In a rare moment of on-air friction, Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen — typically a reliable pro-Trump voice on CNBC’s center-right, market-friendly lineup — put Donald Trump Jr. on the defensive Tuesday morning over his family’s cryptocurrency venture.
At issue: the $TRUMP meme coin, launched just days before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The coin’s eye-popping early gains — followed by a steep crash — have sparked questions about ethics, access, and influence, especially given estimates that it has generated over $320 million for Trump-linked entities.
“Is that OK — for your dad to have a meme coin?” Kernen asked.
Trump Jr. defended the coin, insisting it wasn’t launched for political reasons and emphasizing that it predated his father’s return to the presidency. He framed the family’s embrace of crypto as a response to being frozen out of traditional finance after entering politics.
“There was a time I could call any banker in New York and get a loan,” he said. “Then we got into politics, and all of a sudden, they wouldn’t take your call. You couldn’t get financing. We were de-banked.”
He portrayed the move into crypto as survival, not strategy: “We got into it out of necessity.”
While Squawk Box co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin — a known Trump critic — also challenged Trump Jr., it was Kernen who compared the optics of the coin to Hunter Biden’s widely criticized paintings, which fetched upwards of $1 million and whose buyers remain undisclosed.
As Mediaite reports:
“I wasn’t involved in the meme coin,” Don Jr. said. “I’m more focused on obviously the stable coin, the Bitcoin mining.”
“You’re not taking responsibility for the meme coin,” Kernen said, interjecting.
“No, I’m just saying for the reality of the meme coin is it’s sort of a proof of concept that the crypto world understands…that the markets may not necessarily be fair,” replied the younger Trump. “The traditional banking system may not be fair to them. So it’s a proof-of-concept of what I think we can move the needle in crypto. And I think that’s going to be the future of finance.”
Since its Jan. 17 debut, $TRUMP surged past $73 per token before crashing to roughly $11. That drop reportedly wiped out around $2 billion in value for more than 67,000 retail investors. Meanwhile, entities tied to the Trump Organization reaped gains from transaction fees and sales.
Critics have zeroed in on a May 22 private dinner for the coin’s top 220 holders — including several foreign investors — as a possible pay-to-play event. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has called for a formal investigation, citing concerns about constitutional violations tied to foreign enrichment.
Despite mounting scrutiny, the Trumps remain publicly committed to the coin, calling it a legitimate business and an innovation-forward venture.
However, the controversy continues to fuel debates over the ethical boundaries of political figures engaging in private business endeavors.
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