The GENIUS Act, Trump Mobile, and the Art of the Grift
We bomb nations by Truth, regulate crypto to boost the boss’s coin, and Congress can’t be bothered to read the fine print.
There was a time when the presidency was defined by humility, deliberation, and national stewardship. The office was dignified, its press releases carefully worded and (gasp) edited. Foreign dignitaries were treated as honored guests, not contestants on a reality television show. Remember diplomacy? Ah, the good old days, when waking up didn’t mean dreading seeing what had been Truthed out in the dead of night.
Today, the presidency functions as a personal business empire, a megaphone for grievance, and a nuclear-armed mood ring. We are not simply watching norms erode; we are witnessing the office itself being monetized, politicized, and weaponized in real time. And Congress, instead of reining in this corruption, has instead become its co-signer.
This month, the transformation of the presidency from a public trust to a private enterprise reached a new low. In the span of just a few days, Donald Trump promoted his own cryptocurrency, launched his own mobile phone service, and demanded that legislation legitimizing both be on his desk as soon as possible, all while revealing military action on foreign soil through his personal social media account.
Trump isn’t leading the country. He’s selling it off in 5G bundles and stablecoins.
This isn’t dignified governance. The emperor has no clothes and is one upset tummy or hurt feeling away from the nuclear codes.
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The GENIUS Act: Corruption, Legalized
The GENIUS Act, passed last week by the Senate with a disturbing level of bipartisan support, is being celebrated in some corners as a necessary first step toward regulating stablecoins. In reality, it represents one of the most ethically questionable pieces of legislation in recent memory. It doesn’t regulate crypto; it rewrites the rules of presidential power to allow one man to profit from the laws he enacts.
Buried deep in the legislation is a provision exempting the President, Vice President, and their families from the conflict-of-interest rules applied to everyone else in government. It’s not theoretical. Donald Trump’s stablecoin, USD1, is already circulating in political circles and accepted at campaign events. With the GENIUS Act, Trump would essentially be signing a bill that makes his own crypto enterprise federally legitimate and, crucially, legally unaccountable.
The bill also lacks genuine consumer protections, bypasses full federal oversight by allowing state-level opt-outs, and opens the door to rapid industry growth with almost no regard for the public interest. All of this is happening while Congress continues to stall on regulating artificial intelligence, technology that is not only older and more widely used than crypto but far more deeply embedded in public life. The contrast is damning. Crypto got a legal framework because it’s profitable to the powerful. AI continues to be governed by guidelines and vibes.
A Family Business, Now Federally Protected
This isn’t Trump’s first foray into digital profiteering. Over the past few years, he and his family have released multiple branded crypto products, including coins, NFTs, and digital fundraising tools, all of which are marketed directly to his supporters. Industry estimates suggest that Trump’s digital asset empire has generated over $100 million through direct sales, endorsements, and campaign-related ventures.
If passed by the House and signed into law, the GENIUS Act would not only make those assets unregulated but also federally endorsed. The bill makes it easier for these products to scale and more complicated for regulators to intervene.
Worse still, it does this while Trump’s administration systematically undermines the institutions designed to protect consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been gutted. Investigations have been sidelined, funding has been slashed, and its authority has been chipped away by legal and legislative sabotage. And yet, as new financial tools with presidential ties hit the market, there’s no watchdog with the teeth or the independence to respond.
Our reporting on the CFPB’s dismantling outlines how we got here.
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Trump Mobile: Profiting from a Deregulated System
The same week the Senate passed the GENIUS Act, Trump’s sons announced the launch of Trump Mobile, a MAGA-branded phone service offering gold-toned Androids and “47” plan bundles marketed as patriotic, pro-Trump telecom. This isn’t just about phones. It’s about power, and the regulatory infrastructure that Trump personally helped dismantle, making ventures like this possible.
During Trump’s first term, the FCC underwent systematic deregulation. Net neutrality was eliminated, consumer privacy protections were gutted, and oversight was weakened. Those changes created a telecom landscape where branded MVNOs, such as Trump Mobile, could thrive with minimal transparency or restraint. And now, the same man who eroded that regulatory structure stands to profit from it directly.
