Latest news with #Trump-owned
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Bedminster golf club hit with 18 health code violations, lowest score in county
President Trump's private golf club in Bedminster, N.J. was hit with a remarkable 18 health code violations, nine of them considered 'critical,' according to a recent report by the Somerset County Department of Health. The health department's grade of 32 out of 100 points made Trump National Golf Course the most poorly rated establishment in Somerset County last month. Out of the roughly 115 retail food establishments inspected, all but two scored 60 or higher, with most in the 80s and 90s. Inspectors said Trump's club was out of compliance with many rules regarding food be protected from contamination. Expired milk was found in refrigerators and raw meat wasn't properly stored. Handwashing facilities were also not up to par when health officials made their visit, and dishwashers weren't reaching the required temperature for proper sanitation. Half of the violations represented critical conditions that can pose a serious health risk. Online records show six of 52 specific 'violation observations' were corrected while inspectors remained on the property. Issues that weren't addressed onsite were ordered to be fixed within two weeks, with a reinspection set for an unspecified date. Trump National Golf Course hasn't responded to a request for comment. The president often hosts guests and reporters at his New Jersey club, which sits roughly 40 miles west of Manhattan. In August 2020, he infamously held a press conference where journalists were greeted by MAGA loyalists not wearing masks despite the nation being in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump's Garden State clubs in Bedminster and Colts Neck were in danger of losing their liquor licenses after the president was convicted on dozens of counts of falsifying business records in 2024. Despite a state law barring felons from serving and profiting off the sale of alcohol, officials granted the clubs leniency before the Supreme Court expanded the scope of presidential immunity, which awarded Trump an 'unconditional discharge' when he was elected for the second time. Golf Digest calls Bedminster 'the highest-ranked Trump-owned golf course' and rated it as the 141st best in America in 2014 before it fell out of the publications listings. _____
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump-owned Truth Social files for Bitcoin ETF
Trump-owned Truth Social files for Bitcoin ETF originally appeared on TheStreet. NYSE Arca has submitted a proposed rule change to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Rule 8.201-E to list and trade the Truth Social Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), a filing on June 4 mentioned. Truth Social is a social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG (Nasdaq: DJT), the media and tech company majority-owned by President Donald Trump. A spot Bitcoin ETF is a financial product that trades on traditional stock exchanges and seeks to track the spot price performance of BTC. It gives investors exposure to Bitcoin without the need for them to directly own the cryptocurrency. Managed by Yorkville America Digital, LLC, Truth Social's Bitcoin ETF primarily holds Bitcoin custodied by Foris DAX Trust Company. TMTG had finalized a deal with a crypto trading platform, on Apr. 22 to launch crypto ETFs. Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted how the name 'Trump' isn't mentioned at all on the ETF or the documents, although everyone knows who owns Truth Social. The DJT stock rose 0.96% in after hours to trade at $22.05. It was in January 2024 that the SEC first approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock (Nasdaq: BLK), Fidelity Investments, and Franklin Templeton (NYSE:BEN) are among the Wall Street giants that have been offering spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. In fact, BlackRock's 1.4-years-old iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is the youngest among the biggest 25 ETFs, Balchunas recently highlighted. On May 30, TMTG announced that it will use $2.32 billion in net proceeds from a recent offering to create a corporate Bitcoin treasury. The Bitcoin ETF and treasury are not the only crypto ventures that Trump or his family backs. Meme coins, the World Liberty Financial crypto platform, and the USD1 stablecoin are among several such ventures, which have repeatedly raised concerns over alleged conflicts of interest. As per Kraken, Bitcoin was quoted at $105,612.77 at press time. Trump-owned Truth Social files for Bitcoin ETF first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Politico
28-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
DOL pulls guidance discouraging crypto in 401(k)s
The Labor Department on Wednesday yanked Biden-era guidance that strongly discouraged employers against offering cryptocurrency in workers' 401(k) plan options. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the policy was an attempt by the previous administration 'to put their thumb on the scale' against cryptocurrency investments. 'We're rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not DC bureaucrats,' she said in a statement. The March 2022 compliance document warned defined-contribution plan fiduciaries — typically employers — to 'exercise extreme care' before adding a crypto product to their menu of 401(k) options. Failure to do so could have been considered a breach of their fiduciary duty and exposed them to liability for losses, though the document did not outright prohibit crypto investments. The policy shift comes as the Trump administration enthusiastically embraces the crypto industry and members of President Donald Trump's family pursue crypto-related ventures. The Trump-owned parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday announced plans to establish a 'bitcoin Treasury' by raising $2.5 billion from investors. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas Wednesday. DOL did not issue a replacement to therescinded document and is instead reverting to a 'neutral approach' to crypto and other assets.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The problem(s) with the White House's defense of Trump's scandalous crypto dinner
