The most amazing part of the Trump era is how many people will just openly admit to committing crimes because they are assured of official tolerance and immunity from prosecution. In this case, an executive with a crypto company admits that of course they funded Trump’s White House ballroom as a quid pro quo for better regulatory treatment.
Axios has the story, because she said it at their event:
Coinbase donated to President Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange’s president and COO, said at Axios’ BFD event on Tuesday.
Major companies including Google, Amazon, Palantir Technologies donated to the project, which critics have argued amounts to a pay-for-play relationship with the federal government. Axios’ Dan Primack asked Choi whether the donation was intended “to keep good relations with the White House,” to which she replied “sure.” …
Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law professor, said it fosters “a favorable atmosphere of gratitude and reciprocity.” When “there’s personal solicitation and personal response,” he added, “that just increases the likelihood that there’ll be the give and take.”
That one-word response, “sure,” may not seem like much, but it is the kind of admission of intent that might show up at a future trial. But executives from crypto firms have gotten used to playing fast and loose with the law. More established businesses that are used to being under a legal microscope are being more cautious.
Hence, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon explains why his firm didn’t give money for the ballroom:
since we do a lot of contracts with governments here and around the world, we have to be very careful about how anything is perceived. And also how the next DOJ is going to deal with it. So we’re quite conscious of risks we bear by doing anything that looks like buying favors.
The cyclone of corruption around the Trump White House might be considerably lessened if more people start thinking that there will be a “next DOJ” that can look back and examine what they’re doing now.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.