President Trump made more than $1bn from crypto in first year back in office | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00The White House denies there are any
2. 0:02conflicts of interest in Donald Trump's
3. 0:04business dealings after new disclosures
4. 0:05showed he made more than a billion
5. 0:07dollars from cryptocurrency ventures.
6. 0:10The filings for 2025 show much of the
7. 0:12money came from the sale of tokens by a
8. 0:14firm co-founded by his own sons and the
9. 0:17children of his special envoy, Steve
10. 0:18Witkoff.
11. 0:20The president once described
12. 0:21cryptocurrency as a haven for scammers
13. 0:23and drug dealers before embracing its
14. 0:26potential shortly before his
15. 0:27re-election. He's since advanced
16. 0:29policies to relax its regulation.
17. 0:32CBS News correspondent Jared Hill told
18. 0:35us about the reaction in the US to those
19. 0:37investments.
20. 0:38>> Well, so it depends on who you talk to
21. 0:41obviously with many of the things
22. 0:42dealing with President Trump. On one
23. 0:44hand, there are Democrats
24. 0:46who have raised questions not
25. 0:48necessarily around the legality of this
26. 0:50because it is legal for a president to
27. 0:52invest in various companies, but there
28. 0:54are questions about from their
29. 0:55perspective the ethics of this
30. 0:57especially with President Trump
31. 0:59pushing regular or pushing policies that
32. 1:01would deregulate or maintain low
33. 1:04regulation over the crypto industry.
34. 1:06Some of them asking if there are ways
35. 1:08that there could be more guardrails put
36. 1:10on all of this. It's also interesting
37. 1:12there was a survey done just back in May
38. 1:15of this year that said a majority of
39. 1:16Americans are uncomfortable with
40. 1:18President Trump's handling of the crypto
41. 1:20industry although that it was something
42. 1:22of a low priority for the majority of
43. 1:25them.
44. 1:26>> And
45. 1:27what are the Republicans doing about
46. 1:30this? Anyone looking into the figures
47. 1:32and saying what's going on?
48. 1:36>> Well, when it comes to the money itself,
49. 1:39I I think from what we've seen at least
50. 1:41at this point there is less of a
51. 1:43question about whether this is something
52. 1:46that whether you know, they're cooking
53. 1:47the books or or if there's something
54. 1:50nefarious happening from the financial
55. 1:51aspect of it, but there are all have
56. 1:53been some lawmakers
57. 1:55on both sides of the political spectrum
58. 1:56that have looked to try and rein in the
59. 2:00ability of people who are elected
60. 2:02officials
61. 2:03from making money from things like the
62. 2:05stock market and and potentially finding
63. 2:08some different ways to regulate the
64. 2:09crypto industry. But this has really
65. 2:11been something that Republicans have
66. 2:14gotten behind this sort of
67. 2:16free market system within the world of
68. 2:18crypto because it is seen
69. 2:21by some as a bit of a
70. 2:25a
71. 2:25a boost for some of the folks who might
72. 2:27vote for them. Whether this new
73. 2:30disclosure from President Trump and his
74. 2:32finances changes the ways that folks on
75. 2:35either side of the political spectrum
76. 2:36will look at regulating crypto and
77. 2:39regulating how and if elected officials
78. 2:42can make money from the industry, that's
79. 2:44yet to be seen.
80. 2:46>> Of course, this eclipses the money that
81. 2:49President Trump has made from his other
82. 2:51businesses, namely real estate property,
83. 2:54which is how he made his name and came
84. 2:56to our attention in the first place.
85. 2:59>> Yeah, that was one of the really
86. 3:00interesting things looking at this
87. 3:01disclosure is that the vast majority of
88. 3:03President Trump's money over the past
89. 3:05year was made like we're talking about
90. 3:07over a billion dollars was made in these
91. 3:09crypto ventures really eclipsing what he
92. 3:12brought in from those other business
93. 3:14ventures. And again, that's one of the
94. 3:17reasons that we are seeing some critics
95. 3:18raise questions
96. 3:20about President Trump's
97. 3:23influence in increasing regulation when
98. 3:26it comes to the crypto industry because
99. 3:28he's making just so much money from it.
100. 3:30But again, it's not illegal.