Weekly Update: June 30

Your weekly rundown of the latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration.

Jul 03, 2025

Reversal of Fortune$

H.E. Justin Sun is a man of many hats. He owns three crypto companies, including Tron, a digital assets platform described as "the preferred choice for crypto money launderers." He is the honorary consul for Grenada. And he is the prime minister of Liberland, an Ayn Rand-inspired, globally unrecognized 2.5 square mile micro-nation in Croatia.

Until recently, he was also facing some serious trouble. In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against Sun and his companies for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities, fraudulent manipulation of the related secondary market, and development of a promotional scheme to pay celebrities to tout these crypto assets without disclosing their compensation. According to the SEC, “Sun paid celebrities with millions of social media followers to tout the unregistered offerings, while specifically directing that they not disclose their compensation...This is the very conduct that the federal securities laws were designed to protect against.”

Sun's legal position was so precarious that for years he avoided stepping foot in the US for fear of arrest.

In 2025, however, Sun's legal troubles seem to have vanished.

In February, five weeks after Trump became president, the SEC "paused" the charges against Sun "to allow the parties to explore a potential resolution."
In May, Sun was treated to a private tour of the White House and dinner with the president, walking away with a $100,000 Trump Tourbillon watch, another of the Trump family's private business interests.
Just last week, Sun announced an ambitious plan to take Tron public in the US through a merger with the Nasdaq-listed company, SRM Entertainment, a struggling theme-park merchandise supplier. The merger's "reverse" nature (where a private company acquires a public company) is a "strategic shortcut" that allows access to US capital markets while bypassing the lengthy SEC registration process and scrutiny undergone by traditional IPOs.

So, how does one achieve such a dramatic reversal in fortune, from SEC target to White House VIP guest, in just a few short months?

History will tell us. But it is worth mentioning that:

Sun is the world's top holder of the $Trump meme coin. Sun has spent an estimated $20 million on Trump's meme coin and has invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial (WLF), the crypto company that directs 75% of its revenues to Trump businesses.
In June, the Tron blockchain network became home to the new WLF stablecoin. This arrangement positions Tron to make millions in transaction fees and for the Trump family to profit off the interest collected on the money that backs the stablecoin.
Dominari Securities, the investment bank that includes Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump as board members, has facilitated the merger, with FT reporting that Eric Trump was poised to take up a role in Sun's new company.

Also of note is President Trump's reported squashing of a bipartisan initiative aimed at inserting "conflict-of-interest guardrails" into the House crypto bill. The provision would have addressed conflicts of interest by senior political figures—including the president, vice president, members of Congress, and their family members.

Weekly Wins

What’s in a Name?

For Trump, this year's budget reconciliation package is the "Big Beautiful Bill." Others have argued it should be called the Billionaire Bailout Bill. We'll just call it BBB for now.

At this point, BBB has been approved in the Senate by a vote 51-50 with Vance stepping in to break the tie. As independent experts have noted, and we outlined in a previous edition, BBB will slow growth, eviscerate the environment, explode the federal debt, make rich people richer, and make poor people sicker.

For all of those reasons, BBB is NOT a weekly win. Nonetheless, there is one important development that demonstrates the power of coalitions, activism, and persistence.

By a vote of 99-1, the Senate rejected a provision that would have banned state and local governments from enforcing the artificial intelligence regulations already in place and any forthcoming.

Silicon Valley had lobbied intensely in favor of banning state regulations, receiving important support from the Trump administration, including AI Czar David Sacks, White House Technology Advisor Michael Kratsios, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Silicon Valley's "painful defeat" came about as the result of broad-based groups that included governors, the National Conference of State Legislatures, states attorneys general, consumer groups, children's rights defenders, labor unions, and tech policy organizations. Opponents of the provision were concerned it would stymie efforts to hold Big-AI accountable for harms to society, especially given that there is currently no comprehensive federal AI legislation. Among those potential harms is the electricity demand and environmental damage experienced by local communities where AI data centers are located.

This kind of common-sense coalition victory against big business interests is what we need more of these days.

Weekly Update: June 30

Your weekly rundown of the latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration.

Reversal of Fortune$

Weekly Wins

What’s in a Name?

More links, more kleptocracy

Protection racket

Self-enrichment

Cronyism

Threats, intimidation, and surveillance

Executive power grabs

Weakening independent agencies

Justice Department and the Judiciary

Civil service

Other agencies and local government

Attacks on civil society, media, and higher education

Aiding kleptocrats abroad

Driving division

Discussion about this post