Rick on MS Now: Trump's Biggest Grift Yet
Trump and his family are opening a bank. If you're rich and you want a favor from Trump, do business there.
MS Now, the new incarnation of MSNBC, invited me on air recently to discuss President Trump’s plan to open a bank.
Yes, a bank. The man who has declared business bankruptcy six times, repeatedly stiffed creditors, and drawn suspicion of money laundering is on track to open a federally chartered trust bank approved by one of his own appointees. The Trump bank won’t be a retail bank taking customer deposits. It will deal mostly with institutions—and that’s where the grift opportunities reside.
I discussed the merits of this suspicious presidential side gig with MS Now’s Steph Ruhle and journalist John Harwood. Here’s the clip, with bullet points to follow:
The Trump entity already exists. It’s World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm Trump and some of his family members started in 2024, right before the presidential election. Setting up the Trump crypto firm was a direct bet by Trump and some of his fellow insiders on how to cash in if Trump won the election that year. A Trump crypto business would have no inherent value if Trump lost and remained a private citizen. But as president, it could have tremendous value as a way for Trump supporters and people seeking influence with Trump to patronize Trump’s firm and gain favor with him.
[Trump is badly missing his own economic targets]
That’s exactly what has happened. Trump and his family have cleared at least $1.4 billion through their stake in World Liberty Financial, by selling tokens and other forms of cryptocurrency. It hasn’t been such a great deal for buyers, however. Trump crypto products have suffered massive losses since being introduced, with buyers losing nearly $4 billion.
Some buyers don’t mind the losses. A few high-flyers facing legal trouble with the federal government bought Trump crypto products or invested in WLF—and their problems suddenly vanished. Some critics call this outright bribery and say it’s illegal for Trump, as president, to do business with people under federal scrutiny.
WLF has now applied for a federal bank charter, and gained preliminary approval. The agency granting the approval is the Comptroller of the Currency, run by Trump appointee Jonathan Gould. WLF has to check a few more boxes to get full approval, but it seems certain to happen.
As a bank, WLF will be able to manage money belonging to hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors. It will be able to charge fees for banking services and many other things, in addition to just selling crypto products. Wealthy people needing favors from Trump can simply direct some of their banking business to his firm, putting money directly into Trump’s pocket.
[The myth of the prosperous worker]
There’s never been a US president with a major financial stake in a bank. It’s a blatant conflict of interest given that anybody having a problem with the federal government—and enough money—can do business with Trump’s bank as a way of paying for favors.
Can anybody do anything? Good-government groups could sue to halt the arrangement, but it’s not clear they would win. If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress in this year’s midterm elections, they’ll be able to investigate and hold splashy public hearings. That probably won’t cow Trump, but it might persuade some people who don’t want bad publicity from taking their business to Trump’s bank.
Unprecedented corruption is taking place during Trump’s second presidency, practically out in public for everybody to see.