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New York Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Members Only: A New Trump Club, Ned's Club and the Enduring Old Guard
President Trump's White House crypto czar, David Sacks, says that Executive Branch, the upcoming Trump-aligned private club in Georgetown that costs as much as $500,000 to join, will be free of stuffy Washington insiders and any worry 'that the next person over at the bar is a fake news reporter or even a lobbyist' who 'we don't know and we don't trust.' Gareth Banner, the director of the parent company of the sleek new Ned's Club downtown, says his club members are a bipartisan 'top 5 percent in their sector professionally," among them Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York. The old guard Metropolitan Club, whose past members include six American presidents, still has 'Martini Fridays in the Library' and 'Trap & Field News' in the club bulletin. The Cosmos Club, which encourages camaraderie among what it trumpets as 'the greatest minds of our time,' displays photos of members who have won the Nobel Prize, among them the late Henry A. Kissinger. In a 2025 Washington firebombed by political and ideological differences, all four clubs are growing, have wait lists or both. While they have varied levels of snobbery and exclusivity, Executive Branch is an outlier because of the price of its access to the White House and its enrichment of the Trump family. But all four clubs reflect the sorting of the city's establishment into separate corners at a turbulent time. 'Everybody is so disoriented and depressed and untethered,' said Sally Quinn, the journalist, author and authority on social Washington who was married to the late Benjamin Bradlee, the storied editor of The Washington Post. 'It's comforting to know there's a place where they know your name, you're going to see your friends and you can always get a table. And that's a lot.' Symone Sanders Townsend, the host of 'The Weeknight' on MSNBC who is on the Ned's Club membership committee, said she uses the club to connect with members of Congress she would like on her show and to meet sources and friends. 'I enjoy walking into the Ned and seeing other young Black professionals,' she said. As for Executive Branch, she said, 'I don't think I'll be on the membership list for that one.' A Hangout for the President? Executive Branch is set to open in June in a subterranean space tucked behind the Georgetown Park shopping mall, reachable from Wisconsin Avenue via a set of stairs next to the mall's parking garage. A grand entrance it is not. And that is the point. Unlike the other three clubs, which are in grand early 20th century buildings that have landed on the National Register of Historic Places, Executive Branch is a hidden cavern for fewer than 200 members of the Trump ultrarich. The expectation is that the president will drop by now that he no longer has the Trump International Hotel, where he spent nights in his first term holding forth in the steakhouse and providing fodder for journalists on alert in the lobby. Executive Branch, which has taken over the sprawling space of a defunct bar called Clubhouse, will have what members say is modern décor inspired by Aman New York, a luxurious hotel and private club that opened in 2022. There are to be no prying outsiders. 'You have to know the owners,' said an Executive Branch spokesman who declined to be interviewed on the record but did say he was speaking on a private jet heading back to the United States from overseas. 'This is not just for any Saudi businessman.' Members, he said, want a place 'where they're not annoyed.' Mr. Sacks, a founding member of the club, made clear on his All-In podcast this month (where he announced the club ban on media members) that the chosen ones are unlikely to include traditional Republicans who frequent decades-old Washington clubs. 'To the extent there are Republican clubs, they tend to be like more Bush-era Republicans as opposed to Trump-era Republicans,' Mr. Sacks said. 'So we wanted to create something new, hipper and Trump-aligned.' Beyond Mr. Sacks, founding members of the club include Jeff Miller, a lobbyist and top Trump fund-raiser, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, whose crypto firm was targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission until new agency leaders picked by Mr. Trump put the lawsuit on hold. In addition to the president's son, owners of the club include Zach and Alex Witkoff, the sons of Mr. Trump's Middle East envoy; Omeed Malik, who leads 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr., is a senior executive; and Chris Buskirk, a close ally of Vice President JD Vance who co-founded the Rockbridge Network, an influential conservative donor group. Diana Kendall, an emeritus professor of sociology at Baylor University and the author of 'Members Only: Elite Clubs and the Process of Exclusion,' said that Executive Branch was 'amazing and appalling' to her. When the president