Trump-aligned appointees now oversee the FCC, and the public has little recourse if this venture violates privacy norms, engages in political targeting, or uses telecom access to deepen surveillance. Meanwhile, the marketing spin is familiar: Trump’s plan is sold as “American-made,” despite sourcing concerns, and is being embraced by his base as another way to “own the libs” even if they’re being owned in return.
The irony is sharp. The so-called “Obama Phone” scandal, which falsely claimed that President Obama gave away phones as a political favor, sparked years of outrage, even though the program predated him (Reagan introduced it, and it had widespread bipartisan support), and he personally didn’t benefit. Now, Trump is doing exactly what Obama was falsely accused of: using the presidency to sell phone plans to voters, and reaping the rewards.
See our reporting on the FCC here:
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The Commercialization of the Presidency
The phone venture joins a long list of Trump-branded products peddled during and after his time in office. From Bibles and gold sneakers to steaks and cologne, the Trump brand has become a product line attached to the most powerful office in the world. And unlike other presidents, Trump has never sought to separate his personal business from his public office.
In contrast, President Jimmy Carter, famously one of the most ethical men to hold the office, sold his peanut farm before taking office to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Like all Presidents before him, Carter voluntarily divested and made every effort to avoid even the hint of a conflict of interest or profiting from the office.
Trump hasn’t just ignored that precedent. He’s made a performance out of defying it. The message is clear: ethics are for suckers, and no one’s going to stop him anyway.
See our reporting here on Trump’s long history of profiting from the Presidency here:
A Congress That Let It All Happen
None of this would be possible without a Congress that has repeatedly abdicated its constitutional responsibilities. Lawmakers have ceded tariff power to the executive, allowed wars to proceed without declarations, refused to enforce the Emoluments Clause, and allowed deregulatory agencies like the FCC and FTC to operate as partisan tools.
In this latest episode, the Senate passed a law that will line the pockets of the President, and some even admitted they didn’t know the exemption was in it. That’s not governance. That’s gross negligence. We’ve seen this pattern before, as detailed in our coverage of the GOP’s flip-flop on the OBBB, where lawmakers who claimed they were misled voted again for the very language they had previously denounced.
See that reporting here:
When Congress fails to read the bills, hold hearings, and enforce the guardrails, we no longer have a check on power. We have a permission slip.
See our reporting here on how Congress has given away its Article I powers:
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Diplomacy by Social Media: From Iran to Mexico
If the commodification of the presidency is alarming, the impulsiveness of its foreign policy is outright terrifying. Just last night, Trump revealed that the U.S. had bombed Iranian nuclear facilities—not through the Pentagon or an official White House statement, but via Truth Social. Did we forget to mention his other grift, his own personal social media outlet? The one that benefits from the deregulation his administration has overseen? Honestly, who can keep track of them all at this point.
No allies were notified, and no context was given. Just a post, delivered randomly, claiming success. This wasn’t an isolated incident. It was the latest in a long line of foreign policy pronouncements made not through diplomacy, but through social media outbursts. From his threats to “obliterate” North Korea to his trade war with China, to his ongoing feud with Mexico over border payments and tariffs—announced unilaterally and escalated by tweet—Trump has made global stability contingent on his social feed.
Foreign ministers, military advisors, and intelligence agencies often learn U.S. policy at the same time as the rest of us: when Trump posts about it. Foreign policy used to be shaped in the Situation Room. Now it happens in the toilet—140 characters at a time. That’s not just embarrassing. It’s a national security crisis.
We’ve reported on the Diplomacy by Tweet doctrine previously. See that here:
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The Presidency, Rewritten
We are not just seeing isolated grifts. We are seeing the redefinition of the presidency itself. Trump is no longer merely a politician. He is a brand manager, a CEO, and a content creator with weapons authority. His policies are products. His platforms are megaphones. His public image is monetized, and his private gain is masked as national interest.
