Trump’s New Crypto Reserve Is Open Corruption

On Sunday, President Trump announced his plans for a U.S. “crypto strategic reserve,” stating that he’d make the country the “Crypto Capital of the World.” But a closer look reveals the reserve may be nothing but a blatant insider trading scam to make his billionaire crypto czar richer—funded by taxpayer money.

Trump announced that he plans to add five cryptocurrencies to the strategic reserve: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano. Not so coincidentally, his crypto czar David Sacks has a venture firm linked to Bitwise Invests, one of the biggest crypto index fund providers. Bitwise holds significant amounts of the very same cryptocurrencies. Sacks promised that he sold his personal, direct holdings, but made no mention of his multiple indirect holdings.

If this wasn’t enough, just a few hours before Trump’s announcement, someone bought $200 million in Ethereum and Bitcoin, raising the question of who may have known about the plan ahead of time.

Sacks, for his part, has denied the claims of his indirect holdings, instead insisting that they are a farce. “I had a $74k position in the Bitwise ETF which I sold on January 22. I do not have ‘large indirect holdings,’” Sacks said. “I’ll provide an update at the end of the ethics process.”

Sacks is set to chair a first annual crypto summit at the White House on Friday.

Another former adviser to Donald Trump has called him out for bowing to Russia in his Ukraine peace deal, and the president does not seem to be handling it very well.

“H.R. MCMASTER IS A WEAK AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE LOSER!” Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social late Sunday.

“We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country—So that we don’t end up like Europe!” Trump wrote in a separate post.

In another post early Monday, Trump claimed that he was “the only president who gave none of Ukraine’s land to Putin’s Russia,” despite the fact that the deal cooked up by his administration thus far would fail to return Ukraine to its prewar borders.

The commentary on his first term national security adviser followed a 60 Minutes interview in which McMaster spoke on Trump’s excruciating meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. On Friday, Trump and Vice President JD Vance overtly showed where their loyalties lie: Seated in front of the press in the White House, the pair refused to let Zelenskiy speak, allowed a conservative reporter to mock Zelenskiy’s wartime attire, and effectively leveraged the critical meeting for measly political gain by defending Russian President Vladimir Putin at the cost of denigrating former U.S. officials. And in doing so, they challenged America’s strongest alliances while ceding the world stage to its adversaries.

The lack of diplomacy derailed peace negotiations and prematurely concluded Zelenskiy’s visit, before the Ukrainian leader had a chance to sign a rare earth minerals deal that would have been a boon for America’s tech industry.

“Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier,” McMaster told CBS, sizing up the events of the day. “Because what he sees is all of the pressure on Zelenskiy, all of the pressure on Ukraine, and no pressure on him.”

McMaster noted that Putin is a “master manipulator” with a deep understanding of how to work Trump to Russia’s advantage.

“He appeals to President Trump’s sense of aggrievement,” McMaster said. “And he’s been very successful at it because he’s a master manipulator and one of the best liars in the world.”

Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. and Russia opened discussions at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month, seeking a conclusion to the three-year war, but the assembly conspicuously excluded Ukrainian leadership.

Donald Trump was roasted at the 97th Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night for his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Anora is having a good night,” said host Conan O’Brien, referring to Sean Baker’s film, which had already picked up awards for screenwriting and editing, and would go on to win Best Actress and Best Picture.

“Yeah, that’s great, that’s great news. Two wins already. I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” O’Brien joked. The audience erupted into astonished laughter, before breaking into loud cheering and applause.

O’Brien’s joke comes just days after Trump and Vice President JD Vance detonated a metaphorical bomb during their meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, disgracefully demanding that the wartime president thank them for aid they didn’t even approve, which they are anxious to see returns on.

“He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday, after readily undermining efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump’s little performance Friday won’t win any awards, but it has likely delighted the audience in Moscow.

As the White House cracks down on which news outlets are allowed to have access to President Donald Trump, it seems that a member of Russian state media was somehow able to make their way into the Oval Office Friday.

While mainstream outlets the Associated Press and Reuters were kept out of a tense discussion between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a member of Tass, a Russian news agency that pushes propaganda about Russia’s “liberation” of Ukraine, was briefly in the room with the two world leaders.

A White House official told Politico that Tass was “not on the approved list of media” for the day’s press pool.

“As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary,” the official said, adding that the reporter wasn’t on the list of the now-canceled press conference after, either.

The White House did not explain how the reporter was able to gain access to the Oval Office, despite not being on the list for entry.

Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House would determine members of the press pool, leaving it to craft its own unit of propagandists and shutting out the White House Correspondents’ Association. The change in the rules comes after the Trump administration was sued for revoking the Associated Press’s access, over the wire’s unwillingness to pretend the Gulf of Mexico is called the “Gulf of America.”

Trump has increasingly aligned himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin, echoing Moscow’s rhetoric criticizing Ukraine and its leader, and mounting an all-out detonation during their meeting Friday.

After Donald Trump and JD Vance’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Friday devolved into a shouting match where Trump kicked Zelenskiy out of the White House, Russian leaders couldn’t help but gloat.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former figurehead prime minister and president under Vladimir Putin and now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, posted on X that “the insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.’”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova had worse words to describe Zelenskiy, and was full of praise for Trump and Vance.

“I think Zelensky’s BIGGEST lie, among all his lies, was his statement at the White House that the Kyiv regime was left alone, without support, in 2022,” Zakharova said. “How Trump and Vance managed to restrain themselves and not smack this bastard—it’s a miracle of self-control.”

Russian Senator Andrei Klishas said in a Telegram post that the Oval Office meeting ended in“a brilliant result,” adding that the “Kyiv clown” Zelenskiy “played his role of a ‘president’ poorly in the White House and was thrown out for bad behavior and disrespect towards the U.S.”

It seems that Vance and Trump did Russia a great service in their disaster of a meeting with Zelenskiy, which was supposed to involve a deal for Ukraine’s mineral rights. Most Republicans seem to back the White House, giving Trump the license to overhaul U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine in favor of something closer to Russia’s desires over the objections of the few GOP dissenters. Friday seems to have been a win for Vladimir Putin.