Welcome back to KKF! For Episode 225, we bring Public Citizen’s co-president Lisa Gilbert on the show to talk about Trump’s newest nefarious schemes with cryptocurrency. Plus, we dive into the bombshell article on John Fetterman and the latest updates on Trump’s inhuman deportation policy. Watch below:

Lisa joins the conversation to help us understand how Trump is pulling a scam right out in the open with his crypto coin. Right now, Public Citizen is calling for Trump’s crypto activities to be investigated, because it’s clear that as Trump hawks crypto, a small fraction of wealthy investors actually see returns on the coin, and (to top it all off) a bill goes through Congress to provide barely-there regulation of cryptocurrency, there’s a whole lot of shady, back-room dealings going on between the people who are supposed to crack down on shady, back-room dealings.

Lisa points out that crypto accounts for a significant amount of recent election spending, even though it’s relatively new — and the lack of regulation of this scam means people like Trump can get away with using it to buy power and influence. Under the auspices of a meme coin, Trump is able to line his own pockets, as he tried to do via a crypto-friendly executive order that Public Citizen called out in January, during Trump’s first days in office. The whole thing is a disgusting racket of billionaire self-interest and self-promotion using our own government as a means to private wealth, and we’re grateful to advocates like Lisa who have spent the first days of Trump’s administration calling out his abuses of power.

Thanks for tuning in. You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms.