Congress Exempts Trump and Vance from Conflict of Interest re Crytocoins

By dianeravitch

July 19, 2025 //

Categories Corruption, For-Profit, Trump, Vance, J.D.

12 Comments Post your own

Lloyd Lofthouse says:

July 19, 2025 at 1:15 pm

It doesn’t take much effort to figure out who named this bill after himself, which obviously came straight from the family crime lord, the lifelong cheater, liar, alleged pedophile, convicted rapist, fraud, felon, and January 6, 2021, Traitor, living in the U.S. White House.

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retired teacher says:

July 19, 2025 at 1:27 pm

The GOP suffers from the audacity of grift. If we compare the forgiven PPP loans from GOP reps to Dems, we can see that the big dollar claims come from the GOP including almost a half million to fellow exploiter of women and girls, Matt Gaetz, who must now keep a lower profile in MAGA world due to his bad behavior.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA): Businesses associated with her received and had forgiven $183,504 in PPP loans.Matt Gaetz (R-FL): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $482,321 in PPP loans.Kevin Hern (R-OK): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven over $1 million in PPP loans.Vern Buchanan (R-FL): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven over $2.3 million in PPP loans.Markwayne Mullin (R-OK): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven over $1.4 million in PPP loans.Mike Kelly (R-PA): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $987,237 in PPP loans.Ralph Norman (R-SC): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven at least $608,500 across multiple loans.Vicki Hartzler (R-MO): A farming equipment company she co-owned received a $451,200 loan that was forgiven.Roger Williams (R-TX): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $1.43 million in PPP loans.Brett Guthrie (R-KY): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $4.3 million in PPP loans.Greg Pence (R-IN): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $79,441 in PPP loans.
Democratic representatives
- Dean Phillips (D-MN): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven a $135,800 loan for his Geniecast, LLC.
- Earl Blumenauer (D-OR): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $432,734 for his two companies.
- T.J. Cox (D-CA): Businesses associated with him received and had forgiven $609,825 for two of his businesses
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Ed Johnson says:

July 19, 2025 at 1:40 pm

Let’s face it. “Republican” is now the very meaning of immoral and all what being immoral implies. Recognizing, of course, all of us are imperfect in varying ways—the reality of life. Still, why would any self-proclaimed Christian or other supposedly moral person even think to vote for a Republican in these times?

EJ: What does being immoral imply?

AI: Being immoral generally implies behaving in ways that go against established moral principles or ethical standards. It’s not just about breaking rules—it’s about violating ideas of right and wrong that a society, culture, or individual holds sacred.

Here’s what that can include:
- Disregard for others’ well-being: Acting selfishly, cruelly, or with intent to harm.
- Violation of social norms: Lying, stealing, cheating—anything that undermines trust or fairness.
- Lack of conscience or guilt: Feeling no remorse for actions that hurt others.
- Ignoring responsibilities or duties: Especially when those duties are rooted in ethical obligation (like neglecting a child or abusing power).
Important nuance: Morality isn’t one-size-fits-all. What’s considered immoral in one culture or belief system might not be in another. That’s why philosophers love debating this stuff—where do we draw the line between personal freedom and ethical behavior?

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gitapik says:

July 20, 2025 at 12:01 pm

I did a few searches and couldn’t find any references to Trump and Vance being exempt from the oversight stipulated in the GENIUS act.

I did see Dems concerns about Trump’s many contacts in that world and the conflicts of interest that could be inferred.

Does anyone have another link?

At this point, I personally see stablecoins as anything BUT stable and can only imagine them benefiting the wealthy. Those who can afford to take large scale losses. But my knowledge is limited.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  July 20, 2025 at 1:19 pm
  
  I asked ChatGPT and got this answer:
  
  The GENIUS Act itself does not create new exemptions for the President and Vice President from conflict of interest laws, but rather, it operates within the existing legal framework which already exempts them from some, though not all, federal conflict of interest statutes.
  More specifically:
  The GENIUS Act includes a provision that prohibits members of Congress and senior executive branch officials from issuing a payment stablecoin during their time in public service.
  However, legal experts point out that this restriction, like many other ethics rules, stablecoin related or otherwise, wouldn’t apply to the President or Vice-President, according to existing interpretations of conflict-of-interest statutes for these roles.
  This exemption is seen as significant by some critics, especially considering President Trump’s family’s involvement in the crypto space, including the issuance of their own stablecoin.
  While the GENIUS Act aims to bring more regulation and clarity to the stablecoin market, it doesn’t change the established legal precedent regarding the President and Vice President’s exemption from certain conflict of interest regulations.
  
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  - gitapik says:
    
    July 20, 2025 at 2:13 pm
    
    Thanks, Diane.
    
    Phew. We can now rest easy, knowing that the highest ranked officials in the Executive Branch are well protected from those cumbersome regulations.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    July 20, 2025 at 10:23 pm
    
    Yes, there’s one set of laws for US, another set for THEM, the guys at the top.
    
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Joe Jersey says:

July 20, 2025 at 8:02 pm

We already have a functioning currency, the dollar, why do we need cryptocurrencies backed by nothing except blatant unvarnished greed. Crypto is a prefix meaning “hidden” or “secret,” so what’s the hidden part in cryptocurrencies?

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- ECE Professional says:
  
  July 20, 2025 at 11:48 pm
  
  I know very little about crypto, but a couple years ago, when my former roommate got a second job working online analyzing Amazon data, which was supposed to pay him in Bitcoin, initially, everything seemed OK. He did that for less than a year though, because they kept telling him that he had to do more and more work in order to make money, and ultimately, he was told that HE OWED THEM $11,000!!! He felt it necessary to take out loans to cover it –which he did do, too! He also came to realize that he actually worked for someone else, not Amazon per se, so I think a whole lot was hidden and my roommate was an easy mark they saw coming!
  
  (I said I thought it was a huge mistake to agree to accept payment in Bitcoin, but the notion that Amazon would farm out data analysis to someone else was also very suspicious to me…)
  
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  - Joe Jersey says:
    
    July 21, 2025 at 10:08 am
    
    So sorry to hear about the troubles of your former roommate. It appears that your ex-roommate was the victim of a very vicious scam, being scammed out of $11,000 is a life-altering hit. Most ordinary working-class Americans could not come up with $11,000, or, if they could, it would amount to their life savings.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    July 21, 2025 at 1:11 pm
    
    The lesson is: if it sounds too good to be true, it’s not.
    
    If you invest, deal only with a highly reputable firm.
    
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  - ECE Professional says:
    
    July 21, 2025 at 3:07 pm
    
    My ex-roommate said he agreed to be paid in Bitcoin because he knew some people who had made money with Bitcoin. He also said that due to a consent agreement he signed, he had no choice but to pay them the $11,000 they claimed he owed them. He thought he was trapped, but he felt lucky to have been able to get the loans and thought of them as a way to increase his credit rating. He’s a rather vulnerable person, trans, and has a heart of gold. His primary job is as a home/health care worker for low-income seniors and disabled people, and he’s forever the optimist!
    
    I don’t think most other working class people could have survived that intact, including me, especially since I highly doubt I would have qualified for any loans.
    
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