dined at the Trump International Hotel, she said, he was at least relatively out in the open. Now, she said, he has 'this ability to go behind the curtain' and not have people know who he is talking to, 'particularly business and tech moguls, who really want access to the power of the throne.' The New Guard A big question about Ned's Club, which opened in late January on three Roaring Twenties-themed floors in a five-building complex across from the Treasury Department, is whether it can attract enough members of both parties willing to be in the same room. That at least is the goal of Joiwind Ronen, the club's executive director of membership and programming, who in a town of warring camps keeps a careful watch on the ratio of Democrats to Republicans. 'Say someone from the administration joins and it's a visible face,' she said over coffee on a recent rainy morning in the club's sumptuous library. 'I make sure we have a Democratic senator who is also recognized. I want people when they walk in to feel comfortable.' It costs $5,000 to join the club, plus another $5,000 in dues a year. Government workers pay $1,000 to join. Ms. Ronen said there are 1,500 members, a waiting list and 10 to 30 applicants a day. The average age of members is 45. There are more members in technology than in any other field, including law, finance, government and real estate. 'Founders Club' members pay $125,000 to join, and get their own dining room. Members of all kinds include the billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban; Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary; Gina Raimondo, the Biden administration's commerce secretary; and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary in Mr. Trump's first term. Mr. Bessent, the current Treasury secretary, is spotted at the club regularly. There are also plenty of journalists, among them Kaitlan Collins and Phil Rucker of CNN and Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post has a partnership with Ned's Club for events programming, and last month Will Lewis, the publisher and chief executive of The Post, threw a $1 million brunch at the club after the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, drawing outrage from staff members at the financially struggling paper. A Post spokeswoman said on Saturday that beyond the food and drink, the brunch was meant to highlight press freedom and featured panel discussions with Post reporters, including the paper's White House correspondents. Journalists like the place, which includes a rooftop terrace with views of the White House, because they can cozy up to sources. 'The Trump folks are there, Lutnick is always there, half the lobbyists in town are always there,'' said one journalist who asked not to be identified because his media organization would not allow him to be quoted. The club's name comes from Edwin Lutyens, Ned to his friends, the English architect of the former bank building that is the club's London location. (There are two other Ned's Clubs, in New York and Doha.) In Washington, Ron Burkle, the billionaire businessman who created the clubs, partnered with the owner of the five-building complex, Michael Milken, the junk bond billionaire jailed for securities fraud but pardoned by Mr. Trump in 2020. Mr. Milken is now an investor in the club. As for other private clubs in Washington, Mr. Banner called them 'all very niche.' In other words, he said, 'you have to have gone to an Ivy League university or you have to be a published author.' The Old Guard Mr. Banner appeared to be referring to the Metropolitan Club, founded in 1863, now housed in an imposing Renaissance Revival building on H Street near the White House, and to the Cosmos Club, founded in 1878, located in a Beaux-Arts-style mansion on Massachusetts Avenue just beyond Dupont Circle. For the record, the Cosmos Club does not require members to be published authors, although it does display photos of members who have won Pulitzer Prizes, among them the late Herbert Block, the Washington Post cartoonist. Both clubs have older memberships — the average age of Metropolitan members is 60 — and the Metropolitan in particular abhors publicity. The president of the club, Dr. Deborah Jessiman, the first woman to hold the position, reacted to a call from The New York Times by blurting out 'No comment!' before a question was asked. She then hung up the phone. Subsequent calls and emails to Dr. Jessiman and Michael Redmond, the club's general manager, went unanswered. Some 1,300 people belong to the Metropolitan Club, and 2,500 belong to the Cosmos Club. Both have active speaker series. Former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, will be at the Cosmos Club in June. Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker, was at the Metropolitan Club in May. Both clubs are also on the lookout for younger members. So far they do not seem bothered by the two new clubs in town, although in their comfortable corners of Washington, many members have not heard of either of them.