This transformation was enabled by every institution that failed to act, from Congress to the courts to the media outlets, which still treat this as business as usual. And unless we draw the line now, this version of the presidency—authoritarian, monetized, and unaccountable—will be the blueprint for every future occupant.
Tell Congress: DO YOUR JOB
The GENIUS Act is not just misguided; it is a road map for corruption. It must be stopped or radically revised. Congress must reclaim its Article I powers immediately.
📞 Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Tell your House Representative:
“I’m a constituent. I’m calling to urge a NO vote on the GENIUS Act unless it is significantly revised. It must close the presidential ethics loophole, restore anti-corruption protections, and prioritize the public, not the President’s portfolio.”
Then call again and tell your Representative and Senator:
“I’m a constituent from (zip code). I insist that Congress reclaim its co-equal branch status immediately. You were elected to uphold Article I powers, not ceed them to the Executive Branch.”
And if you feel up to a third call, tell both:
“You were elected to represent the people and I expect you to read every single bill, understand it, and debate it in good faith to serve the will of the people. ‘I didn’t know that was in there’ is not acceptable. Fight for us, or we will find someone who will.”
There is no excuse. No ignorance. No compromise.
Vote against this bill, do your job, or be voted out.
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Bibliography:
Apuzzo, Matt, et al. “U.S. Joins Israel in Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites, Trump Announces, Risking Wider War.” Time, June 21, 2025.
Barron’s. “Trump Launches Attack on Iran, Plunging the U.S. Back Into Middle East War.” June 21, 2025.
CBS News. “U.S. Launches Strikes on 3 Iranian Nuclear Facilities, Trump Says.” June 22, 2025.
Cointelegraph. “The Empire Strikes Out: Institutionalists Failed to Kill the Stablecoin Bill.” June 18, 2025.
Federal Communications Commission. “Restoring Internet Freedom.” 2017. https://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=1046482330841
Investopedia. “Senate Passes Crypto-Friendly ‘GENIUS Act.’” June 18, 2025.
TechRepublic. “GENIUS Act Sets Stablecoin Rules, Leaves Trump Exemption Intact.” June 18, 2025.
Built In. “What the GENIUS Act Could Mean for the Crypto Industry.” June 19, 2025.
AP News. “Nearly 90 % of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Cut as Trump …” April 2025.
Wired. “The CFPB Has Been Gutted.” April 2025.
HousingWire. “Inside the Plan to Gut the CFPB.” April 2025.
Guardian. “A Federal Judge Blocks Musk Team’s Effort to Shutter Top Consumer Agency.” April 18, 2025.
Reuters. “Trump Says Iran’s Key Nuclear Sites ‘Obliterated’ by US Airstrikes.” June 21, 2025.
Wired. “Truth Social Crashes as Trump Live-Posts Iran Bombing.” June 21, 2025.
Wikipedia. “Net Neutrality in the United States.” Updated April 2025.
Washington Post. “FCC to Vote to Restore Net Neutrality Rules, Reversing Trump.” April 2, 2024.
Washington Post. “Trump Taps Net Neutrality Critic to Lead the FCC.” January 23, 2017.
Verge. “Grifters Thrive Under Trump’s Scam‑Friendly Administration.” May 2025.
Writing to Congress will not help At ALL. They, dems and repuglicans, are complicit in whatever the ultimate goal of this whole debacle of a regime is. They lie, they fabricate, they play possum until a moment when they can inflict the most shock and awe, the most bewilderment and pain. This government, all 5 branches, are not friends of the people. potus, scotus, congress, the pentagon, the mainstream press. We truly are at war on multiple fronts. It's fucking depressing. Alternative news outlets should flood the waves EVERYDAY with images of tRump following Putin on stage like a dog on a leash during tRump 1.0. Keep replaying and displaying the most shocking images of Jan 6. List the names of the brutalized and the fallen on that day and since; the Kilmars, the police and attorney warriors, the Minnesota 4, the detained and disappeared. Make the images as commonplace as McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. And plan for the worst case scenario because we're already living it.