How Trump is making coin from $TRUMP coin

Just before Trump began his second administration in January, he and his business partners launched the $TRUMP coin. It's a meme coin that quickly raked in hundreds of millions of dollars. And there's a lot of earning potential still left on the table. Is any of this legal? <br /><br />Today on the show, we examine how the $TRUMP coin works and talk to an expert about how the president's meme coin gambit interacts with the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. <br /><br /><strong>Related episodes: <br /></strong><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/1230610862/crypto-peanut-the-squirrel-became-memecoin" target="_blank">How the memecoin game is played</a> <br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/1245044457/did-trump-enable-insider-trading" target="_blank">Did Trump enable insider trading?</a> <br /><br /><em>For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at </em><a href="http://plus.npr.org/" target="_blank"><em>plus.npr.org</em></a><em>. <br /><br />Fact-checking by </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-26724/sierra-juarez" target="_blank"><em>Sierra Juarez</em></a><em>. Music by </em><a href="https://dropelectric.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"><em>Drop Electric</em></a><em>. Find us: </em><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>TikTok</em></a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/planetmoney/" target="_blank"><em>Instagram</em></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/money" target="_blank"><em>Newsletter</em></a><em>. </em><br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>