Trump sees ‘biggest financial success’ after earning $6 billion in new crypto venture. Critics blast it as unethical

“Donald Trump ran for office again to avoid jail and to get rich off the presidency. He’s managed the first part, and now he’s cashing in on the second,” said Shaniqua McClendon, vice president of political strategy at Crooked Media.

President Donald Trump‘s crypto fortune reached new heights after an investment in a new cryptocurrency venture earned his family business a whopping $6 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump amassed his “biggest financial success” on Monday, surpassing his decades-long real estate portfolio, which includes properties around the world. The launch of the Trump-owned cryptocurrency, WLFI, is the equivalent of an initial trade offering, allowing investors to buy and sell on the open market like a listed company’s shares.

The new venture is launched by World Liberty, which Trump and his three sons co-founded. While campaigning during the 2024 presidential election, Trump hailed that the new business venture would help make “America Great Again, this time with crypto.”

While initially skeptical and critical of crypto years ago, President Trump has embraced the industry—and its campaign donations—and touted himself as the “first crypto president,” which he called a “big honor.” Since entering office, Trump has rescinded regulations intended to protect consumers established by former President Joe Biden and created a digital assets working group aimed at making America the “crypto capital of the world.” 

In July, Trump signed the landmark GENIUS Act, the nation’s first law establishing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. Some Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters opposed the legislation due to a lack of guardrails to prevent corruption by elected officials–namely, President Trump and his family, who have already amassed at least $620 million in the sale of the president’s $TRUMP stablecoin. 

Congresswoman Waters said the now-crypto law “legitimizes Trump actively building the most corrupt self-dealing crypto environment this country has ever seen.”

Critics of Trump’s latest cryptocurrency venture say a sitting president cashing in on billions from a nascent industry while also overseeing its regulation is blatantly unethical.

“We knew that Trump had an interest in crypto because he wanted to make money from crypto. I don’t think the president understands crypto, how it works, or anything like that. I think that they saw an avenue and a partnership, and they’ve exploited it for their own gains,” Yemisi Egbewole, former chief of staff to the White House Office of the Press Secretary under the Biden administration, told theGrio.

Egbewole noted that the Trump family also made a fortune during his first term. At the time, his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, served as senior advisors while making hundreds of millions of dollars in businesses they did not fully divest from.

“They monetized those relationships domestically and overseas, especially in the Middle East, and now they’re down in Florida minding their own business because they profited off of that,” said Egbewole. The former White House official added, “There’s no surprise whatsoever that in the second term, what is hopefully his last go around, that [Trump’s] making money off of it as well. Everybody should have seen this coming.”

Shaniqua McClendon, vice president of political strategy at Crooked Media, said of Trump’s latest wealth-making presidency, “Donald Trump ran for office again to avoid jail and to get rich off the presidency. He’s managed the first part, and now he’s cashing in on the second.” 

McClendon told theGrio, “This crypto scheme is a new avenue for bribery, without the scrutiny that comes with direct government corruption.” She added, “But if there’s one silver lining, it’s that Trump is a terrible businessman. Hopefully, this venture will collapse like so many of his others.”

Egbewole, now a political analyst since leaving the Biden White House, told theGrio that the “optics are so clear” as it relates to the Trump empire.

“It’s a family that profits from political power, and they do the exact kind of swamp politics that they claim they wanted to drain in the first administration,” she explained.

As communities reel from the historic cuts to Medicare, SNAP, education and other services, Egbewole said, “It’s just a striking contrast, when you’re cutting investments in schools and infrastructure and public safety and pocketing $6 billion at the same time–it’s just self dealing.”

The former Biden official added, “Public service is supposed to be about sacrifice [and] about duty, and I think when families see services cut, and then they watch the Trumps cash out in crypto, it underscores who really gets to benefit in Trump’s America.”