Trump’s response to ‘profiting off the presidency’ criticised: ‘I have a lot of cash’ | indy100

Trump brushes off concerns he's 'profiting off presidency'

REUTERS

Donald Trump is facing criticism after brushing off questions about profiting from his presidency, saying that “I'm profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash”.

It’s been revealed that Trump generated nearly $1.2 billion from his cryptocurrency businesses last year – and the news has gone down among critics about as well as you’d expect.

Now, Trump has responded to questions about profiting during his time in office moments before boarding a brand-new Air Force One – the $400 million Boeing VC-25B aircraft that was presented to him in Doha last year.

“I've made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don't talk to them. I never - I don't even speak to them,” Trump said.

“I think it's called the blind account, but they basically, they take it, and I purposely, I never speak to any of the people that run the money, but they're at big institutions, and they invest in whatever they invest.”

He added: “Well, you know why I'm profiting? Because the stock market's going up, everybody's profiting ... so we're all profiting. I'm profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash, and I give it to institutions.”

The comments sparked a big reaction from critics on social media.

One user wrote: "I would think this was parody if I didn't actually see him say this."

"The meme coin grift that he made a billion off has nothing to do with the stock market," commentator Molly Ploofkins wrote.

Rep. Adam Smith commented: "He started a war, drove gas prices up, increased energy bills, and refuses to sign legislation to make housing more affordable. Thank you, President Trump!"

Trump disclosed over $500 million in earnings from World Liberty Financial crypto venture, including “governance tokens,” according to an Office of Government Ethics filing, while another firm, CIC Digital LLC, brought in more than $600 million from sales of Trump-branded “meme” coins featuring his image.

Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

When approached for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest. President Trump proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world through executive actions, supporting legislation like the GENIUS Act, and other commonsense policies to drive innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans. All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people – and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade.”

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