Why John Oliver Thinks Donald Trump’s Crypto Empire Is a Disaster

Donald Trump’s crypto empire has grown from a collection of NFTs into the Trump family’s largest business operation.

That transformation was the focus of John Oliver’s July 26 episode of Last Week Tonight, in which he argued that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures create an unprecedented combination of investor risk, political influence, and personal enrichment.

Oliver’s main argument was: Donald Trump’s crypto empire allows people to transfer enormous amounts of money into businesses linked to a sitting president while his administration simultaneously shapes the rules governing those businesses.

The result, Oliver argued, is a system in which the Trump family can collect profits early, ordinary investors absorb most of the losses, and foreign investors may gain a financially direct route to the president.