Private equity billionaire Joe Lonsdale – a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump – criticized the president’s decision Thursday to pardon billionaire Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges back in 2023.
Zhao, who is the 21st-richest person on earth according to Forbes, was convicted of money laundering charges after failing to implement basic anti-money-laundering security measures for his cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance, thereby facilitating billions of dollars in transactions with funds tied to child-sex-abuse material and drug trafficking.
Zhao, whose business helped enrich the Trump family with its cryptocurrency ventures, would go on to complete his four-month sentence, though on Thursday, received a full pardon by Trump. And for Lonsdale, the pardon was a bridge too far, and gave the appearance of “fraud.”
“I love President Trump; this is possibly the greatest admin of my lifetime – except for these pardons,” Lonsdale wrote in a social media post on X Thursday.
“If I’m calling balls and strikes, these are hit-by-pitches!! POTUS has been terribly advised on this; it makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area.”
Lonsdale was tapped to help Elon Musk’s efforts to cut federal spending early into Trump’s second term, and has longstanding ties to prominent conservatives such as Peter Thiel, with whom he worked alongside at the digital payment platform PayPal. He’s praised Trump’s tenure at the White House, but continued to argue that the president’s pardons were his main sticking point with his presidency.
“Biden may have done far worse but that doesn’t excuse it,” Lonsdale wrote in a follow-up social media post on X.
Lonsdale also fired off on Trump for the pardon back in March he granted to Trevor Milton, the founder of the electric vehicle company Nikola, who was convicted on fraud charges last year.
“If they explained why the Nikola pardon for instance made sense, it would change how people thought of these,” Lonsdale wrote. “But it seems like it’s being swept under the rug, hoping that nobody notices. Terrible.”I love President Trump; this is possibly the greatest admin of my lifetime - except for these pardons.
If I’m calling balls and strikes, these are hit-by-pitches!!
POTUS has been terribly advised on this; it makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area. https://t.co/FPiNYJepGu
— Joe Lonsdale (@JTLonsdale) October 23, 2025