John Oliver targets Trump crypto ventures on Last Week Tonight

John Oliver put Trump crypto ventures at the center of his return to “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday, using most of the HBO show to examine President Donald Trump’s family businesses, digital coins and potential conflicts of interest.

Variety reported that Oliver came back from summer hiatus with a segment built around Trump’s shift on crypto. Oliver noted that Trump had previously called crypto “a disaster waiting to happen” and said it “may be fake” on Fox Business, while now describing himself as “the first crypto president.”

The comedian said Trump’s most recent financial filings showed his personal income rose to more than $2.2 billion in his first year back in office. Oliver said most of that came from family crypto businesses, which he said brought in about $1.4 billion.

Oliver argued on the show that crypto had become the Trump family’s leading business interest, larger than its real estate holdings and other businesses. Virginia Canter, identified by Variety as a prominent ethics attorney, said the setup was “a perfect vehicle” to direct money to Trump and his family.

What did John Oliver say about Trump crypto?

Oliver focused on two main pieces of the Trump family’s crypto activity: meme coins and World Liberty Financial. A meme coin is a cryptocurrency built around novelty, jokes or internet culture, rather than a traditional business use.

On the show, Oliver said meme coins often resemble pump-and-dump schemes, rising quickly after launch before falling while insiders sell near the top. He said Trump and Melania Trump launched their meme coins shortly before his second inauguration, and that both coins jumped in value before dropping sharply.

According to the figures Oliver cited, Trump’s meme coin was down 92% by the following December, while Melania Trump’s coin was down 99%. Oliver said Trump still made $636 million.

The New York Times reported, as cited in the segment, that Trump hosted a private dinner for the 220 largest holders of the Trump meme coin. Oliver framed that as access to the White House tied to investment in one of Trump’s crypto ventures.

The Times also reported that nearly 1 million people lost money on the Trump meme coin, with combined losses of $3.8 billion.

What is World Liberty Financial?

World Liberty Financial is the Trump family’s larger crypto venture, according to Oliver’s segment. Oliver said one way buyers can take part is through a governance token called $WLFI, which lets holders vote on how the token is run.

Oliver said 75% of purchases go to the company as a fee. He then pointed to several deals involving World Liberty Financial that he presented as troubling.

• Oliver said Justin Sun invested $45 million in World Liberty Financial, and that the SEC later settled a fraud case against Sun for $10 million with no admission of wrongdoing.
• Oliver said an Emirati investment fund pledged to put $2 billion into World Liberty Financial.
• Oliver said Trump’s company made at least $187 million from that deal.

Oliver also said that two weeks after the Emirati pledge, Trump traveled to the UAE and announced the country would be allowed to buy hundreds of thousands of advanced Nvidia AI chips. Variety noted that the Biden administration had previously restricted exports of advanced AI chips to the UAE because of security concerns.

Oliver closed by criticizing the CLARITY Act, which he said Trump is supporting. According to Oliver, the bill would move crypto regulation from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which he described as a smaller agency with little enforcement power.

Oliver said the situation showed a need for “proper guardrails” around crypto and political conflicts of interest. Variety did not report a response from Trump to Oliver’s segment.

This story draws on original reporting from Variety.