Trump crypto, Trump ballroom and Trump drones

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do a Florida-based drone company, a crypto billionaire, and a European steelmaker have in common? Ties to President Trump. Since returning to office, the president, as well as his family and friends, have inked a number of business deals that raise questions about conflicts of interest. On today’s show, we scrutinize three of these deals.

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Related:
Trump’s crypto interests
Mixing family business with US trade policy in Vietnam
Gilded Age 2.0?
The tensions behind the sale of U.S. Steel

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. And I'm Daryan Woods. And I'm Adrienne Ma.
0:16.9	It's not even Friday, but we're all here. And that's because every day there is like this
0:21.8	fire hose of news. So we're homing in on a few stories we think deserve closer scrutiny.
0:28.0	The New York Times just picked up a Pulitzer this week for its coverage of President Trump's
0:32.5	conflicts of interest. So today, for us, we'll talk about a few stories on this very topic. Some explore Trump's
0:39.3	financial moves that favor his friends and family. Like a Trump-linked drone company that just
0:45.1	struck a deal with the Pentagon. We'll also talk about the legal spat between crypto entrepreneur
0:49.7	Justin Sun and World Liberty Financial. That's the crypto company that was co-founded by the Trump family.
0:56.1	And we'll also cover the prominence of the steel for the new White House ballroom.
1:01.2	I won't exclaim, stop the steel.
1:03.1	Ah, you just did.
1:04.1	But anyway, you can't stop it.
1:05.6	It's already here.
1:06.6	I will tell you about it after the break.
1:12.6	Three business deals related to the president, Donald Trump.
1:17.2	Daryne Woods, kick us off.
1:19.0	So I want to talk about the Trump family's crypto venture,
1:21.4	and specifically a legal fight that's being growing between World Liberty Financial
1:26.6	and Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin
1:28.9	Sun. Justin Sun runs the crypto network Tron, which is popular among criminals looking to move
1:35.6	money around. According to a blockchain research company, TRM Labs, more than half of illegal
1:41.4	crypto activity in 2024 was going through Tron.
	...

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