Trump Meme Coins and the New Era of Digital Political Corruption | Pivot

1. 0:00 – 0:30

   Trump & Melania launch meme coins: an $8.4B conflict-of-interest alarm

   1. KSKara Swisher0:00

      This is the most important story. I think, uh, Scott and I were both totally offended by this, and I think it is actually a serious, uh, problem of, of corruption. Trump and Melania have, uh, released their own individual crypto meme coins. They're called... Just so you know, meme coin, these kinda coins are called shitcoins. Uh, there's a fartcoin, in case you're interested, and many others like it. As of Tuesday morning, the two coins were worth $8.4 billion combined. President Trump's reportedly planning an executive order to make digital assets a national priority. Well, he can... Well, he promises to release one billion of his own coin in the next three years.

2. 0:30 – 0:40

   From hotel patronage to “just buy the coin”: a new pay-to-play mechanism

   1. KSKara Swisher0:30

      Uh, this is just... They don't have to stay at the Trump Hotel anymore. They can just bring the receipts for buying his shitty, his shitcoin, essentially. This is really bad. This is bad.

3. 0:40 – 1:10

   Why crypto is ‘chess’ vs Trump Media ‘checkers’: reduced disclosure and opacity

   1. SGScott Galloway0:40

      Staying at the Trump Hotel or playing golf there where he saw the ledger of golf officials, uh, buying stock in Donald Trump Media, that was all checkers compared to this chess. Because with Donald Trump Media, he has to file, uh, with the SEC a public document saying, "I'm selling shares." The price would crash. Now, the following conversation I would speculate, uh, will or already has happened, and that is, "President Trump, congratulations on your enormous victory. It's your good buddy, Vlad. And guess what

4. 1:10 – 1:51

   Hypothetical foreign leverage: covert state purchases tied to policy demands

   1. SGScott Galloway1:10

      we're thinking of doing? The Treasury here in Russia is thinking of investing $600 billion for a variety of reasons in cryptocurrency, specifically the Trump coin. And my economists, wouldn't you know it, have calculated that based on the small float of a half a billion dollars, when we pulse in 600 billion rubles or $10 billion, that's gonna take the market cap of this thing easily to $50 or $60 billion. And should you decide to sell-"

   2. KSKara Swisher1:35

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SGScott Galloway1:35

      "...20% of your stake overnight, what do you know? I, and I just bring this up, you'll become-"

   4. KSKara Swisher1:39

      (clears throat)

   5. SGScott Galloway1:39

      "...one of the five wealthiest men in America." And in un-

   6. KSKara Swisher1:41

      And you don't have to say.

   7. SGScott Galloway1:42

      And, and nobody will know. And in unrelated news, President Trump, we would like you to seize arms shipments to Ukraine. I mean, this is-

   8. KSKara Swisher1:50

      (laughs)

   9. SGScott Galloway1:50

      ...just so-

5. 1:51 – 2:12

   ‘Bribery writ large’: crypto’s feared use case becomes mainstream politics

   1. KSKara Swisher1:51

      This is bribery writ large.

   2. SGScott Galloway1:52

      I- i- uh, they have created... It's kind of a, a bond-

   3. KSKara Swisher1:55

      This is what they thought Bitcoin would be used for, bribery, corruption, pornography-

   4. SGScott Galloway2:00

      It's a great point.

   5. KSKara Swisher2:01

      ...merch, uh, mer... This is the... I'll tell you, a lot of crypto people are, like, horrified because they kind of, they were like, "Great, we're finally getting our legs under us around some really important, you know, legislation and regulation."

6. 2:12 – 2:59

   Domestic vote-buying and ‘eBay for geopolitics’: monetizing power with anonymity

   1. SGScott Galloway2:12

      W- what if he can't get, what if he can't get two or three, two or three Republican senators on board for a federal ban of abortion, and he just calls him and says, "Hey, on the down low, you're old, you're leaving. I can give you $10 million in crypto to your fund or to another account you name, and no one will ever know. No one will ever know."? Oh, uh, Taiwan or China, you're about to invade Taiwan. I- i- i- we don't need to do a covertly, just call them. What if he just calls both of them and says, "It's eBay for geopolitics. Whoever buys more Trump coin gets US intelligence and some of our heavy mater- uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, heavy armaments and-"

   2. KSKara Swisher2:53

      Or Smelania.

   3. SGScott Galloway2:54

      Or buy, or maybe demonic-

   4. KSKara Swisher2:55

      It's called Smelania.

   5. SGScott Galloway2:56

      And nobody has to know. Nobody-

   6. KSKara Swisher2:58

      Yeah.

