U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025.
CNN chief national correspondent John King says Republican sources are reacting with disbelief when hearing of President Donald Trump’s latest bid for self-enrichment.
Trump recently purported to having gotten inflation “totally in control, and we've done a great job,” while adding that “I haven't done a good job with is explaining it to people.”
But in keeping him honest, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said Thursday that “costs are not down. They're up. They're rising faster than they were when he took office.” Additionally, Trump’s approval numbers suggest a growing number of voters “simply are not buying what he is selling the way they did at the start of his second term.”
According to the latest financial filings, Cooper said cryptocurrency ventures are putting over $1 billion a year in the president's pocket, and he asked King if voters are noticing how much he's enriching himself while in office.
But King said it’s not just voters who are noticing Trump’s schemes and beating down their own doors to go vote against them in early returns.
“Among the most loyal Trump voters, I was texting a bunch of them today. Remember, a lot of them don't see these stories. They watch and live and breathe in the MAGA media ecosystem that doesn't tell them bad things or questionable things or ethical things about the president of United States,” King told Cooper. “I texted our CNN story to several today. One said, ‘this guy is out of his mind,’ but then five minutes later texted me back: ‘are you sure this [story] is legitimate?”
The story, King said, sounded so unreal as to need assurance that it was not “fake news.”
King added that a voter he interviewed in the contentious state of Georgia said she had “invested in two of Trump’s crypto funds and lost about $20,000.”
“She blames the president for that, and she's mad at the Republicans,” said King. “Now she's planning to vote Democrat for Senate in a very big race there in Georgia.”
“The most important group, Anderson, are those Republicans who voted for Trump maybe twice,” added King. “Or they voted Trump, Biden and then back to Trump because they thought he would fix the economy.”
These groups, according to voter groups King had been texting, say the president “is not focused on what they care about most. They think he's just lost, that he's doing things that are all about him and not about them.
Democrats, meanwhile, are cooking with energy this cycle, said King.
“When you talk to Democrats, ‘grift’ is a word that comes up often, and they are highly motivated by it. Don't get me wrong: ‘affordability’ is the biggest issue in this election. But Democrats who already didn't like trump, think he is using his office to enrich himself. And they are highly motivated. And they say that's the reason they will run through a brick wall to vote on Election Day," King warned.
From Your Site Articles
- MAGA investors lost their shirts in 'legal scam' that brought Trump billions ›
- Trump voters learn the hard way: Trump 'hates' them ›
- How Trump made more than $1 billion in a year off a 'scam' ›
Related Articles Around the Web
- Under the Trump crypto playbook, the family always wins. Investors don’t | Reuters ›
- 'How much more money does he need?' Crypto bros furious at Trump over his 'cash grab' - Raw Story ›
- ‘I have never seen such open corruption’: Trump’s crypto deals and loosening of rules shock observers | Trump administration | The Guardian ›