Trump Family's Crypto Empire Exposed by John Oliver

Comedian John Oliver returned to 'Last Week Tonight' after his summer hiatus and dedicated nearly the entire show to President Trump's involvement in cryptocurrency. Trump has previously called crypto 'a disaster waiting to happen,' but now refers to himself as 'the first crypto president.'

Olivier explained that Trump's family's crypto businesses have become their dominant business interest, generating $1.4 billion in revenue last year alone, which is most of the $2.2 billion in personal income Trump reported.

Oliver highlighted two of Trump's main crypto ventures: meme coins and World Liberty Financial. Meme coins are novelty cryptocurrencies that often follow a pump-and-dump scheme pattern, where insiders sell at the peak after spiking in value. Trump launched his own meme coin before his second inauguration, which skyrocketed in value but plummeted soon after, leaving many investors with significant losses.

The host also delved into World Liberty Financial, a company that allows investors to buy governance tokens for $WLFI, which grants voting rights on the token's management. However, 75% of the fee from these purchases goes to the company itself. Oliver pointed out several sketchy deals involving World Liberty Financial, including an investment from Justin Sun and a pledge by an Emirati fund to invest $2 billion.