Trump’s cryptocurrency endeavor caps a political career filled with conflicts of interest

Trump's foray into cryptocurrency involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain and operating in an industry he has power over

The 220 winners of a cryptocurrency contest were told on Monday to look out for an email featuring the most exclusive invitation in the world". As a reward for spending immense amounts of money, in some cases millions of dollars, they had won the prize of attending a private gala with Donald Trump at his own Washington DC golf club later this month.

Awarding access to the president in exchange for investment in his crypto endeavor was Trump's latest conflict of interest in a political career filled with, in the words of one of his most repeated catchphrases, many such cases". Real estate holdings, a media company, merchandising deals, fraud and most recently Qatar's gift of a $400m plane are only some of the myriad of entanglements that government ethics watchdogs have warned about for a decade now.