In brief
- A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found 63% of respondents consider it inappropriate for Trump and his family to have profited from crypto, while 69% believe his private business interests are influencing his presidential decisions.
- Roughly half of Trump's own Republicans said they think he lets business interests sway his decisions, though about seven in 10 Republicans still called the crypto dealings appropriate.
- The results add data to a running controversy: Trump earned over $1.4 billion from ventures like World Liberty Financial and his meme coin—as the White House denies any conflicts and lawmakers wrangle over Clarity Act provisions restricting his crypto ventures ahead of a September vote.
A majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump and his family have improperly cashed in on cryptocurrency since he returned to the White House, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The survey found that 63% of respondents considered it inappropriate for Trump and his family to have profited from crypto in the way they have, while 32% said it was appropriate and the rest didn't answer, Reuters reported.
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A larger share, 69%, said they believe the president's private business interests are shaping his decisions in office, a group that Reuters said included two-thirds of independents and nine in 10 Democrats.
Perhaps the most striking finding cut across party lines: roughly half of Trump's fellow Republicans said they think he lets his business interests influence his decisions, according to Reuters, an uncomfortable result for a president who campaigned on draining the swamp.
Even so, about seven in 10 Republicans said the family's crypto dealings were appropriate. The online poll surveyed 1,166 U.S. adults from Aug. 14 to 17 and carried a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The numbers put hard data behind a controversy that has trailed Trump's second term.
Financial disclosures released earlier this year showed he earned more than $1.4 billion from crypto ventures including World Liberty Financial and his self-branded meme coin. Those figures have fueled repeated Democratic efforts to rein him in, from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's push to bar elected officials from launching meme coins to Senate Democrats demanding hearings into what they've called massive presidential crypto profits.
The White House rejected any suggestion of impropriety. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that there are no conflicts of interest and that Trump acts only in the public's interest, Reuters reported, while the president has maintained he plays no day-to-day role in the family business and that his investments are independently managed.
The poll lands as the ethics questions collide with policy, with lawmakers still wrangling over provisions in the Clarity Act that would restrict the president's crypto ventures ahead of a Senate vote next month.
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