President Donald Trump's once favorite daily tabloid, The New York Post, set off alarm bells Monday over his "questionable" cryptocurrency dealings that threaten a "Hunter Biden-style scandal at the White House."
Reporters Thomas Barrabi and Isabel Vincent cited experts who concluded "Donald Trump risks undercutting his presidency with a Hunter Biden-style influence-peddling scandal unless he clamps down on questionable crypto deals."
The story took aim at Trump's "latest apparent conflict of interest" involving a Chinese e-commerce firm pledging to buy up to $300 million of $TRUMP meme coins. The Post also cited another case of a Chinese billionaire investing $75 million in Trump's World Liberty Financial that lists Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as top executives.
Trump is currently considering plans to allow Chinese-run TikTok "to stay online in the US despite Congress’s ban," the story said.
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“I think that the president’s involvement in crypto ventures creates a very easy opportunity for the president to engage in pay to play politics using crypto and vice versa for foreign actors," the paper quoted cryptocurrency expert Mark Hays with Americans for Financial Reform. "There are many ways to move money quickly and opaquely that will not show up on a balance sheet.”
Former lawmaker Charlie Dent (R-PA), who served as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, told the Post, “There’s certainly a parallel to Hunter Biden, who traded off his father’s name while he was vice president."
Dent continued, “You have to start with the president telling his family what they can and cannot do and what lines cannot be crossed. It has to come from him. If the shoe were on the other foot, Republicans would be screaming bloody murder over this stuff.”
The Post article cited a report in Fortune saying that "nearly 40% of Trump’s overall net worth, or the equivalent of $2.9 billion," are due to his crypto holdings.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Post, “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”