Ahead Of GENIUS Act Vote, Durbin Highlights President Trump's Shady Use Of Cryptocurrency For His Own Benefit
Durbin: If the Senate passes the GENUIS Act, it would give Congress’ blessing for President Trump & his family to further enrich themselves with little protection for consumers
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivered a speech on the Senate floor condemning President Trump’s use of cryptocurrency ahead of the Senate vote on the GENUIS Act this week. During his remarks, Durbin highlighted that President Trump’s level of corruption is unprecedented.
“Throughout his first term, President Trump was officially skeptical of crypto. In a social media post from July 11, 2019, the President said, ‘I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.’ But once the President figured out how to personally make billions off crypto scams, he changed his tune,” said Durbin.
Three days before he took office for his second term, President Trump launched his memecoin—a novelty item, similar to baseball cards or Beanie Babies, that holds no intrinsic value. Memecoins are risky and highly volatile. Despite the risks, many investors purchased President Trump’s memecoin, and in the first few weeks after its launch, the President profited up to $100 million in trading fees while more than 200,000 investors lost money. Then, President Trump auctioned off access to himself by hosting a “crypto gala.” The President made a whopping $148 million just off this dinner from the top 220 investors willing to pay for face time with the President. But nearly half the “winners” of the memecoin dinner competition were still “losers.” About 95 attendees suffered a net $8.95 million loss from purchasing President Trump’s memecoin. And in total, 764,000 investors lost money to President Trump’s memecoin scam.
“But his corruption does not stop there. His family started its own crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, and in March, they launched their own stablecoin right as the Senate was working on the GENIUS Act, legislation to regulate the stablecoin market. Conveniently, this legislation allows the President and his family to continue owning and issuing stablecoins,” said Durbin.
Durbin continued, “Passing the GENIUS Act could help the stablecoin market grow 10-fold over the next three years to a $2 trillion market. I will vote ‘no’ when it comes up this week. We prohibit congress from [issuing] cryptocurrency, why do we have two different standards? I think the answer is obvious. If the Senate passes this legislation tomorrow, it would give Congress’ blessing forPresident Trump and his family to further enrich themselves with very little protection for consumers. President Trump’s crypto dealings reportedly account for nearly 40 percent of his net worth… In just a few months, the Trump family has pulled in approximately $1 billion from crypto.”
Tomorrow, the Senate is scheduled to vote on passage of the GENUIS Act without a single vote on amendments.
Durbin concluded, “This is shameful, it’s corrupt, especially since we could have stopped this from happening if we had conducted an open amendment process like Leader Thune promised… I filed an amendment to crack down on crypto ATM operators who have been scamming seniors out of their life savings. My amendment would have created guardrails to prevent crypto ATM fraud… Instead, the GENIUS Act will allow crypto scammers to continue [to scam] at the expense of unsuspecting Americans and to the enrichment of the President and his family.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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