Experts alarmed by Trumps’ crypto meme coins: ‘America voted for corruption’
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President and first lady’s business ventures show ‘shameful conflicts of interest’, says ex-government ethics official. Donald Trump was accused of corruption as he returned to the White House days after launching a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency meme coin. Former government ethics officials and presidential experts said the venture amounted to a “shameful” conflict of interest.
The president and his wife, Melania, each announced their own respective coins ahead of his inauguration. Both were valued at billions of dollars as Trump took the oath of office on Monday. “There are shameful and major conflicts of interest with respect to his family business benefiting from his cryptocurrency policies,” said James Thurber, the founder and former director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.
Trump “does not seem to worry about the public interest with respect to cryptocurrency”, added Thurber. “He seems to be driven by profit and wanting to be a major part of the billionaire class in the US.”. “America voted for corruption, and Trump is wasting no time delivering it,” said Walter Shaub, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics, who served under former presidents Barack Obama and Trump. “What was once a government ethics program, made partly of laws and partly of norms, is a smoldering crater.” The White House was approached for comment.
Trump has pledged to transform the US into the crypto capital of the world, ending a crackdown pursued by officials under Joe Biden and taking an altogether looser approach to regulation of digital currencies. Leading cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have surged in value since his election victory last November.
