It's the Grifter Olympics, and this is just the Opening Ceremony
I cannot stop thinking about the Trump Meme Coin "$TRUMP", possibly the largest grift - and corruption opportunity - ever orchestrated by a political figure. And we can only anticipate more.
{FYI: I am on the Irish Times Politics Podcast this morning talking Trump 2.0 and Ireland as we head into inauguration day. Today's newsletter is about $TRUMP, which dropped after we recorded - Liz}.
I cannot stop thinking about the Trump Meme Coin "$TRUMP", the crypto product the US President (or President Elect, depending on what time today you read this) launched last Friday.
It is possibly the largest grift - and corruption opportunity - ever orchestrated by a political figure. And we can only anticipate more of this.
Much has been made of the scam-y nature of this, it really is staggering and difficult to put into words, though many have tried. Here is the NYT:
President-elect Donald J. Trump and his family on Friday started selling a cryptocurrency token featuring an image of Mr. Trump drawn from the July assassination attempt, a potentially lucrative new business that ethics experts assailed as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.
Crypto YouTuber Coffeezilla is less diplomatic:
It's historic in its stupidity, it's historic in it's grift, the level of scam, to use the days before your presidency, your inauguration, as a hype project for the meme like this... You have to understand that the Trump meme coin has no value no intrinsic value; 80% is owned by the Trump Camp, only 20% goes to the public... I thought at first this was a hack... I hope to everything that I will wake up and find I've been deepfaked.
Much has been made of the ethical considerations of a crypto product made by the person who has the power to appoint the regulators of the crypto industry.
And the fact that the website for the coin (which you can find here) goes out of its way to disclaim that it is "not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type" - ie., don't sue us when it becomes apparent that it has no value.
The small print also states that the site is "not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency" - ie. not subject to political finance or ethics rules.
But the disclaimer has another word that triggered a memory for me; it says that the coin is intended to "function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol $TRUMP".
Back in 2013 I spent several months working in State House, the President's Office, in Sierra Leone. Corruption was endemic, it was the system through which life happened; civil servants, such as teachers and doctors, and public services, like the police, got paid with bribes from the public; the public got money for bribes from elected officials; elected officials got money from the pots of development aid that were meant to pay for the civil servants and public services. This experience is what led me to work on transparency, though that is a story for another day.
Just after I left, Transparency International ranked Sierra Leone as worst in its global corruption barometer. Over 80% of citizens had had to pay a bribe in the previous year. The Economist wrote about the ranking, and in doing so quoted the President's Chief of Staff, with whom I had tried to work:
In responding to the Transparency International report, {the Chief of Staff} explained that it is “part of our culture to show appreciation to people for good things that they've done to you, that is not bribery”.
Imagine how much easier it would be to be grateful if you had an unregulated, un-transparent crypto asset you could use to directly transfer bribes to the most powerful man in the world, from anywhere in the world?
Trump's meme coin will slowly unlock over the 4 years of the presidency, giving a steady stream of opportunity to transfer cash, sorry, "show appreciated", to Trump and his allies.
Oh and also, this morning:
ICYMI: Other tales of grift from the archives
Liz Carolan
Liz Carolan
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