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Is the GENIUS Act an answer to Stablecoin regulation in the US? All about first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency legislation
Here are ten things you need to know about GENIUS Act: Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The US Senate has advanced the GENIUS Act , a bill aimed at regulating stablecoins, following 66-32 vote on Monday, two weeks after Democrats blocked the measure. The Senate voted to move forward with legislation to regulate a form of cryptocurrency called is seen as a significant step towards formal oversight of the digital asset space and the bill is aimed at regulating stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to assets like the US dollar or gold.-The Senate advanced a major cryptocurrency regulation bill Monday on a bipartisan vote two weeks after every Senate Democrat united to block it. The procedural vote on the GENIUS Act — which would establish the first regulatory framework for issuers of stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar — was 66-32.-If enacted, the legislation would create the first federal framework for stablecoins—cryptocurrencies tied to assets such as the US dollar. Lawmakers argue that the bill strikes a balance between consumer protection and innovation, even amid political friction and ongoing concerns about transparency.-Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to keep their value stable by being tied to traditional assets like the US dollar, gold, or government bonds. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, stablecoins aim for price consistency, making them ideal for digital transactions, remittances, and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.-The market for stablecoins has surged, now approaching $250 billion. Still, critics caution that without clear regulations, these assets could threaten financial stability and consumer protection.-The bill is a legislative priority for President Donald Trump, who has ties to the cryptocurrency industry through ventures like World Liberty Financial and its stablecoin , USD1.-'Stablecoins are already playing an important role in the global economy, and it is essential that the U.S. enact legislation that protects consumers, while also enabling responsible innovations,' Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the initial Democratic cosponsors of the bill, said in a statement on Friday, according to CNN.-'The bipartisan GENIUS Act will provide regulatory clarity to this important industry, keep innovation on shore, add robust consumer protection, and reaffirm the dominance of the U.S. dollar,' Gillibrand continued.-Stablecoins are a fast-growing corner of the cryptocurrency industry that have produced enormous profits for some of the major players involved. A single stablecoin is worth $1, making them a much more reliable digital asset for commercial transactions than other forms of crypto.-The Trump family's crypto dealings with World Liberty Financial, and President Donald Trump's dinner for the top holders of his meme coin, have aggravated concerns among Democrats.-The GENIUS Act represents a pivotal moment in US crypto legislation. If passed, it would provide long-awaited regulatory clarity for stablecoin issuers and signal Washington's commitment to engaging with blockchain technologies.
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stablecoin Fight Heads to Showdown as Senate Democrats Splinter
The Senate is poised to advance industry-backed stablecoin legislation in a key vote expected Monday evening, with a group of crypto-friendly Democrats led by Kirsten Gillibrand and Angela Alsobrooks seeking to end their party's blockade of one of President Donald Trump's top priorities. Senate Majority Leader John Thune last week filed a motion to end the Democratic filibuster and start consideration of the measure, with Republicans hoping to pass the bill before Memorial Day. That would require 60 votes and at least seven Democratic supporters.
Politico
19-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
A crypto comeback in the Senate
Presented by Editor's note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. Quick Fix Landmark cryptocurrency legislation has risen from the dead in the U.S. Senate. Less than two weeks after a GOP-led stablecoin bill bombed on the Senate floor, Republican leaders are preparing to put the legislation back up for a key procedural vote as soon as Monday that could pave the way for the upper chamber to soon pass its first-ever major crypto regulatory overhaul. The stablecoin bill, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), has been the subject of a chaotic series of bipartisan negotiations over the past two weeks, with Republicans seeking to win over enough Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold required to pass the legislation. As your MM host reported Sunday, negotiators circulated revised text this weekend that included concessions won by Democrats throughout the talks, which could finally unlock the votes to advance the bill, known as the GENIUS Act. The tentative deal — which could change further with amendments on the floor — represents a remarkable breakthrough that has suddenly turned around the crypto bill's prospects. The legislation appeared to be on ice just days ago after Democrats enraged GOP negotiators by voting down a procedural motion on the floor over objections to the previous revised version of the legislation that Republicans introduced. It will now hit the floor again as soon as this evening for the procedural vote that would allow GOP leaders to put it up for final passage. The vote will be on a previous version of the bill, but senators would be expected to adopt an amendment on the floor before it goes up for final passage that would replace the existing base text with the final deal that negotiators land on. Several big questions are lingering. First, it is unclear how many votes the stablecoin bill will be able to draw on the floor. Nine Democrats previously signaled interest in supporting the bill, but not all have been directly involved in negotiations. Talks have been led on the Democratic side by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Mark Warner of Virginia. Those lawmakers are gearing up to support the procedural motion, and while it is likely they will bring along enough other Democrats to advance the measure, it is unclear how many they will get. One major question is how Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will vote: He has embraced crypto over the past year, but the legislation still faces strong opposition from some in his caucus. 