Latest / The Gospel Briefing / Trump's Crypto Billions, SCOTUS Term Ends & Birthright Citizenship — July 1, 2026
Transcript
- This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... the president made over a billion dollars in crypto. The Supreme Court hands down a mixed verdict on presidential power. And a quiet fight over who counts as an American is getting louder. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] We start with a number. One billion dollars. That's what President Trump reportedly earned from cryptocurrency ventures during his first year back in office. According to reporting from the BBC, the president's crypto income now far outpaces what he makes from real estate, from Trump-branded watches, from the sneakers, from all of it. Crypto is now the family's dominant business line. And it's happening while the administration sets federal crypto policy. Let me say the obvious thing. Christians disagree about President Trump. They disagree about crypto. They disagree about how much a sitting president should be earning from private ventures while in office. Those are real debates, and I'm not going to pretend they're settled. But here's what Scripture is not vague about. Money and power, sitting in the same set of hands, is one of the oldest tests in the Bible. And most people fail it. Proverbs 21:1 says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He will. That verse is a comfort and a warning at the same time. A comfort, because no president... of any party... is outside God's sovereign hand. A warning, because leaders answer to Him. First Timothy 6:9 puts it plainly. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin. That verse doesn't care which party you vote for. It's talking about a spiritual gravity that pulls on all of us. Presidents. Pastors. You and me. The question isn't whether you think this crypto story is a scandal or a smart business move. The question Scripture asks you and me is simpler. Where is your treasure? Because Jesus said... that's where your heart will be also. [TRANSITION] Story two. The Supreme Court just wrapped its term. And the headline is complicated. According to NPR's analysis, the court dealt President Trump some real losses this term. But they also handed him significantly expanded executive powers going forward. The president has celebrated the wins loudly and sought workarounds for the losses. Legal scholars across the spectrum are calling this a genuinely consequential term for the shape of the presidency itself. Here's the tension. In America, we have three branches for a reason. The framers were students of Scripture and students of history, and both taught them the same lesson. Human beings, given unchecked power, will abuse it. Every time. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? That verse is why the Founders wrote checks and balances into the Constitution. Not because they distrusted this president or that one. Because they distrusted every human heart, including their own. That's a deeply biblical instinct. So when courts rein in a president... any president... that's not a partisan event. That's the system working the way a fallen world requires it to work. And when courts expand executive power, the biblical Christian response isn't cheering or panicking. It's watchfulness. Because power in human hands is always... always... on borrowed time. Christ is the only King whose throne is safe in His own hands. [TRANSITION] Story three comes from Christianity Today, and it lands right where American politics meets American families. For months, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition has been fielding calls from anxious parents. Their question is simple. If the president succeeds in ending birthright citizenship, what happens to our kids? On day one of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order attempting to end automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to non-citizen parents. Courts have blocked parts of it. Litigation continues. The legal fight will likely reach the Supreme Court. And in the meantime, evangelical pastors in Latino communities are trying to shepherd families who are genuinely afraid. The lawyers at NaLEC put it this way. Under the Constitution, these children are citizens at birth. Now... immigration policy is a place where thoughtful Christians land in different spots. Scripture takes both the rule of law and the care of the stranger seriously. Romans 13 is real. Leviticus 19 is real. You cannot cut either one out of your Bible. But here's what shouldn't be up for debate among Christians. The fear a mother feels when she doesn't know if her child is safe... that fear is a pastoral matter. And how the church talks to and about immigrant families is a witness matter. James 1:27 says pure and undefiled religion is this. To visit orphans and widows in their affliction. The word "affliction" there means pressure. Distress. Whatever policy you support, if there are frightened families in your church this Sunday, the gospel has something to say to them. And it's not "figure it out yourself." [TRANSITION] Now to some quicker briefs. In Colorado, Democrats nominated a democratic socialist to challenge a Republican House incumbent, and Senator Michael Bennet ended his bid for governor. American politics keeps sorting itself into sharper ideological corners. Psalm 146 reminds us... put not your trust in princes. Even the ones you agree with. A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds most Americans are proud of their country but deeply worried about its direction. As we approach the country's two hundred fiftieth birthday next week, that's worth sitting with. Pride and worry, side by side. That's actually a pretty honest place for a Christian to live. We love our neighbors and our nation. And we know no nation is our home. The World Cup's knockout rounds are colliding with a dangerous heat wave across the eastern United States this week. Players and fans are being warned. If you're going to a match, hydrate, find shade, watch out for the elderly and the kids around you. Loving your neighbor sometimes just looks like handing someone a bottle of water. And Florida is investing state funds in swim lessons for children with autism, who are up to one hundred sixty times more likely to drown than other kids. A quiet, good policy. Proverbs 31:8 says... open your mouth for those who cannot speak. Sometimes that looks like a swim lesson. [TRANSITION] When something in your Bible reading doesn't make sense, where do you go? A search engine guesses. Generic AI makes things up. Bible Copilot is a Bible study app that answers your questions from Scripture itself. Open any passage, ask anything, the context, the original Hebrew or Greek, what the verse actually means, and it walks you through the answer, grounded in two thousand years of orthodox Christian teaching. Fifteen questions a day, free. Search Bible Copilot in the App Store. Our verse today is Psalm 146, verses three and four. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day his plans perish. A billion dollars. A Supreme Court term. A citizenship fight. All of it real. All of it temporary. Presidents come and go. Courts rise and fall. But the King whose kingdom does not end... is still on His throne this morning. Rest there. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you think a little more clearly, send it to one friend who needs the same. I'll see you tomorrow.