Trump’s eldest sons are gearing up to launch a new cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial, which is already receiving a big social media boost from their father. Government ethics watchdogs say the project could create a conflict of interest if Trump returns to the White House next year.
Trump has vowed to enact an array of pro-crypto policies in a bid to win votes — and campaign cash — from digital asset enthusiasts in recent months. Now, he’s weaving the overtures into his pitch for his sons’ forthcoming startup.
While the details of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s crypto endeavor haven’t yet been announced, it could stand to benefit from a second Trump administration’s approach to support the industry.
“To promise crypto-friendly policies and have your family engage in the same business is, I think, conflict of interest 101,” said Ishan Mehta, director for media and democracy at Common Cause, a nonprofit that advocates for government transparency.
Crypto is the latest ethics concern to arise around the Trump family’s businesses, which drew intense scrutiny during his first administration after he opted not to divest his holdings in them. In addition to crypto, Trump is also facing new questions about what he would do with his stake in the parent company of the social media service Truth Social.
It remains unclear what the Trump sons’ crypto venture will look like. They have been teasing their plans to launch it for weeks, in part by positioning it as an alternative to the use of big banks.
Trump promoted World Liberty on X this week with audio from his speech at a crypto conference in July, where he laid out industry-friendly plans and vowed to end “the Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto.”
He first revealed his pro-crypto leanings — after previously deriding digital currency — at a Mar-a-Lago event in May with supporters who bought his crypto-linked digital trading cards.
Trump’s sons took over control of their father’s business, the Trump Organization, after he became president in 2017, but he retained ownership of the company. He vowed at the time that “no new deals” would be done during his time in office. It is unclear whether the crypto startup would be launched as part of the Trump Organization or as a separate entity.
Either way, ethics experts and watchdogs say the crypto business could create the appearance of a conflict of interest if Trump wins back the White House this fall.
“This does present a strong possibility of a conflict of interest,” said John P. Pelissero, the director of government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. “Doing anything to promote crypto so it might benefit his sons’ future business is a problem.”
The family crypto venture comes as Trump enters the home stretch of an election in which Democrats have sought to paint him as corrupt, with Vice President Kamala Harris comparing him to fraudsters whom she targeted as a prosecutor in California. Trump has for years lobbed similar accusations at Democrats, including by saying that President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has profited from his father’s actions in government.
From an “optics perspective, it’s terrible,” said Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush and later ran for Congress as a Democrat. But he said it wouldn’t violate any ethics laws.
The family venture is the latest way Trump has embraced the digital asset industry, which is pouring more than $160 million into the 2024 elections as it seeks to help elect allies up and down the ballot. Trump has also marketed his own line of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which are digital images of the former president that fans can purchase for $99. NFTs exist on blockchain technology that underlies cryptocurrency.
Trump’s NFT sales could also raise ethics concerns, said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Trump’s promise to host a gala dinner for those who buy 75 digital cards “seems to be the ability to pay for direct access in a way that would not be publicly disclosed,” Libowitz said. Campaigns frequently host fundraising dinners, but political contributions are reported through the Federal Election Commission, he noted.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that ethics watchdog groups “are led by Democrat donors and partisans who clearly suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
World Liberty Financial and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
Ethics watchdogs accused Trump during his first administration of using the government to benefit his family business in a range of ways, including his visits to properties he owns along with a protective detail and, at times, other officials. CREW identified more than 3,700 conflicts of interest during Trump’s first term.
But critics said the crypto project differs because it could align his family’s financial interest with policy changes that he would be poised to enact.
“The prior conflicts and illegalities took advantage of preexisting loopholes,” said Norman Eisen, an ethics lawyer who served in the Obama White House and later helped build the first impeachment case against Trump. “Here, Trump appears to be promising to create the loopholes while his family is simultaneously designing a business venture to exploit them.”
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POLITICO
