In an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, President Trump defended his family’s involvement in cryptocurrency, arguing there is “nothing illegal” or improper about their business activities. “Well I feel badly in a way for my kids, because every time my kids do, if they invest in a stock, or they go and do a bill, anything they do, because the presidency is so powerful, so big, everything, if they buy a cupcake company, well, the energy to make the cupcakes is sort of like, how’s my energy policy, so therefore you have a conflict,” Trump said. “Almost anything they do, if they want to buy a truck, if they want to buy, you know, if they buy an energy efficient truck, they have inside information. So it’s pretty tough in that sense. I tell my kids, stay away from as much as you can stay away from, but they also have a life, you know.”

JOE KERNEN, CNBC: To run the country, and all along you entered as a billionaire businessman, which was unprecedented. I think George Washington owned a lot of land, but no one’s ever, think JFK had a trust fund, but, but no one’s ever been as wealthy as you, and you obviously know how to run a business, and that, I think, informs the way you run the country, obviously. Now many people argue business experience is needed in government, and we’ve seen the stock market in the first term and the second term, I think, I think it’s been rewarded to have a businessman in there. So, I think we shouldn’t be surprised that your businesses are doing well. But how would you counter critics that say you’re using the presidency to enrich yourself and your family? PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, in a lot of ways, if you think about it, the stock has gone up so much. The stock market today, it’s up 500 points, it’s up to almost 53,000. You know, I watched your show, and you had somebody on, one of your brilliant analysts, and they said, if I had won the election, they said, if President Trump could get the stock market to anywhere near 50,000 that would be an unbelievable achievement. And that was over four years. In other words, at the end of his term, four years, if he could get anywhere near 50,000 that would be, well, it’s at 53,000- KERNEN: Right. PRESIDENT TRUMP: Just a couple of points short of 53,000 right now, and that’s essentially after a little bit more than a year. KERNEN: But do you worry that if they take, if the Democrats were to win the House, that there’s going to be endless investigations of you and your administration? PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you know, I don’t do anything having to do with my business. My kids run it. I put a lot of money, I had a lot of money, and I have a lot of money and I’ve always made, I’ve made money, you know. I’m a business person. KERNEN: Right. PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m a really good business person. I’ve made money, I’ve made a tremendous amount of money, more than I would have ever thought I would have made. And I let people invest it. I don’t even speak to, I don’t even know who they are, but it’s given to big firms like that are on your show all the time. My son Eric handles it. I don’t talk to him about things such as this. I think I’d be allowed to. I’m not sure even what the status is, but I don’t. KERNEN: Well- PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he gives it into these like semi-blind trusts, or blind trusts, where people invest. There was a story today about Jensen Huang, who’s fantastic, NVIDIA, and that I have some stock. I think it’s very small. I think it’s one of many companies that one of the big Wall Street firms invests in, and so they said, oh, Trump has some stock in there. KERNEN: But- PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t care about that. KERNEN: How about crypto? PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know why I don’t care? KERNEN: Yeah. PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I have a much bigger purpose. You know, this, this is the Oval Office. It’s a much bigger purpose than whether or not I make money. As an example, the president is the highest paid person in government, and you know, by some standards, he gets a lot of money. I don’t. I’m the only president they say that’s ever given up my salary, I gave up my salary. KERNEN: Right. PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t get a salary, I gave it up, and that’s a lot of, you know, by some standards, that’s a lot of money. KERNEN: But making money in the stock market that makes sense. So, as far as crypto goes, and I’m just wondering, you, you didn’t divest your business, you have your sons running it. PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. KERNEN: I think vice presidents and presidents aren’t subject really to conflict of interests, laws, but there’s this, this notion that you need to be aware of conflict of interest. There was a large sum of money made in crypto. Did you know that your family business was going to engage in crypto? Did you have anything? PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I was here before, I was there before I was in office, but the way I view crypto’s a little differently, we have to be at the top, otherwise China’s going to take it over. Like, for instance, AI, we’re leading substantially in AI over China and everybody else. I mean, we’re leading. When I was with President Xi three weeks ago, he greeted me, and he, his first words, I mean, literally were, Wow, you’ve really done a great job. You’ve really, because this country was dead, we had a dead country. Now we have the hottest country in the world. And the way I look at AI, or the way I look at crypto, is if we’re not going to do it, China’s going to get it, most likely China- KERNEN: No doubt. PRESIDENT TRUMP: Or somebody else. Japan is, somebody else, and I want to, it’s a big industry, crypto, if you call it an industry, but it’s a big deal, and crypto is a big deal. You look at it the way it’s grown over the years, you have believers, you don’t have believers, you know, whatever it is, but it’s a big deal, and anything we do, I want to be number one in, and we’re number one in crypto, and we’re also number one in AI. KERNEN: In the disclosure this week, the amount of money that you and the family made in crypto, it was an outsized number. I was just asking, did you, or you know about the crypto ventures? PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. KERNEN: So, so that was just something- PRESIDENT TRUMP: By the way- KERNEN: Yeah. PRESIDENT TRUMP: I could know about it. KERNEN: What I’ve said, right. PRESIDENT TRUMP: I didn’t, I mean, there’s nothing illegal, there’s nothing wrong with it. I could know. KERNEN: There’s a specific, I think it’s, remember Title 18, Section 208 from Congress, you, the Vice President, and you do not have, you would have to recuse yourself- PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know I didn’t even know that. How do you know that- KERNEN: You would have to recuse yourself on every decision that could, running the country that could have anything to do with you, so it just isn’t feasible to do it- PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well I feel badly in a way for my kids, because every time my kids do, if they invest in a stock, or they go and do a bill, anything they do, because the presidency is so powerful, so big, everything, if they buy a cupcake company, well, the energy to make the cupcakes is sort of like, how’s my energy policy, so therefore you have a conflict. Almost anything they do, if they want to buy a truck, if they want to buy, you know, if they buy an energy efficient truck, they have inside information. So it’s pretty tough in that sense. I tell my kids, stay away from as much as you can stay away from, but they also have a life, you know. They, we were doing business long before I ever thought of, you knew me a long time before I thought of even running. You knew me before I even thought about running for president.

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