CBS Cuts Trump’s Corruption Tantrum From ‘60 Minutes’ Edit; The Daily Beast, November 3, 2025

Cameron Adams , The Daily Beast ; CBS Cuts Trump’s Corruption Tantrum From ‘60 Minutes’ Edit

[Kip Currier: Read the transcript, some of which is excerpted below from CBS' transcript of an 11/2/25 60 Minutes interview by Norah O'Donnell. Staggering obfuscation and communication deficits by Trump.

If Trump truly doesn't know about this cryptocurrency billionaire he pardoned, that is appalling and incompetent conduct.

If he does know of him, he's not being truthful and/or transparent.

And given the known financial ties between Trump's family and the man he pardoned, a legitimate appearance of pay-for-play corruption exists.]

[Excerpt]

"NORAH O'DONNELL: Do I have the opportunity to ask you two more questions?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you want, if it helps-

NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Okay. Two more questions-

 PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That means they'll treat me more fairly if I do- I want to get- It's very nice, yeah. Now is good. Okay. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn't want. I don't know. Okay, go ahead.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Is everybody ready?

NORAH O'DONNELL: This is a question about pardons. The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son- your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Helping to make your family millions of dollars. It's in that context that I do wanna ask you about crypto's richest man, a billionaire known as C.Z. He pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right...

In the aired interview, O’Donnell asks Trump, “How do you address the appearance of pay-for -play?” To which he responded, “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about…”

However, when O’Donnell again asked if Trump was “concerned about the appearance of corruption” over pardoning CZ due to the links to his family, the transcript revealed the president became annoyed.

“I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question... ”

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can't say, because- I can't say- I'm not concerned. I don't- I'd rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, "Can I ask another question?" And I said, yeah. This is the question-"

‘I have never seen such open corruption’: Trump’s crypto deals and loosening of rules shock observers; The Guardian, June 17, 2025

Peter Stone  , The Guardian; ‘I have never seen such open corruption’: Trump’s crypto deals and loosening of rules shock observers

"“Self-enrichment is exactly what the founders feared most in a leader – that’s why they put two separate prohibitions on self-benefit into the constitution,” said former federal prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig. “Trump’s profiting from his presidential memecoin is a textbook example of what the framers wanted to avoid.”

Scholars, too, offer a harsh analysis of Trump’s crypto dealings.

“I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and an expert on authoritarian regimes who co-authored the book How Democracies Die.

Such ethical and legal qualms don’t seem to have fazed Trump or Sun."

Corruption Has Flooded America. The Dams Are Breaking.; The New York Times, June 8, 2025

 Ben Rhodes, The New York Times ; Corruption Has Flooded America. The Dams Are Breaking.

"President Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign. Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures. A plane that doubles as a “palace in the sky” has been given for Mr. Trump’s use by the government of Qatar.

It is easy to dismiss this as just a bigger and more brazen version of the self-dealing we saw during the first Trump term. But it poses a more fundamental danger. Our political system is being transformed into something that no longer serves the people. Indeed, the United States is seemingly becoming just another country with a corrupt strongman personalizing and profiting from power...

Corruption is a powerful tool, but it is not popular. To build a movement powerful enough to push back on Mr. Trump’s self-dealing, Democrats must show people how it will affect their lives."

A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption; The New York Times, June 7, 2025

 The Editorial Board, The New York Times; A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption

"The message seemed obvious enough: People who make Mr. Trump richer regularly receive favorable treatment from the government he runs.

The cryptocurrency industry is perhaps the starkest example of the culture of corruption in his second term. He and his relatives directly benefit from the sale of their cryptocurrency by receiving a cut of the investment. Even if the price of the coins later falls and investors lose money, the Trumps can continue to benefit by receiving a commission on future sales. Forbes magazine estimates that he made about $1 billion in cryptocurrency in the past nine months, about one-sixth of his net worth...

The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration is different from old-fashioned corruption. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump has received direct bribes, nor is it clear that he has agreed to specific policy changes in exchange for cash. Nonetheless, he is presiding over a culture of corruption. He and his family have created several ways for people to enrich them — and government policy then changes in ways that benefit those who have helped the Trumps profit. Often Mr. Trump does not even try to hide the situation. As the historian Matthew Dallek recently put it, “Trump is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis.” He is proud of his avarice, wearing it as a sign of success and savvy.

This culture is part of Mr. Trump’s larger efforts to weaken American democracy and turn the federal government into an extension of himself. He has pushed the interests of the American people to the side, in favor of his personal interests. His actions reduce an already shaky public faith in government. By using the power of the people for personal gain, he degrades that power for any other purpose. He stains the reputation of the United States, which has long stood out as a place where confidence in the rule of law fosters confidence in the economy and financial markets. This country was not previously known as an executive kleptocracy."

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED ADMITS THE "ETHICS STUFF" WAS "MOSTLY A FRONT"; Futurism, November 17, 2022

NOOR AL-SIBAI , Futurism; SAM BANKMAN-FRIED ADMITS THE "ETHICS STUFF" WAS "MOSTLY A FRONT"

"The disgraced former head of the crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, built his formidable public persona on the idea that he was a new type of ethical crypto exec. In particular, he was a vocal proponent of "effective altruism" — the vague-but-noble concept of using data to make philanthropic giving as targeted and helpful as possible.

But in a direct message, Vox's Kelsey Piper asked Bankman-Fried if the "ethics stuff" had been "mostly a front."

Bankman-Fried's reply: "Yeah."

"I mean that's not *all* of it," he wrote. "But it's a lot."