Finding an ethos or theme for the Trump Administration is difficult. They often speak out of one side of their mouths while doing the thing that they bemoan. One example may be money laundering. They are particularly concerned about the influence of the Chinese (corporate espionage) and are concerned about narco-terrorism (Tren de Aragua is most prominent in their vernacular). But at the same time they have made considerable efforts to shrink counterterrorism resources and have reduced regulatory enforcement aimed at money laundering. Money laundering enforcement has often been the tip of the spear to identify illegal activities ranging from drug smuggling to terrorism to human trafficking. Anti-money laundering laws (AML for short) have been passed to provide vital tools to law enforcement to defend America from domestic and foreign actors who wish to take advantage of our open markets.

But money laundering has a distinct intersection with President Trump. Back in 2021, Capital One chose to close about 300 of the Trump Organization’s bank accounts. Trump, of course, sued Capital One claiming that he was being discriminated against for his political views. But now it has become public that the reason the accounts were closed was because the Trump Organization failed to comply with AML disclosure laws – and thus the financial crimes team at Capital One chose to close the accounts. A more recent interest of the President intersects directly with the industry most susceptible for money laundering – cryptocurrency. The Trump family co-founded World Liberty Financial, just before Trump was elected in 2024 – just in time for the newly re-elected President to influence the regulatory environment around his venture. His venture created a new stablecoin and just this week was granted conditional preliminary trust bank status by regulators that report to the President.

The powers of the Presidency have extended to many arenas touching money laundering. The President pardoned the co-founder of Binance (the world’s largest crytocurrency exchange operator), CZ Zhao, who pleaded guilty to violating US AML laws. Mr. Trump also pardoned HDR Global Trading (parent company of BitMex crytocurrency exchange) and three of its executives who pled guilty to flouting AML regulations. Tens of millions in fines were waived in each case. The President and his family are inclined to disregard not only US laws but AML laws of our allies. Trump’s World Liberty took $100M from a businessman who is under investigation in the UK for money laundering – 75% of those funds went directly to Trump and his sons.

Couple these actions with the regulatory bent of the administration surrounding money laundering enforcement and one begins to form a picture that this Administration turns a blind eye to money launderers. The Treasury department has decided not to enforce laws aimed at countering money laundering – literally making the government blind to the actions of money laundering foreign actors. The administrations has scaled back resources aimed at legal enforcement through the CFTC, the primary regulator of the crypto industry – the results are that no enforcement actions were taken in this sphere in 2025, a dramatic reduction from prior years. The Administration has also been promoting a new law, The CLARITY Act, that while intended to regulate cryptocurrency also has severe AML gaps that promote illicit finance and could jeopardize US national security.

The intersection between the President’s personal financial interests and loose money laundering regulation is clear as day. The President’s financial disclosures in 2025 made this perfectly clear – his earnings in excess of $2B were spurred by his cypto grift (and I say grift as World Liberty received a $2B purchase of their stablecoins (75% going to the Trumps personally) from the UAE government – that same government subsequently received approval to receive hundreds of thousands of AI chips that could be shared with China). When the next terror attack occurs on US soil or drug cartel money laundering is discovered by an administration with a moral compass, remember which administration and Congress facilitated these atrocities.

And the national disgrace continues…