   7. SGScott Galloway2:58

      I can sell it. I can buy it.

7. 2:59 – 3:06

   Opaque market mechanics: anonymous buyers/sellers and a ‘grifter’ ecosystem

   1. KSKara Swisher2:59

      These two...

   2. SGScott Galloway3:00

      Buyers and sellers, totally opaque. This is, this is-

   3. KSKara Swisher3:04

      Grifters city.

8. 3:06 – 4:13

   A broader moral warning: America shifting from values to a ‘Hunger Games’ economy

   1. SGScott Galloway3:06

      ...America, America is more from a platform that used to be about prosperity and making money, I think that's wonderful-

   2. KSKara Swisher3:10

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SGScott Galloway3:10

      ...such that we can tax these people and again invest in the middle class. It's important to have that ambition. It's important to make money. It's a wonderful thing. But we also were a platform for civil rights, for rule of law, for electing a group of people that had, uh, laws, uh, that recognized conflicts of interest such that they could think with some level of patriotism about preventing a tragedy of the commons long term and do what was right for all Americans. And then, we could project those values overseas and try and advance women's rights, try and advance democracy, try and do away with honor killings, and do away with child marriage and child, child l- uh, uh, we, we could project our... Now, all of that has been crowded into a tiny little box, and America's essentially becoming a platform for how do you make the jump to light speed. And it's a Hunger Games, and if you make money, you have a r- remarkable life and you get to sit up front with your hot wife. But everybody else, unless you have money, sorry folks. You're not even, you're not on-

   4. KSKara Swisher4:09

      Yeah.

   5. SGScott Galloway4:09

      ...stage. This really has gone-

   6. KSKara Swisher4:10

      Yeah.

   7. SGScott Galloway4:10

      ...that-

   8. KSKara Swisher4:11

      And they run media. They run all, everything. They have a block-

9. 4:13 – 4:27

   ‘Democratization of kleptocracy’: meme coin as a mass-access corruption tool

   1. SGScott Galloway4:13

      The meme coin, his coin, is literally the democratization of kleptocracy.

   2. KSKara Swisher4:18

      That's what you said. It's, it is. It's, uh, it, this, this is the thing people must pay attention to and do as much reporting on as possible, is this bribery system that they've put into place. And it's again-

10. 4:27 – 4:59

    Enforcement collapse and the burden on journalism: ‘we don’t even know’

    1. SGScott Galloway4:27

       It may have already happened. We don't even know. (laughs)

    2. KSKara Swisher4:29

       Yeah. The, we don't even know. We don't even know. We don't even know. And of course, they've now captured the IRS, so there's not gonna be any investigation by the SEC. They've captured the SEC. There's no way to... Uh, it's up to reporters who they're putting the pressure on to be silenced, right? A lot of people are definitely pulling back. I mean, a lot of the coverage was like, "Look at the pageantry of normalcy of power." Like, they, they didn't mention felon once. They didn't mention the insurrec... They d- did mention the insurrection several times. "Isn't it ironic this is where the

11. 4:59 – 5:29

    Russia as a cautionary tale: hollowed-out state, haves vs have-nots, no innovation

    1. KSKara Swisher4:59

       insurrection happened and they're sitting there, right? They're all sitting there as if nothing happened." They did mention that. But for the most part, everyone's gonna be pulling back. They are. They're absolutely gonna be pulling back, and you're not gonna see it. And that is what Russia is. Russia is a, is a broken, hollowed out, uh, state full of people, haves and have-nots, of really making nothing, no innovation. And instead, uh, and just that tableau of the tech people up there

12. 5:29 – 6:10

    Control of AI, crypto, and media—and undoing Biden’s AI order

    1. KSKara Swisher5:29

       should tell you every single thing you need to know about this particular, what's about to happen. Uh, hopefully, there'll be pushback. I don't... We'll talk about that in another, in the next episode, like what is the actual pushback? What is the way to control it? Because they do have their hands on the AI. They have their hands on crypto. They have their hands on media.

    2. SGScott Galloway5:45

       Which, by the way, they revoked that executive order. That was one of the executive orders they, they undid-

    3. KSKara Swisher5:51

       Yeah.

    4. SGScott Galloway5:51

       ...was Biden's AI.

    5. KSKara Swisher5:51

       They did, yeah. Biden's AI, which was quite a good, fair one, I thought. Um, they just don't want any business. I, I would, um... Uh, yeah, I, I, this crypto thing is really bad. It's like just, it's just... As you said, Scott, democratized corruption.

Episode duration: 6:10