Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Trump's crypto dealings and potential conflicts of interest

Transcript

Trump's crypto dealings and potential conflicts of interest · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Come back to Cenius News twenty four seven. We're looking
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: at documents that show President Trump made one point four
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: billion dollars from crypto ventures last year. That's even as
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: other investors lost money when the value of Trump Mean
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: coins plunged. Democratic lawmakers say this is a sign of corruption.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The White House insists there are no conflicts of interest.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I don't get involved in my personal We have funds
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: that run my money. Well, I've made a lot of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: money before I became president, and they invest my money
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and I don't talk to them. I don't even speak
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to them. So I have many people. I don't know
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: what they can close accounts or something you put your
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: money in. And that said, I don't talk to them.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: They're big institutions and they run it. But yeah, I've
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: had a great career in visors. I've had a great career.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The White House released a statement Saint President Trump only
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: acts in the best interests of the American public. There
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: are no conflicts of interests live to investigate. A financial
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: reporter for Reuters Tom Bergen, So Tom, good to have
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you with us. Thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are saying this that would be
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a conflict of interest. How so explain that for us, Well, there.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Are so many possible conflicts of interest in this business
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: it's difficult to know where to start. I mean, firstly,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: the crypto businesses of the Trump family have relied upon partners,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: particularly we're Liberty Financial has relied on partners who've had
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: significant US legal problems. And since mister Trump has assumed
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: reassumed the presidency, two of those partners have found their
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: troubles ease a lot, speaking particularly of Justin Sun and
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: also the founder of binance Cz, who've got a pardon.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So that's basically people who have helped Trump Trump's business
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: family business in crypto make a lot of money, have
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: benefited from a positive response from US regulators and in
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: the department. We also, of course see other conflicts of interest.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: One simple one is really, you know, it speaks to
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: what crypto is, and crypto typically it has no underlying value.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: The cryptotokens that the Trump sell the Meme coin and
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: also the World Liberty Financial token. So really the way
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: you sell those tokens is by creating hype. Typically, promoters
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: of such ventures will hire movie stars, actors, and to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: do that President Trump, of course has got the presidency
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: and his family of course are fated around the world
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: because of that association. So consequently, a lot of this
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: hype can be created because of the president's position.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: Not to mention that the President, of course also has
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: hosted events at his proper properties and attended while president
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: to help promote particularly the meme coin.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: But of course, most of the conflict of interest really
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: come down to the area of regulation, and the truth
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: is that this is a business that requires it has
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: had a lot of regulatory problems in the past, regulatory
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: gray areas and indeed prosecutions, jail time for many people
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: in this industry. With President Trump in the White House,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: he has been in a position that has allowed him
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: to create an environment that allows his business, the businesses
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: that he's got a very strong financial interest in, to
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: make a lot of money. So the regulatory environment, creating
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: that regulatory environment that facilitates the creation of this one
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: point four billion is probably the biggest conflict of interests
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: that exists.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, so how do you compare the Biden era crypto
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: regulatory approach to President Trump's approach? How much has changed
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: in the industry?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Well, to quote, you know, to the president's own son.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: It's a very different environment. It's like night and day.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: So it's the perception of the industry, it's the position
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: of the Trump family that there has been a total
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: about face in the treatment of the industry. So quite specifically,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: we've seen things where in the past, under the Biden administration,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: cryptocurrencies were treated as securities and consequently they faced the
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: same regulatory regular restrictions. So it's quite difficult to sell
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: crypto tokens in the United States, and that's really why
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: we saw the end of these enormous coin issuances that
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: had existed in the sort of twenty sixteen to twenty
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: twenty eighteen nineteen period. That was actually the first Trump
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: administration that cracked down on those coin offerings, and President
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Trump himself of course described bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: a scam. But since the president has reassumed the presidency,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: the SEC has decided that that most cryptocurrencies are not
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: actually securities and that consequently they don't need to face
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: the same restrictions. So it's much easier for someone to
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: go out and sell these kinds of tokens and coins,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: and of course, because they cost almost nothing to mint,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: it's all upside for whoever's selling them.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Well, we know that President Trump also brought in money
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: from overseas developers. What's the impact there and how did
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that happen and play out.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Indeed, it was another very buoyant year for the president
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: with respect to receiving large sums of money from overseas
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: developers to allow them to put his name on their buildings.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: And this is typically a Middle East play. That's where
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: we've seen the really big growth this period. In the
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: first Trump presidency, the family said they would not do
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: overseas deals. In truth, by twenty sixteen, there wasn't a
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: huge amount of demas and overseas for such deals. That
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: had fizzled out very much. But so we didn't see
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: any during the first Trump presidency. We didn't see much
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: happening after mister Trump left the first at the end
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: of his administration in the twenty twenty to sort of
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: twenty three period. But since twenty twenty four, particularly second
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: half of twenty twenty four, we've seen an enormous increase
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: in these deals. And as I said, it's very much
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: driven by by Middle Eastern parties. Parties in Saudi Arabia,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: parties in Katar, parties in Dubai, and these have very
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: much added to the bottom line. It's about fifty million
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: dollars this year. That's up from forty million dollars the
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: previous year. And of course this was something that was
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: really not a business a few years before that. So
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the payments from overseas developers has been really strong area
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: for the President in twenty twenty five.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: All right, Tom Bergen breaking it all down Forest, Thank
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: you so much, have a great day. Nice to have
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you here on CBS News twenty four to seven.