts to $ 1 million against 200,000 in 2017.
Above all, he can boast of having benefited from the generosity of large American bosses ready to do anything to wake him up. According to the Wall Street Journalsince his election, they have given some $ 80 million to the presidential couple. Melania, to subscribers absent in 2017, seems to have decided to make the most of the return of her husband in power. Just before the ballot, she published a book of Memoirs, was paid $ 237,000 for a speech before a conservative association during the campaign and asked for 250,000 dollars for an interview with CNN which refused.
After her husband’s victory, she set out to sell a documentary project on her arrival at the White House. Paramount and Disney studios proposed $ 4 and $ 14 million respectively for the purchase of rights. But in December, following a dinner in Mar-A-Lago with Jeff Bezos, Amazon announced that he was going to pay $ 40 million, an absolute record. More than 70 % of the amount should return to Melania, promoted producer of the documentary. Apparently that is not enough for him. His impresario offers “sponsorships” tariffed $ 10 million to CEOs of multinationals: in exchange, their name will appear in the credits and they will be able to attend the film’s premiere.
Some Democrats denounce “bribes”
In recent months, Donald Trump has also collected a real financial windfall from media groups wishing to get into his good graces. Disney’s ABC channel, against which he had brought a defamation trial, agreed to pay $ 15 million in damages. Mark Zuckerberg spent 25 million to end the prosecution. The new occupant of the oval office accused him of censorship for having suspended his Facebook account, after the Capitole assault in 2021. It “looks like a bridge pot”, summed up the Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Even Elon Musk went there from his obole to stop legal action against Twitter, also continued for having banned him from the network in 2021. He has just paid $ 10 million to the Head of State. Much of these sums is supposed to finance the future presidential library.
Traditionally, the tenants of the White House, once elected, give in their assets or transfer them to a trust managed independently. When he arrived in 2017, Donald Trump organized a press conference with his tax lawyer in front of documents of documents. It was a question of showing that he was working hard to put his business in order to prevent being accused of corruption. But he is the first American leader to have refused to clearly separate from his financial interests: he was content to place his assets in a managed fund … by his children. That’s not all: during its first mandate, the CREW organization identified nearly 4,000 conflicts of interest. For example, the president has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the taxpayer by charging secret service, responsible for ensuring his safety, rooms in Mar-A-Lago and his golf clubs!
The head of the American executive is exempt from federal rules that limit this type of conflict. The Constitution, on the other hand, prohibits him from receiving “gifts” of foreign powers. What does it matter! Donald Trump continued to affect the income of his hotels attended by Qataris, Romanians, Chinese, in search of favors. He even thought of organizing a G7 summit in his golf club in Miami. He gave it up in front of the outcry.
Trump Organization without limit projects
Eight years later, the 47th president seems more than ever determined to inflate his bank account, taking advantage of a servile republican congress which leaves her hands free. The risks of conflict of interest has multiplied due to the considerable expansion of his empire in recent years. The Trump Organization promised, within the framework of its ethical plan, not to accept new contracts with foreign governments. The money spent in hotels by dignitaries from other countries will be donated to the Treasury. The group “is attached, not just to apply, but to largely exceed its legal and ethical obligations during the presidency of my father,” assured Eric Trump, in charge of the family business. However, it does not rule out the possibility of agreements with private foreign partners or the continuation of new projects in the United States. “Should I stop any expansion? I do not know what is the answer. I tried to do well in 2016 and I withdrew little recognition,” he said in an interview.
The Trump Organization is already in partnership with Liv Golf, the League created by Saudi Arabia, which organizes a tournament in April at the Doral club, Florida. She also signed all kinds of real estate projects in the Middle East, Vietnam, Serbia…. At the same time, Jared Kushner, the head of state son -in -law, founded an investment fund largely funded by the Saudis. Because the whole clan financially exploits the celebrity of the patriarch. Don Jr., the eldest son, is associated with a series of companies including a drone manufacturer, a venture capital firm … Eric, his brother, seeks to buy the hotel in Washington that he had sold in 2022, his Lara woman will host a program on Fox News…
More worrying, the family has invested in new sectors. The largest part of his fortune, at least on paper, is his 53 % in Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, its social network. After its IPO last year, the action took off spectacularly before falling. Truth Media lost 400 million in 2024, its number of users remains thin … which does not prevent it curiously from being valued at $ 6.2 billion.
In recent months, the Trump, including Barron, the Benjamin (18), focus on cryptocurrencies. In addition to the launch of a “Same corner” Before the nomination, they are involved in World Liberty Financial, another start-up, which raised $ 300 million to sell tokens. For his part, Trump Media announced that he was going to create Truthfi, a platform for investment products and financial services. As soon as he came to power, the American leader signed a decree aimed at softening the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.
A president subject to foreign influences?
Observers warn against obvious conflicts of interest but also the risks of manipulation and influence traffic. “Any foreign government can arrange a backstage to inflate the value of the token for the benefit [de Trump]”, Summarizes Puja Ohlhaver, a lawyer specialist in technology. Since the elections, the Chinese entrepreneur, Justin Sun, under an investigation by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, bought for 75 million World Liberty Financial tokens of which he is now an advisor.
“The system has worked so far because all the presidents have passed the function before their personal enrichment,” continues Richard Painter. He recognizes, however, that the laws, which are based on the good faith of the occupant of the White House, were not written for an individual who is not concerned with ethics, at the head of listed societies, evaluated at billions of Dollars. Donald Trump, barely in place, dismantled the control system. He dismissed about twenty general inspectors responsible for detecting corruption, as well as the directors of two federal agencies responsible for ethical issues. He also suspended the law which prohibits American companies from offering bribes to foreign governments to obtain contracts. These actions “will facilitate its current efforts and those of its administration to derive personal profit and avoid accountable. We cannot let it go,” reacted on X Noah Bookbinder, president of Crew.
But there is hardly any possible parade. In the minority, Democrats cannot diligent in conference investigations as in 2017. The Supreme Court granted the president a vast immunity in the exercise of his functions. And the proceedings brought during his first mandate for having received payments from foreign countries dragged, before being abandoned when he left in 2020. When he was asked recently if he intended to continue selling his “Same corners”Donald Trump replied: “I don’t know much about it except that I launched them. I was told it worked very well.”
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