Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / How Trump made $1.4 billion in crypto and what it has to do with corruption

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How Trump made $1.4 billion in crypto and what it has to do with corruption · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is already one of the richest men ever
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to serve as a US president, and according to anti
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: corruption campaigners, he's become even richer while in office.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: His wealth is grown by the billions, of which I
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: believe around one point four billion of it came from
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: cryptocurrency interests.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: That's Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International US. He argues
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  Speaker 1: the issue isn't just Trump's burgeoning wealth, but whether a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: sitting president should profit from industries affected by decisions made
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in the White House. For Calman, cryptocurrency is where those
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: concerns become even more visible.
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  Speaker 2: He's shaping an industry in which he is personally profiting from,
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  Speaker 2: and so one has to wonder when there's conflicts like that,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: are the rules that are being set for the public
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  Speaker 2: in the best interests of the public or is it
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  Speaker 2: in the best interest of those that are making the
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: money off it, including his own family.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Now, while all this has been unfolding, there's been a
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  Speaker 1: lot of discussion about the crypto sector in Washington, even
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: as Trump and his family make huge sums of money
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: from it. But how exactly are they profiting? First, let
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: me give you a brief explanation about one of Trump's
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  Speaker 1: most high profile crypto ventures. Hi, Donald John Trump, who's
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: all I'm used aware, So help me God, So.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Help me God.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Just before he is inaugeration, Trump launched his own Mean coin.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Millions of coins were sold to investors, generating hundreds of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars in sales and trading fees for the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Trump linked companies behind the project. The value of those
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: coins has since dropped dramatically, but the Trump family already
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: made its money through sales and trading fees.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: I think the crypto currency debate right now is the
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  Speaker 2: biggest concern. We're talking about a month alti trillion dollar
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: market that he is heavily invested in the bulk of it.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, just to put it in comparison, right, I
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: believe that from his real estate interests in golf courses
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: in the last year he made sixty or seventy million dollars.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: In the crypto business, he made one point four billion
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: or his family. I should say, that's an enormo It's
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: magnitudes larger than the rest of his empire. So that
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: to us is currently the biggest problem and the most
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: glaring gap in our laws.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So in plain and simple terms, Donald Trump, as president
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  Speaker 1: of the United States, is in a position to influence
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  Speaker 1: the rules that govern the crypto industry while he and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: his family and friends also personally benefit from crypto ventures.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So yes, there's potentially a conflict of interest there. However,
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  Speaker 2: we've also learned in the United States on this and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: on other types of issues, is that we've largely relied
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  Speaker 2: on norms rather than laws and rules. That high level
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  Speaker 2: officials have exempted themselves or put their assets in a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: blind trust.
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  Speaker 1: It's time to stop here and explain what a blind
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: trust is. It's where you give control of your assets
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  Speaker 1: to an independent manager. You and your beneficiaries are kept
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: in the dark about what investments are bought or sold,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: stopping you from making decisions that could benefit your bank account.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: So how have passed presidents dealt with conflicts of interest?
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  Speaker 3: George W.
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  Speaker 2: Bush came in and sold his interests in a baseball
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  Speaker 2: team here, a sports team, because he was going to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: be involved in regulating the you know, the sports leagues.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter way back in the seventies, came in and
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: he owned a peanut farm. You put that into a
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: blind trust and sold it. So because he was going
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to be dealing with agricultural policy. They did that voluntarily.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: There was no law requiring them to do that. Trump
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: President Trump and his family have not done that. And
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: so we are beginning to realize that the laws that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: regulate our ethics for high ranking officials do not extend
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: to the president vice president. People have known that. It's
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: just not been exploited before in the way it is now,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: and so it creates that conflict, and it allows that gap,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: allows the president to exploit it.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: So hang on a second, there's no legislation in place
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  Speaker 1: to prevent a US president from cashing in on his presidency.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the most surprising part of Kalman's argument is that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: many of the ethics restrictions Americans assume applied to the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: president actually don't. But is that something that could or
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: should change in the future.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: There are in Congress there is a lot of discussion
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: about extending fix rules to the president and vice president
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and importantly their immediate families. Because Trump could rightfully say
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that he's actually stepped away from his business and so
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: it's really his family that is running the business and
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: he's not involved. You know, Obviously, there's questions about how
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: that works in practice, and so therefore the I think
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  Speaker 2: it's widely agreed that any prohibitions or extension of the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: e fix rules need to include family members immediate family members.
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  Speaker 2: As of now, they have not passed, and so I
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  Speaker 2: think that will be a debate in the upcoming elections,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and I think going forward will see how the US
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Congress responds.
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  Speaker 1: Now, family is just one element in this debate. The
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  Speaker 1: broader concern is the growing influence of wealthy individuals like
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: tech and AI busses large corporations over political decision making.
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  Speaker 3: So are we seeing.
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  Speaker 1: The relationship between wealth and power change.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to minimize the fact that wealthy individuals
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  Speaker 2: have long had influence in our politics. This is not
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  Speaker 2: brand new. I think what is new is the scale
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  Speaker 2: of the.
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  Speaker 3: Investment, right.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think ever before we had someone like Elon
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  Speaker 2: musk Be, the world's first trillionaire, come in and have
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  Speaker 2: such a sway without There was no appointment and process
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  Speaker 2: as we would normally have approval from the sense, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a nomination for some cabinet position and an approval and
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  Speaker 2: review by the Senate. He just came in and was
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  Speaker 2: given carb blanche authority to move money around, and what
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  Speaker 2: we saw was a lot of cuts to programs that
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  Speaker 2: he didn't think were all that valuable, although to be clear,
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  Speaker 2: contracts with his Starlink Corporation did not get cut. So
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: we are and we're also seeing the administration look at
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  Speaker 2: a light touch regulation on AI at the same time
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  Speaker 2: that many of the largest investors in AI are contributing
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: heavily to his library to the celebrate the two and
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: fiftieth anniversary and other pet projects of the president.
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  Speaker 3: So why does any of this matter?
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  Speaker 1: Calmon believes corruption isn't simply an ethical concern or political debate.
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  Speaker 3: It has real world consequences.
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  Speaker 2: If somebody bribes a building inspector and they turn a
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  Speaker 2: blind eye to shoddy construction, that building is to fall
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  Speaker 2: down and kill people. Or if you ignore environmental laws
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  Speaker 2: that are trying to keep minding operations from contaminating the
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  Speaker 2: water that people drink, there's going to be an increase
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  Speaker 2: in health effects for the populations downstream. These are not
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: sort of theoretical we want people to be good because
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: we just want people to be good. It is because
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  Speaker 2: corruption has proven to undermine quality of life and the
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  Speaker 2: ability of people to be healthy, survive, and thrive economically.
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  Speaker 1: And for coalmon The main concern isn't just the issue
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  Speaker 1: of conflict of interest, it's what happens when the institutions
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  Speaker 1: designed to detect and prevent corruption are weakened.
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  Speaker 2: The architecture that we had built up over generations to
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  Speaker 2: respond to what everybody agreed was threats to fight fraud, eruption,
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  Speaker 2: criminal activity, and national security threats is slowly being dismantled
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  Speaker 2: to allow secret money to slash once again through the
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  Speaker 2: United States and around the world.
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  Speaker 3: And that is a huge concern.
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  Speaker 1: But if those safeguards are being weakened, can they be rebuilt?
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  Speaker 2: The underlying laws are still in place, it's just the implementation,
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  Speaker 2: enforcement and rulemaking has been severely damaged. So as of now,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the underlying laws have been kept in place, and that
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: is very significant because getting a divided Congress to pass
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: a new law if a law is repealed, is extremely difficult.
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  Speaker 2: The implementation of those laws, the rulemakings, the money that
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: is going, you know, being diverted and dismantling, the enforcement mechanisms,
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  Speaker 2: that will take time. And I don't mean to underestimate
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: the challenges, but that is easier to reverse as long
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: as the underlying laws are kept in place.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: What Kalman is saying is the laws are still in place,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: but the systems designed to enforce them are under pressure
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and weakened. As you've seen, what began as a debate
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: about Donald Trump's wealth has become a broader discussion about democracy, accountability,
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  Speaker 1: and who the government is.
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  Speaker 3: Really working for.
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  Speaker 1: For Calman, it depends on whether the United States strengthens
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  Speaker 1: its ethics rules and laws to prevent a further erosion
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  Speaker 1: in public trust of its politicians and institutions. He believes
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the damage can still be reversed. What do you think?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I'm Pablo folio Elias. A big thanks to our guest,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International US, and of course
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: our team here in Berlin, producers Hannahommel, Olivera Shivkovic, Leon Yuta,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Stephanie Englad and Loney Maro.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: So for me, I'll see you very soon.