'We have worked to make sure we've got as many things done as possible,' Alsobrooks told reporters Friday. 'I feel very good about all of the issues that we were able to address.' Schumer convened a conference call with Senate Democrats about the stablecoin bill on Sunday afternoon. Members of the party will be facing pressure from the left to oppose the bill, with the Democratic leader on the Senate Banking Committee, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, heading the opposition. Expect her to focus on President Donald Trump's conflicts of interest in crypto, which some Democrats have called for the legislation to directly address. Her office circulated a memo Friday saying the stablecoin bill would 'Fuel Trump's Crypto Corruption.' (Trump is promoting a memecoin and his sons launched a crypto company last year that is now issuing a stablecoin.) Gillibrand said at an event hosted by Coinbase last week that 'a lot of what President Trump is engaged in is already illegal.' 'I'm not so worried about this bill having to deal with all President Trump's ethics problems,' she said during a panel put on by Semafor at the event. 'What this bill is really intended to do is to regulate the entire space of stablecoins so that if someone is an issuer, that they actually have to follow the rules.' One other X factor to watch is the amendment process on the floor. Negotiators could hammer out more agreements on bipartisan amendments that could change the bill further, but the process could also include other payment-related provisions that are germane to the bill (think of issues like credit card swipe fees). That could open the door to some tough — and fascinating — amendment votes. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has signaled that he wouldn't move ahead on the bill without commitments that he would have the votes to kill any poison pill provisions. 'Once they can agree on what they want it to look like and we think there's more than 60 to pass it on the floor, there's a group of people on that side who just want to blow it up, and they'll try to do that on the floor,' he told reporters last week. 'So we need to know that there will be the votes to defeat … amendments.' IT'S MONDAY — What do you think about the stablecoin bill's prospects? Let me know — and send other Capitol Hill tips — to jgoodman@ As always, send your tips, suggestions and personnel moves to Sam at ssutton@ Driving the Week Monday … SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioners Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw speak at the Practising Law Institute's 'SEC Speaks' conference beginning at 8:30 a.m. … Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speaks at the Atlanta Fed's Financial Markets Conference at 8:45 a.m. … Tuesday … Senate Finance holds a hearing on the nomination of Billy Long to be IRS commissioner at 10 a.m. … SEC Chair Atkins testifies at a House Appropriations oversight hearing at 10 a.m. … The Peterson Institute for International Economics holds a virtual discussion on 'Immigration and the U.S. Economy' at 10 a.m. … House Financial Services kicks off a two-day markup at 10 a.m. … The American Enterprise Institute holds a discussion on 'Immigration and the Macroeconomy' at 12 p.m. … Fed Governor Adriana Kugler speaks at the U.C. Berkeley Economics Department's commencement at 5 p.m. … Wednesday … The Peterson Institute holds a virtual discussion on tariffs at 9 a.m. … Senate Small Business holds a hearing on 'Fueling America's Manufacturing Comeback' at 10 a.m. … FCC Chair Brendan Carr testifies at a House Appropriations oversight hearing at 10 a.m. … Thursday … Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler speaks at a Punchbowl event at 9 a.m. … Senate Banking holds a hearing on the Defense Production Act at 10 a.m. … Existing home sales data out at 10 a.m. … Friday … New home sales data is out at 10 a.m. … Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks about financial stability at a Women in Macro conference at noon … Blaming Biden — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to downplay Moody's Ratings Service's move last week to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, calling it a 'lagging indicator,' in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. 'It's the Biden administration and the spending that we have seen over the past four years that we inherited 6.7 percent deficit to GDP, the highest when we weren't in a recession, not in a war,' he told host Kristen Welker. 'And we are determined to bring the spending down and grow the economy.' As our Victoria Guida reported on Friday, the downgrade, which puts the U.S. one notch below the highest credit rating, was 'driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation,' Moody's said. It comes as congressional Republicans are rushing to pass Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that would extend 2017 tax cuts, with some hard-line conservatives fighting to limit the increase to federal deficits. But those deficits would increase even under conditions outlined by that group. —To that end, the Yale Budget Lab is out with a new analysis that says the tax component of the reconciliation bill would add $3.4 trillion to the debt between 2025 and 2034, and $15.3 trillion between 2025 and 2055. At the regulators First in MM: FHFA rescinds Biden-era equity pilots at FHLBs — From our Katy O'Donnell: Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has rescinded a Biden-era order directing the nation's 11 Federal Home Loan Banks to devise pilot programs advancing racial equity, according to a copy of a May 14 order reviewed by POLITICO. The banks had been ordered to 'develop innovative pilot programs, and offer voluntary programs, to increase prudently their support for affordable housing, equity advancement, and community development for underserved and financially vulnerable populations in their districts,' in the agency's now-rescinded November 2023 bulletin. Such programs, the agency added at the time, could be designed to 'help close racial homeownership gaps [or] address residential climate resiliency improvements.' 