Into the world of Trump, crypto, and the orange-pilling of the government : Planet Money : NPR

Donald Trump Jr. (L), son of the US president, shakes hands with Rumble Inc.’s Chris Pavlovski during The Bitcoin Conference at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 27, 2025.

IAN MAULE/AFP via Getty Images

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IAN MAULE/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump Jr. (L), son of the US president, shakes hands with Rumble Inc.’s Chris Pavlovski during The Bitcoin Conference at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 27, 2025.

IAN MAULE/AFP via Getty Images

In 2019, President Trump tweeted: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies.” Today, the Trumps are all over crypto.

There are memecoins for Trump and the first lady. They own a stablecoin, a bitcoin mining operation, and a crypto financial services company. And, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Trump’s media group announced they’re raising 2.5 billion dollars from investors to buy bitcoin.

At that same conference, speakers included two White House advisors, two sons of the US president, the son of the U.S. Commerce Secretary, and a Trump appointee to the Securities and Exchange Commission. For a cryptocurrency built on independence from big government, this was a swerve.

So, what happens when the President of the United States showers his love on the crypto community … while also becoming a crypto entrepreneur himself? We follow along as Trump Inc.‘s Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein spend three days at the Las Vegas conference center where convicts are cheered, oversight and regulation are booed, and the separation of crypto and state no longer applies.

This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, and reported by Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and fact-checked by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was engineered by Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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