When Donald Trump unveiled a meme coin a few days before his second inaugural, the ethical mess was obvious. The Campaign Legal Center's Adav Noti explained at the time, 'It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president's family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.' But when the president and his partners launched a contest of sorts last month, it took the story to a new level: Those interested in investing in Trump's meme coin — and by extension, giving the president money — were told they'd have a chance to win special access to Trump and the White House. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said of the scheme, 'This isn't Trump just being Trump. The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done. Not close.' The gambit proved predictably lucrative. NBC News reported this week: More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers are coming to Washington on Thursday to have dinner with President Donald Trump. The price of admission: $55,000 to $37.7 million. That's how much the 220 winners of a contest to meet Trump spent on his volatile cryptocurrency token, $TRUMP, according to an analysis by the blockchain analytics company Nansen. The top $TRUMP coin holders at a specific time — determined by the dinner's organizers — secured a seat. The dinner nevertheless happened at a Trump-owned property in Virginia on Thursday night, and it was described by MSNBC's Chris Hayes as 'the Met Gala of presidential pay-for-play.' Chris added that the dinner was 'the most brazen act of corruption by a president in our lifetimes, probably in a century, possibly ever.' For its part, the White House hasn't said who attended the event or exactly how much money ended up in the president's pockets. Hours before the dinner, however, press secretary Karoline Leavitt did take some time to offer her most detailed defense of the scandalous arrangement to date. The president's chief spokesperson was asked, for example, whether Trump was using the gathering to enrich himself. Instead of answering directly, Leavitt said the president was re-elected 'because he was a successful businessman.' The problem with this, of course, was (a) she didn't answer the question; (b) he wasn't a successful businessman; and (c) there's no evidence to suggest Trump's private-sector background contributed to his successful 2024 candidacy. At the same briefing, Leavitt also argued that Trump was attending the crypto dinner in his 'personal time,' which made even less sense, given that presidents while in office don't have the luxury of simply taking off the presidential hat and acting as a private citizen for a while. Ethical norms and legal standards always apply to the nation's chief executive, especially when interacting with those eager to give them financial rewards. But I was especially interested in Leavitt's third point: Trump's assets, she insisted, are in a 'blind trust' managed by his adult sons, which necessarily mitigates potential ethical conflicts. This almost resembles a credible point, but there's a problem: Trump's 'trust' isn't actually 'blind.' When the president's first term began, many urged the Republican to avoid ethical quandaries by utilizing a blind trust, but Trump refused. After he was elected to a second term, he did transfer assets into a trust controlled by his eldest son, but to call it 'blind' is to stretch the definition to an unreasonable degree. Indeed, The New York Times spoke to Dennis Kelleher, the chief executive of Better Markets, a nonprofit that pushes for more transparency on Wall Street, who emphasized the family connection. 'This is not a blind trust with an independent trustee, where people can have confidence that the conflicts of interest are in fact removed,' he explained. In other words, after having plenty of time to come up with a defense for Trump's meme coin scheme, the White House came up with a handful of talking points, and all three fell apart rather quickly. All things considered, that's not too surprising: Defending the indefensible isn't easy. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Justin Sun-Linked Wallet Leading Access to Trump Dinner Tagged as Belonging to HTX
The Solana wallet address credited with making Justin Sun the top holder of the TRUMP memecoin for a private dinner and VIP reception with U.S. President Donald Trump later Thursday probably belongs to Sun-linked crypto exchange HTX. Several blockchain explorers, including Arkham Intelligence and SolanaFM, tag the wallet as belonging to the cryptocurrency exchange, which acknowledged Sun as its leader in a 2023 blog post. That address now holds about $23.3 million worth of TRUMP tokens, according to on-chain data and appears at the top of the event's leaderboard, which is posted on a website publicized by Trump on his X account. The wallet is tagged 'Sun.' Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, said on social media that he was the top TRUMP holder in the sweepstake. The sweepstake rewards large TRUMP token holders with access to an event hosted at a Trump-owned golf club near Washington, D.C. HTX, formerly known as Huobi, was acquired by About Capital, a Hong Kong investment firm, in October 2022. Sun denied that he was involved in the acquisition in an interview with CoinDesk TV at the time. He did, however, join the exchange as a member of its global advisory board. Huobi later identified Sun as its leader in the blog post. In 2023, the platform rebranded to HTX, a nod to Huobi, Tron and "exchange." At the time, the exchange pointed to a 'commitment being all in TRON.' Sun's connection to the Trump-linked ecosystem also involves a $75 million investment in World Liberty Financial tokens, a decentralized finance initiative backed by the president's family. The Chinese-born crypto billionaire was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Biden administration. The regulator alleged he had been 'manipulating the market' for tokens tied to his ventures and paid celebrities 'to tout' these tokens. That suit has been put on hold under the Trump administration's SEC leadership as the parties looked to find a 'potential resolution.' Under the current administration, the regulator has dismissed several lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap. Donald Trump's memecoin was launched just days before his inauguration earlier this year. It was met with criticism from the crypto industry and among lawmakers, over the timing of the launch and its allocation to Trump-affiliated insiders. TRUMP is at the time of writing trading at $14.64, up 11% in the last 24 hours.
