Donald Trump has the keys to the White House again after his inauguration and will soon have his feet under the desk in the Oval Office with the economic future and military security of the world in his hands.
You would think that The Donald would be fully occupied contemplating his future as 47th President of one of the biggest, arguably the richest and most powerful countries in the world. But no. His first act has been to line his pockets, becoming on the day of his inauguration one of the richest people in the world earning a staggering $43billion after the launch of his $TRUMP bitcoin.
Not to be outdone, his wife launched her own bitcoin, $MELANIA which raised nearly £1.5billion minutes after its launch. Unfortunately for her husband, it led to a dramatic crash in the value of his bitcoin to 40% of its value. But never mind investors, as real money must be laid out to acquire cryptocurrency in the first place, Donald has the money in the bank, whatever the going rate is.
It is not clear if either of the Trump couple’s bitcoins—strictly they are meme coins—have been mined but it appears they may not have been as Trump is looking for inward investment from crypto mining companies outside the USA where less that 50% of crypto mining takes place. Crypto mining takes enormous computing power and, as a result, enormous amounts of energy during the process of solving the vastly complicated algorithms which are needed to ensure that crypto can be traded safely and anonymously using the blockchain technology which makes it possible. Such a process means that third party oversight is not required; that’s the beauty…and the danger of cryptocurrency. Trump was once disdainful of crypto describing it as “based on thin air.” Donald and Melania’s cryptocurrency could well be just that.
What is the point of $TRUMP and $MELANIA cryptocurrency? It could just be part of a short con: “a quick, opportunistic scam that involves taking money or valuables from a victim”. Anyone ‘investing’ their money, and a lot of people seem to have done so, is set to lose the lot, having made the Trumps rich in the process. Only time will tell if $TRUMP and $MELANIA cryptocurrency are serious investments; anyone investing their money in the hope of finding out may find out soon and at considerable cost.
But there may be a more sinister side to the $TrumpCon and it is explained by Igor Chudov in his Substack Igor’s Newsletter. Apparently 80% of the cryptocurrency is owned by the Trump clan, to be released slowly. Presumably if it proves successful. So, the vast profits to date, if we are to believe it, are from only 20% of the holdings. It also raises the question of whether the claimed 80% holdings even exist (see above on crypto mining).
Described as a “100% grift” by crypto.news, Ivor Chugov points to another potential reason why the Trump cryptos have been created. Since trading in cryptocurrency is anonymous, the whole point of the exercise could be for the Trumps, with enormous influence over the USA legislature and foreign policy, to receive anonymous and enormous payments from “large politically or financially interested” parties clandestinely in contravention of the rules for political donations in the USA. The potential for influence and bribery is glaring.
Trump, in turn, could get rid of his shares and indirectly receive “large amounts of money from essentially unknown parties”. Of course, not unknown to him, and Chugov speculates that Bill Gates, seemingly reconciled with Donald Trump, could be just such a person. The indirect nature of these transactions, notwithstanding their anonymous nature, enables plausible deniability if the transactions are ever questioned.We have already questioned in these pages if Trump is his own man. The influence of Elon Musk is one obvious example. But at least, that is in plain sight. Donald’s cryptocurrency venture is a bit of a mystery but one that could well open him up, willingly, to bribery. It must be questioned whether Donald Trump has the best interests of the USA at heart or whether he sees this as a further opportunity for personal and family gain. Time is already beginning to tell.
Roger Watson is a retired academic nurse who lives in the UK.
He is currently engaged in a range of professional consultancies in the UK, Europe and China. He writes regularly for several outlets including The Daily Sceptic, The European Conservative, Country Squire Magazine and The New Conservative.