With just three days remaining before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump found time to launch one last post-election grift: Without explanation or defense, the Republican and his family started selling a cryptocurrency token. (Two days later, first lady Melania Trump apparently got in on the game, launching a “coin” of her own.)
While the new president’s many merchandising opportunities have been difficult to keep up with, this latest endeavor was arguably the most outrageous — in part because of the rather obvious conflict of interest related to the Securities and Exchange Commission and in part because of the brazenness of Trump’s profiteering.
The New York Times spoke to the Campaign Legal Center’s Adav Noti who said, “It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.”
What’s to stop a foreign government, eager to bribe the American president, from quietly dumping money into Trump’s new crypto project, effectively making direct payments to Trump without public disclosure? Nothing.
On his first full day of his second term in the White House, the Republican finally addressed the issue publicly. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Trump commented on his meme coin for the first time Tuesday afternoon when asked by a reporter whether he plans to continue selling products that benefit him personally. ‘Well I don’t know if it benefited. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know much about it other than I launched it,’ he said. ‘I heard it was very successful. I haven’t checked it. Where is it today?’
Told that his venture has been extremely successful, generating billions of dollars, the president joked that to some, that’s not a lot of money.
Q: Do you intend to continue selling products that benefit you personally while you're president?Trump: I don't know if it benefitted… Where is it today?Q: You made a lot of money, sir.Trump: How much?Q: Several billion.Trump: That's peanuts for these guys *points to tech billionaires*
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2025-01-21T23:23:06.368Z
And while that response was ridiculous, let’s not brush past the specific wording of the underlying question. A reporter asked Trump, “Do you intend to continue selling products that benefit yourself personally while you’re president?”








