Crypto is the Trump family’s new business. Ethics watchdogs have concerns.
The former president’s eldest sons are gearing up to launch a new cryptocurrency venture.
Former President Donald Trump laid out an array of pro-crypto policies at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in July. He first revealed his pro-crypto leanings at a Mar-a-Lago event in May.
Former President Donald Trump’s promise to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and implement policies that favor the industry may have a new beneficiary: his own family.
Trump’s eldest sons are preparing to launch a new cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial, which is already getting a big boost on social media 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 promised to enact a series of pro-crypto policies in an effort to win votes — and campaign cash — from digital asset enthusiasts in recent months. Now, he’s incorporating the overtures into his pitch for his sons’ next startup.
While details of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s crypto venture have yet to be announced, it could benefit from a second approach by the Trump administration to support the industry.
“Promising policies that are favorable to cryptocurrencies and having your family engage in the same business is, I think, conflict of interest 101,” said Ishan Mehta, director of media and democracy at Common Cause, a nonprofit that advocates for government transparency.
Crypto is the latest ethical concern to arise around the Trump family’s businesses, which have faced intense scrutiny during his first administration after he chose not to divest his stakes 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 social media service Truth Social.
It remains unclear what the Trump sons’ crypto business will look like. They've been teasing their launch plans for weeks, partly by positioning it as an alternative to using big banks.
The family’s cryptocurrency venture comes as Trump enters the final stretch of an election in which Democrats have sought to paint him as corrupt, with Vice President Kamala Harris comparing him to fraudsters she targeted as a prosecutor in California. For years, Trump has leveled similar accusations at Democrats, including claiming that President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, benefited from his father’s actions in government.
“From an optics standpoint, it’s terrible,” said Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics counsel 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 business is the latest way Trump has embraced the digital asset industry, which is pouring more than $160 million into the 2024 election as it seeks to help elect allies up and down the ballot. Trump has also marketed his own line of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which are digital images of the former president that fans can buy for $99. NFTs exist on the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency.
Trump promoted World Liberty on X this week with an audio recording of his speech at a cryptocurrency conference in July, where he outlined industry-friendly plans and pledged to end “the Biden-Harris administration’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies.”
He first revealed his pro-crypto leanings after previously deriding the digital currency at a Mar-a-Lago event in May with supporters who bought his cryptocurrency-related digital trading cards.
Trump’s sons took over their father’s company, the Trump Organization, after he became president in 2017, but he has remained the owner of the company. He vowed at the time that “no new deals” would be made while he was in office. It’s unclear whether the crypto startup would launch as part of the Trump Organization or as a separate entity.
Regardless, ethics experts and watchdogs say the cryptocurrency industry could create the appearance of a conflict of interest if Trump returns to the White House this fall.
“It presents a strong possibility of a conflict of interest,” said John P. Pelissero, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. “Doing anything to promote crypto so that it can benefit his sons’ future business is a problem.”
Trump’s NFT sales could also raise ethical concerns, said Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Trump’s promise to host a gala dinner for those who buy 75 digital cards “seems like the ability to pay for direct access in a way that wouldn’t be publicly disclosed,” Libowitz said. Campaigns frequently hold fundraising dinners, but political contributions are flagged by the Federal Election Commission, he noted.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the ethics watchdogs “are run by Democratic donors and supporters 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 government to benefit his family business in a variety of ways, including visiting properties he owns with a security 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 interests with policy changes he is poised to enact.
“Prior conflicts and illegalities have taken advantage of pre-existing 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 loopholes while his family simultaneously designs a business venture to exploit them.”