'The Federal Home Loan Banks will be lending money to businesses, not 'climate change,' and our Banks will help ALL Americans, not just those of a certain skin color,' Pulte said. 'The Federal Home Loan Banks will keep the money flowing to local communities as we work to reverse the last four years of Biden's inflation, which devastated housing affordability.' Pulte scrapped similar programs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in March. The Trump administration more broadly has sought to stamp out 'diversity, equity and inclusion' initiatives across the federal government. Appeals panel probes CFPB union's case — Katy also reports that two judges on a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit expressed skepticism Friday about claims brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee union against the Trump administration. SEC X hack — Our Declan Harty reports that an Alabama man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for hacking into the SEC's account on X last year in a scheme to send the price of bitcoin soaring, the Justice Department said Friday. CGR out — CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said Friday that she will leave the U.S. derivatives watchdog at the end of the month, Declan also reports. trade Deals — Bessent on Sunday said the U.S. still intends to strike a series of trade deals across the world, even as the administration is limited in how many countries it can negotiate with at once, Victoria reports. In an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union,' Bessent said the U.S. is focused on negotiating tariffs with 18 'important' trading partners. But he also suggested that many countries won't end up with their own individual deals. Outside the Beltway — Trump has claimed his surge of new tariffs will produce trillions of dollars of foreign investments in the U.S. economy. But some of the people working to lure those investments to U.S. cities and states say they're not seeing the investment boom, at least not so far, our Daniel Desrochers reports.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US military would be unleashed on enemy drones on the homeland if bipartisan bill passes
FIRST ON FOX: Dozens of drones that traipsed over Langley Air Force base in late 2023 revealed an astonishing oversight: Military officials did not believe they had the authority to shoot down the unmanned vehicles over the U.S. homeland. A new bipartisan bill, known as the COUNTER Act, seeks to rectify that, offering more bases the opportunity to become a "covered facility," or one that has the authority to shoot down drones that encroach on their airspace. The new bill has broad bipartisan and bicameral support, giving it a greater chance of becoming law. It's led by Armed Services Committee members Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in the Senate, and companion legislation is being introduced by August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., in the House. Currently, only half of the 360 domestic U.S. bases are considered "covered facilities" that are allowed to engage with unidentified drones. The legislation expands the narrow definition of a covered facility under current statute to allow all military facilities that have a well-defined perimeter to apply for approval that allows them to engage with drones. Pentagon Lacks Counter-drone Procedure Leading To Incursions Like At Langley, Experts Say The legislation also stipulates that the secretary of defense delegate authority to combatant commanders to engage drone attacks, cutting down on time to get approval through the chain of command in emergency situations. Read On The Fox News App "Leaving American military facilities vulnerable to drone incursions puts our service members, the general public and our national security at risk," Cotton said. For more than two weeks in December 2023, a swarm of mystery drones flew into restricted airspace over Langley, home to key national security facilities and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do, other than allow the 20-foot-long drones to hover near their classified facilities. To this day, the Pentagon has said little about the incidents, other than to confirm that they occurred. Whether it knows where the drones came from or what they were doing is unclear. "As commercial drones become more commonplace, we must ensure that they are not being used to share sensitive information with our adversaries, to conduct attacks against our service members, or otherwise pose a threat to our national security," Gillibrand said. Planes, Stars And Hobbyists: Lawmakers Insist Nothing 'Nefarious' Is Happening In Nj Skies As defense-minded lawmakers sought more answers, Langley officials referred them to the FBI, who referred them to Northern Command, who referred them to local law enforcement, a congressional source told Fox News Digital last year. Gen. Gregory Guillot, chief of Northern Command (NORCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said in February that there were over 350 unauthorized drone detections over military bases last year. "The primary threat I see for them in the way they've been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations," he said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "There were 350 detections reported last year on military installations, and that was 350 over a total of 100 different installations of all types and levels of security." A surge in mysterious drone activity over New Jersey late last year and early this year prompted mass confusion. Guillot said that regulations on UAV countermeasures created "significant vulnerabilities that have been exploited by known and unknown actors." He advocated for what the new legislation would do: expand Section 130i of Title 10, which pertains to the protection of "certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft." "I would propose and advocate for expansion of 130i [authorities] to include all military installations, not just covered installations," Guillot said during the hearing. "I'd also like to see the range expanded to slightly beyond the installation, so they don't have to wait for the threat to get over the installation before they can address it, because many of these systems can use side looking or slant range, and so they could … surveil the base from outside the perimeter. And under the current authorities, we can't address that."Original article source: US military would be unleashed on enemy drones on the homeland if bipartisan bill passes
