The Growing Scandal of $Trump
About this episode
Zeke Faux walks Klein through Donald Trump's transformation from crypto skeptic to the industry's biggest political beneficiary — and what the family has extracted along the way. They trace the NFT drops, crypto lobbying and campaign donations, Trump's headline appearance at the 2024 Bitcoin conference, and the launch of the $TRUMP memecoin with its pay-for-access dinner auction. Faux details World Liberty Financial and its USD1 stablecoin, the entanglements with Binance and Changpeng Zhao amid pardon speculation, foreign money flowing through crypto channels, and the administration's parallel push to deregulate the industry. He estimates the Trump family has made at least $700 million from crypto ventures. The episode's throughline: an unprecedented merger of presidential power, speculative finance, and conflicts of interest — the growing scandal of the title.