The Wall Street Journal editorial board trashed President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his recent releases of "meme coin" cryptocurrencies themed after him — a development even many crypto enthusiasts are denouncing as a scam.
This comes after the conservative-leaning editorial board already laid into Trump over his mass pardons of January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers, which was one of his very first acts after being sworn back in as president.
"Crypto markets have boomed since Mr. Trump’s election in part on expectations of friendlier regulation. And so be it. Animal spirits have been rising all around. But Mr. Trump and his family have tried to cash in on the mania by minting Trump-branded coins," wrote the board. This launch has nominally made Trump a "crypto billionaire" — but there are some big caveats: "Unlike Trump-stamped tumblers ($42) and pickleball paddles ($180), crypto tokens are vehicles for speculation. Like other cryptocurrencies, their price is volatile. After surging roughly 10-fold after its launch, $TRUMP’s price has since fallen by half."
Only 20 percent of these $TRUMP coins are available for trade, with the rest held by Trump Organization affiliates, to be sold at a later date along a three-year unlocking timeline.
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"All of this creates flashing-red political risks and ethical conflicts," wrote the board. "Start with who may be buying the tokens. A business or foreign official with interests before the federal government might seek to curry favor with Mr. Trump by announcing plans to buy millions of his tokens to pump up the price. Or, worse, whispering to Mr. Trump that he’s made the purchases, since crypto holdings aren’t disclosed. If Mr. Trump’s regulators then act in a way that aids crypto or the person seeking the favor, he’ll be accused of aiding the buyer in service of presidential self-dealing."
This will open Trump up to a flurry of lawsuits should the currency crash, or should some entity accuse the scheme of being fraudulent.
"No careful President would get anywhere near this kind of political risk, and we can’t recall any President who has," the board concluded. "Where are Mr. Trump’s lawyers? In his first term, Mr. Trump was often deterred from some of his worst impulses by legal advisers who saw their job as serving the Presidency as much as this President. The crypto caper is a worrisome sign that Mr. Trump’s current advisers don’t understand the difference any better than he does, or that they are too cowed to speak up."