On January 17, 2025 – three days before Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time as President of the United States, a Trump bitcoin – called a $Trump – was released in the cryptosphere, hosted on the Solana blockchain platform. One billion coins were “created” and 200 million coins were publicly released as an “initial coin offering,” similar to an IPO but with none of the regulatory oversite or tangible, manifest product value, other than the Trump name.
Within 24 hours, the aggregate value of all the $Trump coins in the crypto marketplace was $27 billion. In two days, it became the 19th most valuable form of cryptocurrency in the world, with each coin worth $64.
Two days after the $Trump launch, a $Melania coin was released.
Now bear in mind that the $Trump coin exists in concept only. It’s face is the familiar image of a defiant, fist-waving Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt in July, 2024. But there isn’t actually a physical coin, nor is there any material value – no stock in an actual product or company or investment fund or gold mine or anything.
Over the course of the next year the $Trump coin’s value rose to dizzying heights and then fell like a stone. According to veteran investor and media analyst Steve Rattner, Trump’s personal wealth has grown during his second term from $2.2 billion to $6.5 billion, an increase of wealth largely because of crypto. Of his $4 billion wealth increase, $3 billion, says Rattner, came from crypto. Rattner’s analysis concludes that there have been 45 “whale wallets” – major investors who profited from buying and selling the $Trump coins, aided by inside knowledge provided by Trump himself, via dinners for wealthy investors. The “whales” made $1.2 billion in profit on $Trump coins by buying them low and selling them high.
Trump, meanwhile, made at least $600 million, says Rattner, on coin sales and trading fees.
These profits came from 2 million “innocent Americans,” says Rattner, who bought the coins “high” and then watched their value crash because they are Trump fans but didn’t have the benefit of inside information. Those innocent Americans lost $4.3 billion. And, Rattner reports, 76 percent of the “whales” appear to be foreign investors – meaning they could be the Chinese government, they could be Russian oligarchs, they could be wealthy Gulf states. No one knows who they are because there are no laws requiring investor identification in the crypto universe. Which means there was nothing to stop Vladimir Putin from instructing his billionaire cronies from buying billions of dollars of $Trump and $Melania coins, thus enriching President Trump and providing Putin leverage on Trump policy decisions relating to Russia – and, by the way, Ukraine, which Trump has apparently abandoned.
Now, none of this is new news. It’s been discussed in the halls of Congress, in media newsrooms, in corporate boardrooms and at international conclaves. And yet the Trump Kleptocracy continues, unabated, in full public view. The very fact that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is participating in Middle East peace talks while negotiating billion-dollar real estate deals with Arab leaders is almost breathtakingly audacious.
Equally audacious, in a far different vein, is the refusal of 44 nominees to the federal bench, to declare, during hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. They each agreed, in lock-step unison, that Biden had been “certified” as the next president. No one would admit he had been duly elected.
The reason for their refusal is as transparent as the worthlessness of the $Trump bitcoin. Each candidate was afraid of incurring the wrath of Trump. Each candidate was more hungry for a federal judgeship than for demonstrating a modicum of courage and integrity in the face of an autocratic, sociopathic president.
The unholy, illegal war on Iran captures daily headlines, as does the continuing failure of the Trump Justice Department to release all the Epstein files. But while those disgraces to democracy proceed unabated, equally damaging behaviors of the Trump presidency pass quickly out of public sight. Donald Trump has institutionalized the Big Lie. He rules with it, he shapes policy with it and he is smothering democracy with it. One of the few things we can do as individual citizens that will truly make a difference in this corrupt and corrupting political climate, is vote overwhelmingly against every candidate who refuses to answer the Biden election question, who refuses to condemn Donald Trump’s illegal behavior during their election campaigns, who refuses to acknowledge that democracy in America – the very cradle of democratic freedoms – is in grave danger.
Republican, Democrat, Independent, Peace and Freedom, whatever the party label you identify with is irrelevant unless and until we vote for enough members of the House and Senate to take control of our government again. It’s that simple.
We had our own mini Trump Bitcoin moment here in Sonoma. A con man assisted by his wife and then silent business partner, played us, just as Trump and his cronies played the Bitcoin buyers. So the lesson is, beware of things that seem too good to be true. All governments, local and national, need fool proof laws to protect the rest of us instead of the the pseudo (they did not urn it, they stole it) rich. A so called free market is anything but free for most of us, in fact it almost assures you will be ripped off by these so called savvy entrepreneurs, who’s wealth is made by ripping you off.. And though it may not hold true each time, beware of those with bias and disrespect for those that are different then them. If they have no respect for LGBTQ people, women, people of color or immigrants they could care less about you also.