President Trump ignored news that he made billions of dollars through the launch of a new meme crypto coin.
At a press conference on Tuesday, after a full day back at the White House, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he intended to continue with products that benefit him, such as the $TRUMP coin.
“Well, I don't know if it worked or not. I don't know where it is,” Trump said in a statement. Highlighted by Mediaite. “I don't know much about it other than that I launched it. I heard it was very successful. I haven't checked, but where are you today?”
“Sir, you made a lot of money,'' the reporter replied.
“How much?” Trump asked.
“It looks like it's been in the billions of dollars in the last few days,” the reporter said.
The president dismissed the comment, saying billions were “peanuts” to the people he spent the last few days with.
Sitting in front of the Cabinet nominees at Monday's inauguration were some of the wealthiest people in tech: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Amazon. Jeff Bezos, founder of SpaceX, and Elon Musk appointed CEO of Tesla, President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.
President Trump announced his first official cryptocurrency last week, and the value of the cryptocurrency skyrocketed over the inauguration weekend. The price had climbed to nearly $30 by midday Saturday, giving it a paper market value of $30 billion since its release.
Tech entrepreneurs who attended an event for Mr. Trump in Washington this week denounced the industry's months-long efforts to repair relations with Mr. Trump, who has previously criticized corporations and Silicon Valley.
There are concerns about what impact, if any, it will have on President Trump in his second term.
