Trump Vows to Protect the Family Businesses: Crypto and Prediction Markets – Mother Jones
Businesses Trump owns have invested heavily in Bitcoin—one reason that Truth Social’s parent firm has lost more than $1 billion in its short life.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
In a Truth Social post Wednesday, President Trump typed out a lengthy paragraph on the necessity of protecting the prediction and crypto markets, taking the opportunity to label a slew of Democrats “scum,” call the US the crypto capital of the world, and claim prediction markets are a new form of financial market.
He didn’t say that he and his family are heavily invested in both sectors.
Trump does seem to have conflicted feelings about both crypto and prediction markets—as recently as 2021, he called crypto “a scam,” and his Truth Social post followed a story from the New York Times earlier this week about how Trump has personally complained about prediction markets.
But it’s undeniable he has personal interests.
For starters, he’s literally created multiple crypto businesses—the crypto business World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP meme coin, which have earned him hundreds of millions. And other businesses he owns, like Trump Media + Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, have invested heavily in Bitcoin—actually a major reason that company has lost more than $1 billion in its short life.
Truth Social is even attempting to launch its own in-app prediction market in partnership with Crypto.com, which would create an obvious conflict of interest for the president. Trump’s adult sons are heavily involved in crypto and prediction markets as well: all three are involved in World Liberty Financial, Eric Trump operates a Bitcoin mining company, and Donald Trump Jr. serves as an adviser to the two largest prediction market companies, Kalshi and Polymarket.
Backers of crypto and prediction markets want as little regulation as possible—and, more importantly, they want the regulation to be carried out at the federal level, under the control of Trump-appointed watchdogs like those at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Trump’s Truth Social post also praised the current CFTC chairman, Mike Selig, a former attorney who represented several crypto companies before taking a role as the chair of the SEC’s crypto taskforce, ultimately moving in December to the CFTC.
Critics in state office, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, have said they will pursue prediction and crypto companies that break the law.
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