Congressional Democrats Report Accuses Trump of Crypto Power Play

The 87-page document, titled "Trump, Crypto, and a New Age of Corruption," outlines a network of business arrangements, policy decisions, crypto-asset launches, pardons and foreign engagements that investigators described as "corruption of unprecedented scale."

The report describes the Trump family as having "pocketed billions of dollars" by using the presidency to boost Trump-branded crypto ventures, particularly World Liberty Financial, a digital-asset ecosystem launched by Trump, his children and close advisers during the 2024 campaign. According to the report, WLF and its token represent a direct financial conduit into the Trump family from investors such as domestic donors to entities linked to foreign governments. In all, revenue from Trump-affiliated digital assets exceeded $800 million in the first half of 2025 alone, according to an estimate from the authors, which they characterize as evidence of "the monetization of the executive branch in real time".

One of the central observations in the document is the dramatic shift in Trump's approach to crypto over time. During his first term in office, Trump repeatedly criticized bitcoin and dismissed digital assets as dangerous financial experiments. Staff investigators argue that this stance reversed only when crypto executives and platforms began supplying major financial support to his 2024 campaign and political ecosystem. The report frames the launch of WLF as the culmination of this shift, calling it “a privately owned digital-asset ecosystem marketed with the authority of the presidency” and alleging that White House messaging and government resources were used to promote the project in ways unavailable to private companies operating under traditional regulatory boundaries.

The document further underscores patterns of interactions involving foreign actors, as well as individuals linked to previous regulatory violations. While the report does not detail explicit quid pro quo deals, it does lay out timelines in which figures associated with Trump-linked crypto ventures later seemed to receive substantial benefits, such as presidential pardons, reduced regulatory pressure or policy shifts that reflected their business interests. The report frames these examples as part of a general trend wherein crypto investments became one avenue through which outside interests gained access to the president’s inner circle.

Among the most consequential findings is the claim that the institutions responsible for regulation and enforcement were weakened during the same period the Trump family's digital-asset operations expanded. Staff investigators argue that agencies in charge of financial oversight, compliance monitoring, and reviews of foreign influence experienced cuts, leadership changes, or directives that reduced scrutiny of crypto-related activity. The report warns these shifts created an environment in which foreign governments could use crypto investments to buy political influence with limited oversight. It describes this repeatedly as a "shadow marketplace" operating parallel to the formal regulatory system.

The report uses unusually assertive language for a congressional document, referring to the administration as acting like “the world’s most corrupt crypto startup operation.” It contends that government functions and private ventures were mixed so thoroughly that official actions and business promotions were “frequently indistinguishable.” Investigators assert that federal assets and personnel were used to shore up WLF’s credibility, that senior officials conspired on messaging to boost Trump-branded tokens, and that long-standing ethics rules were flouted or run over. The document also says that intelligence warnings relating to crypto-linked actors were downplayed or disregarded when they conflicted with the Trump family’s business interests.

To the report's authors, the implications go far beyond the revenue collected from Trump-aligned tokens. In their view, this intersection of political power and private crypto operations presents a structural threat to democratic governance, campaign-finance integrity and national-security safeguards. They worry that, absent reforms, the dynamics they outline including president-linked token issuance and political power exercised to shield private business ventures could become a fixture in coming administrations.

Because the report originates from Democratic minority staff, it doesn't trigger immediate legal or political action. Instead, the document frames itself as the groundwork for forthcoming legislative attempts to enhance presidential financial transparency, tighten restrictions regarding crypto conflicts of interest, and work towards better oversight of foreign investment using digital assets. The investigators write that their goal is to show the ways in which digital-asset markets can be manipulated in order to avoid accountability, and to detail the vulnerabilities that surfaced as the Trump family's crypto ecosystem expanded.

The authors say that digital-asset innovation has real value, but that the mix of political power, non-transparent token economics, and foreign financial participation created a system capable of distorting democratic institutions and eroding public trust. The report contends that, in the absence of structural protections, the United States risks that future administrations will merge public authority with private digital-asset incentives in ways that could compromise governance and national-security interests even after this presidency ends.