'Betting on state secrets': Conservative warns Trump just found new way to rig economy
Donald Trump gestures to reporters from the roof of the White House. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
July 16, 2026
President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency dealings earned him a massive amounts of wealth — effectively rigging the whole industry in his favor as if it's one of his old casinos, conservative analyst and talk radio host Erick Erickson warned on Thursday.
This comes after financial reports revealed Trump and his family have made over $1.4 billion from crypto assets alone under the new presidency, their single largest gain of assets.
"In gambling, they say never bet against the house," he wrote. "In crypto, President Trump has positioned himself as the house."
Erickson, a committed conservative Republican who nonetheless criticizes the president on occasion, pointed out Trump has made more of a profit on cryptocurrency "than every single publicly traded U.S. cryptocurrency company," which all combined finished out the year half a billion down.
The real problem, wrote Erickson, is so much of this money is flowing in from foreign sources.
"An Abu Dhabi state-backed fund chaired by the UAE’s national security adviser used $2 billion of World Liberty’s stablecoin to finance a deal — weeks before the White House cleared the UAE to buy advanced American AI chips," wrote Erickson.
This is by no means the only foreign racket currently in progress, he said.
"Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, manages more than $6 billion — 99% of it foreign, including $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund — while Kushner serves as a peace envoy dealing with those very governments," wrote Erickson.
All of this only scratches the surface of the problem, Erickson said.
If the GOP "meant what they said" in 2016 when they vowed to "drain the swamp," wrote Erickson, "the test is simple, and it applies to their own side: no foreign money flowing to the president’s family while the government it deals with awaits a decision; no regulators dropping cases against companies the first family owns; no one betting on state secrets; real divestment, not divestment to one’s children."
"Drain the swamp. Don’t just recycle the water for our side," he concluded.