Trump's campaign can't get in the way of his new grift

[marmar]

Trump's campaign can't get in the way of his new grift
Trump's been getting away with scams, cons and crimes his entire life. Can he wriggle out of his new crypto scheme?

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published September 18, 2024 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) There's been a lot going on this week so you may have missed Donald Trump introducing his latest business venture on Monday. You read that right. He may be in the final stretch of his third presidential campaign but he found the time to formally introduce his latest money-making scheme to the public. And what a scheme it is: The Trump family is getting into the cryptocurrency game.

It's obvious that Trump was completely clueless about how his new business, called World Liberty Financial, works. When asked during a conversation on Elon Musk's X on Monday why it is so important for America to lead in cryptocurrency, the former president started talking about how AI requires a lot of electricity. (Luckily he didn't digress into shark attacks.)

Link to tweet

....(snip)....

The Trumps have a couple of very interesting partners in this new venture, exactly the kind of people you'd expect a president to be involved with. The first is a self-described "dirtbag of the internet" named Chase Herro who once famously said of the crypto market, “You can literally sell s—t in a can, wrapped in p—s, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it. I’m not going to question the right and wrong of all that.” The other partner is Zachary Folkman who, according to the New York Times, used to teach classes on how to seduce women. You can see why the Trumps jumped at the chance to get into business with them.

....(snip)....

Trump's been getting away with scams, cons and crimes his entire life and always wriggles out of them. A new book by New York Times reporters Ross Beutner and Suzanne Craig called "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered his Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success" says it all about Trump's long history of fraudulent business failures and his unique ability to convince people to keep giving him money anyway. They point out that Trump has had two big financial windfalls in his life, neither of them based on even the slightest talent for business. The first came via his daddy, who bankrolled him for decades with hundreds of millions of dollars and bailed him out repeatedly. He did manage some early success with Trump Tower and a couple of other buildings on which he'd been partnered with some people who knew what they were doing. But apparently, that was when the narcissism really kicked in so he bought into his own hype. He never listened to anyone ever again and virtually everything he touched — casinos, an airline, a football league, buildings in Chicago, a development for the world's tallest building in Manhattan, money-losing golf resorts, all of it — failed. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/18/campaign-cant-get-in-the-way-of-his-new-grift/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Looking for cash, Trump launches a new family crypto project

As Trump launches a crypto project, he appears to be meandering from one get-rich-quick opportunity to the next, without regard for merit or dignity.

Link to tweet

A presidential candidate, in the final weeks of his campaign, appears to be meandering from one get-rich-quick opportunity to the next, without regard for merit or dignity.

What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/looking-cash-trump-launches-new-family-crypto-project-rcna171431

Up until fairly recently, Donald Trump made little effort to hide his skepticism of cryptocurrencies. For years, the Republican called them a “disaster waiting to happen,” adding that as far as he was concerned, Bitcoin seemed “like a scam.” When it came to crypto, the former president said he was “not a fan,” adding, “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”.....

It was only a matter of time, however, before the former president realized that he, too, could try to make a few bucks for himself by way of a crypto gambit of his own. Evidently, that time is now. The New York Times reported:

A day after an apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump, he appeared on a livestream on Monday to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies. “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Mr. Trump said on X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”

I can imagine why some will see this news and simply roll their eyes, but don’t click away too quickly, because this is a story with several surprisingly interesting angles.

First, there’s the dramatic reversal. The same guy who saw crypto as a “disaster waiting to happen” apparently now sees crypto as a money-making opportunity that he "has" to pursue.

Second, those looking to Trump to explain his new venture are going to be disappointed. As an Associated Press report noted, the candidate “did not discuss specifics about World Liberty Financial on Monday or how it would work.” That’s true. In fact, when offered an opportunity to elaborate on his latest business opportunity, the former president appeared quite clueless and quickly changed the subject.

Third, Trump has chosen a curious group of business partners. The Times’ report noted that the Republican’s team includes two “little-known crypto entrepreneurs with no experience running a high-profile business.” The article added, “On the livestream, he did not address the project directly, leaving the details to the two entrepreneurs, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman. Mr. Herro has described himself as ‘the dirtbag of the internet,‘ while Mr. Folkman used to teach classes on how to seduce women.”

Fourth, even Trump’s allies believe he’s on the wrong track. Politico recently quoted Nic Carter, a Trump supporter who is a founding partner at a crypto-focused venture capital firm, who said, in reference to the former president’s new venture, “This is a huge mistake. It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they’re burning a lot of the good will that’s been built with the industry so far.”.....

We’re talking about a politician who appears to meander from one get-rich-quick opportunity to the next, without much regard for merit or dignity.

It’s not a secret that the Republican’s finances are a mess, and a recent Washington Post analysis added, “He is in a cash crunch — personally and politically — and has been unafraid throughout his career to put the Trump name on anything that might yield a stream of revenue.”

That analysis was published in March. The problem is considerably worse now. When it comes to someone seeking the highest office of a global superpower, that’s ... not ideal.

[marble falls]

2. It'd be quicker to just pour gasoline on other people money and burn it.