“Unprecedented.”
No word has been used more often to describe Donald Trump’s political career or his his two Presidencies. In fact, it’s been used with such regularity it has lost its power. To report “Trump’s unprecedented move” is much like reporting that the sky is blue or that the Sun rose in the east again today.
What hasn’t lost its power is precedent.
As a legal term, the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell School of Law defines “precedent” as:
…a court decision that is considered an authority for deciding subsequent cases involving identical or similar facts, or similar legal issues. Precedent is incorporated into the doctrine of stare decisis and requires courts to apply the law in the same manner to cases with the same facts.
It, along with stare decisis (Latin for “to stand by things decided”), are most often heard in a Supreme Court nominee’s Senate confirmation hearing. Media infotainers like to say their audience’s eyes “glaze-over” whenever these arcane terms pop up, although “stare decisis” became all-too-real for millions of Americans when it was jettisoned by the Supreme Court as they finally overturned Roe v. Wade.
From air standards to executive immunity, Trump-appointed Justices have been comfortable re-setting precedents and, therefore, breaking with a centuries-long link to English Common Law. It’s been jarring for many who’ve come to rely on settled law as a comforting floor we all can stand on, but it pales in comparison to the wholesale changes Trump is making to the Presidency.
Right now, Trump is resetting precedents in American politics and the Presidency on an almost daily basis. The daily deluge feels like it’s one big trolling operation designed to misdirect and infuriate … simultaneously swamping his opponents and satisfying his supporters who revel in the thrashing splashing of “the Libs.”
But he isn’t just “flooding the zone” with malodorous partisan fecal matter. He is setting a precedent for self-dealing and corruption that makes Tammany Hall look like a Mormon Glee Club.
First and foremost among his conflicted interests is crypto. Once a vocal critic, he flipped to crypto evangelist during the 2024 campaign. At the time it seemed like a calculated political move to attract “bros” … the tech bros and podcast bros and low-propensity voter bros who’d ultimately help him beat Kamala Harris.
That may be true, but it is not even half the story.
In what may be the biggest unexploded bombshell of his first year, he and his family are amassing a vast fortune in cryptocurrency while he engineers a complete reconfiguration of Federal policy on cryptocurrency. From his hydrocarbon-centric, data center-driven energy policy to Executive Orders creating a Digital Asset Stockpile and a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, he has marshalled the resources of the Executive Branch into self-dealing “whole of government” effort that would make Nancy Pelosi’s broker blush.
Frankly, “insider trading” doesn’t compare. This is full-on market manipulation and Trump has the ability to sit down and write Executive Orders that directly benefit him, his family and his cronies. Steve Witkoff’s son Zach, for instance, was profiled by The Times (of London) last March. They marveled at the meteoric rise of World Liberty Financial … a company he “co-founded last year in which the Trump family hold a 60 per cent stake.” Their flagship product was a new stablecoin called USD1 and, according to The Times:
In a few months this has become the world’s fifth-largest stablecoin — a virtual currency pegged to a stable asset, in this case the US dollar — with a market capitalization of $2.2 billion, paying commission to Witkoff and the Trumps every time it changes hands.
…and…
The involvement of the Trump family, including the president, who features on the front page of WLF’s website, has raised questions about the propriety of the US president’s family benefiting from lucrative business deals in the opaque world of cryptocurrency transactions. Trump recently reversed skepticism about the industry, saying he was “a big crypto fan” and wanted America to be the global hub.
“Raised questions about the propriety” is a quaint and increasingly anachronistic turn-of-phrase. This is where the “precedent” kicks-in. Apart from Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, it appears that no one really cares much about this obvious, right-out-there-in-the-open corruption. The longer this blatant use of the Presidency to line his pockets goes unchecked, the harder it will be to stop. If it persists through the hand-off to a President JD Vance, it will become standard operating procedure.
In the meantime, his hold on the GOP and the GOP’s own self-interested willingness to be in his thrall means the only people with the power to stop him have no reason to do so. They certainly wouldn’t do it for propriety’s sake. Alas, they gave up on propriety back in 2016 when they kissed the ring on the spray-tanned hand that grabbed women “by the pussy.”
Freed from a couple hundred years of Presidential precedent and the quaint constraints of “propriety,” Trump began his self-dealing second term with this January 23, 2025 Executive Order:
…promoting and protecting the sovereignty of the United States dollar, including through actions to promote the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide
Propriety also didn’t get in the way of his advocacy of the GENIUS ACT, which he eagerly signed and subsequently touted in a White House Fact Sheet as “long-overdue legislation” that ensures the “stability and trust” of stablecoins and other crypto “through strong reserve requirements.” That means the US government is committed to buying something he’s selling for the foreseeable future.
And propriety finally went out the window when, as Axios reported on July 30th, the White House began “pushing to embed crypto everywhere, from taxes to retirement.”
Although the unprecedented nature of this grift has been absent from the newscycle, the intrepid reporters at Cryptonews.com did their best Woodward and Bernstein impression and followed the blockchain. They laid it out in a must-read report published on August 5th:
He has elected pro-crypto regulators to the SEC, unveiled plans to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, and signed the landmark GENIUS Act into law.
…and…
Just last week, his administration also released a 166-page roadmap outlining how the U.S. can lead the charge when it comes to the adoption of digital assets.
…all which leads to an obvious conclusion:
The policies he’s pushing are beneficial to his own business empire, despite White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeatedly insisting they do not amount to a conflict of interest.
They also “crunched the numbers” and found “his finger in a lot of pies”:
But wait … there’s more, because his advocacy on behalf of the crypto industry has created another revenue stream. As Cryptonews.com noted, the crypto industry “has emerged as one of the biggest contributors to MAGA Inc, a political action committee that supports Trump.”
And it’s in politics where the precedent could be set in stone.
Should the GOP hold Congress in 2026 and a Trump-approved candidate (JD Vance) take the White House in 2028, you can rest assured that Trump will not only get away with this corruption … his corruption will simply be a matter of course for years to come.
That may be the outcome even if the House flips in 2026. They can investigate and hold hearings every day for two years and still Trump will have the DOJ at his disposal and the SEC under his thumb. By then, he might even have some control over the Federal Reserve.
His move to pressure Chair Jerome Powell and Governor Lisa Cook have implications well-beyond lower mortgage rates. Peter Thiel, a.k.a. JD Vance’s benefactor, and Elon Musk have both opined on fate of the dollar.
Back in the heady days of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk said “he wants to put the U.S. Treasury on a blockchain.” It kinda got lost the hurly-burly of dismantling various agencies and his soap opera-like exit. But then, during a July event on X where he fielded questions about the “America Party,” he was asked if the will “embrace bitcoin?"
Forbes reported on his answer:
“Fiat is hopeless, so yes,” Musk wrote, sending the bitcoin price higher, and referring to government-backed currencies known as fiat, rather than asset-backed currencies, which the dollar was before it abandoned the gold standard.
Oddly enough, Elon Musk is now embracing JD Vance.
Today, the Wall Street Journal reported on Elon Musk’s third party. Apparently, he has lost interest. Not coincidentally, he’s also become something of a JD Vance enthusiast. Vance is positioned to run in 2028. If he were to win, Peter Thiel would finally have an acolyte in control of the White House and Musk may have invaluable allies in both of them.
SEE ALSO:
Trump Media’s $2 Billion Bitcoin Purchase Creates Stock Surge
https://www.gobankingrates.com/investing/crypto/trump-media-2-billion-bitcoin-purchase-creates-stock-surge/
Trump Family Expands Crypto Bets as Thumzup Pivots Into Dogecoin Mining
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/20/trump-family-expands-crypto-bets-as-thumzup-pivots-into-dogecoin-mining
Trump’s 401(k) move could unlock billions for crypto, says Reserve Exec
https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/policy/trumps-401-k-move-could-unlock-billions-for-crypto-says-reserve-exec
Goldman Sachs says we’re on the verge of a stablecoin gold rush worth trillions
https://fortune.com/2025/08/20/goldman-sachs-stablecoin-gold-rush/
Tether hires Trump’s top crypto official Bo Hines to help lead U.S. stablecoin expansion
https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/08/19/trump-bo-hines-tether-crypto-white-house-stablecoins/