Martin Shkreli Joins Trump Crypto Game in the Weirdest Way Ever

Disgraced former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli claimed Wednesday that he and Barron Trump are responsible for a mysterious Trump-branded meme cryptocurrency.

The token, named “Trump Coin,” sparked confusion and interest since it was registered on the Solana blockchain platform earlier this week, as it bears the same DJT symbol as the stock symbol for Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social. Rumors that Trump was linked to the coin sent its value skyrocketing by 385 percent within 24 hours, and it amassed a trading volume of $363 million, according to The Block.

It wasn’t long before Arkham Intelligence, a data analytics firm, promised a $150 thousand bounty to anyone who discovered who was behind the asset. Within hours, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT posted a series of screenshots to X, formerly Twitter, claiming that he’d cracked it: The token was invented by the infamous “Pharma Bro” himself, who is best known for artificially raising the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000 percent.

Seemingly angry at the investigator’s revelation and the subsequent wave of skeptics undermining Shkreli’s claim to the coin, the disgraced former pharmaceutical executive leapt to the mic. On Wednesday afternoon, he participated in a live Space broadcast on X to explain his involvement in the company.

Shkreli claimed that he was approached about making a meme coin with Barron Trump by the 18 year-old’s friend Cameron. Shkreli said he has since established a “friendship” with the former president’s son, whom he credits as the “mastermind” behind the coin.

“I was surprised. It was the president’s son, [which] seems like a good idea,” Shkreli said, laughing. He noted that Barron claimed that the presumptive Republican nominee approved of the project and thought it was “great.”

Shkreli became adversarial when asked if the token was created to raise money for Trump’s presidential campaign. “Whatever, the goal was to sell NFTs, make money,” he snapped, denying that the meme coin was a moneymaking scheme for Trump.

Instead, he claimed the funds were meant for Barron, who was expected to get “everything, everything, everything. Period.”

Meanwhile, Shkreli said his own financial incentive was “nonexistent,” and he just “wanted to see where it would go.”

“There’s nothing wrong with creating a meme coin,” Shkreli insisted. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting up an LP, and selling it to people you know.”

According to Shkreli, only a “Trump family member” has a private key, the tool that would allow someone to access and manage the funds raised.

The possibility of financial gain aside, getting involved in crypto could be a way for Trump to attract fans involved in the highly lucrative field.

“I’m glad President Trump and his campaign are leaning into crypto, including accepting it—he’s ahead of the curve, “ failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Fox Business earlier this week.

“Embracing crypto will help Trump continue to bring libertarians and your not-typical Republicans into the fold—it’s a winning issue.”

Ultimately, Shkreli was unable to provide any real proof that he’d collaborated with Barron on the meme coin, and the Trump family and campaign have yet to release a statement or acknowledge Shkreli’s claims.

Former Congressman George Santos is taking his moneymaking schemes to OnlyFans.

The embattled ex-representative announced Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter) that he is now on the subscription-based platform famous for paid adult content.

Santos, who was expelled from Congress last year amid 23 federal charges for conspiracy, false statements, and multiple kinds of fraud, says that he isn’t going to contribute adult content to the site and just “wanted to stir the pot.”

Ever since getting expelled from Congress, Santos has attempted to earn money in a number of different ways, including selling personalized messages on Cameo. He brought back Kitara Ravache, the drag persona he long denied using, to make money on the platform. In addition, Santos engaged in a failed bid to return to Congress after raising very little, if any money.

It’s ironic that Santos is trying to earn money on OnlyFans, considering that a House Ethics Committee report from November showed that he used campaign funds on OnlyFans purchases, in addition to designer goods, makeup, and “spa services and/or cosmetic procedures,” including Botox. Perhaps now, he wants to collect from the website instead of paying content creators there.

Santos’s many lies followed him throughout his time in Congress. He was caught fabricating his résumé and lying about being related to Holocaust survivors, being “Jew-ish,” having connections to the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, the kidnapping of his niece, and credit card fraud. In the end, it was enough to get him tossed out of the House of Representatives, but not from the public eye.

Santos’s next court proceeding is scheduled for August 13, with a trial expected in September. There’s no word on if he’ll show up with his trademark blazer and sweater or in his drag persona. Either way, OnlyFans will be the outfit that has the potential to raise him the most money, perhaps to pay for his legal fees.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a law Wednesday mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, in a startlingly clear demonstration of the blurring lines between church and state.

According to the legislation, the commandments displays would be paid for through donations, not through state funds. The law also authorizes classrooms to put up the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance—but it does not require those documents to be displayed.

The law describes the Ten Commandments not as the religious edict that they plainly are, but as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

If that’s truly the case, then where is Louisiana’s law requiring the United States Constitution—with its Establishment Clause prohibiting the state from instituting legislation “respecting an establishment of religion”—to be hung in “large, easily readable font”?

In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in Kentucky was unconstitutional, because posting the commandments had a blatantly religious purpose, not a secular one. Now, it’s unlikely that the current Supreme Court would rule similarly.

Violations of this particular section of the U.S. Constitution have become only too easy since the Supreme Court decision Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the case of the coach who was dismissed for holding massive public prayers at school, only to quit as soon as he got his job back. The court’s ruling that Joe Kennedy’s prayers did not violate the First Amendment is also to thank for a spate of Satanic clubs across the country, which are now permitted to operate under the same guidance.

The House Ethics Committee’s investigation of Representative Matt Gaetz, ABC News reports, has a new development: a witness has come forward saying that the Florida congressman paid her for sex.

The committee has interviewed at least six women who were witnesses in the Justice Department’s 2020 sex trafficking investigation of Gaetz, sources told the news outlet. These women allegedly attended parties Gaetz attended, paid for by Gaetz’s former friend Joel Greenberg.

Investigators reportedly asked these women, some of whom are cooperating and others of whom have been subpoenaed, about Venmo payments allegedly from Gaetz and whether those were for sex. One woman told the committee that she did in fact receive a payment in exchange for sex, while other witnesses said they were paid to attend parties where Gaetz was present that included drugs and sex, according to ABC News.

Gaetz has denounced the expanded investigation, calling it “frivolous” and “Soviet-esque.” The previous DOJ investigation didn’t result in any charges against Gaetz, although Greenberg is serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison for multiple charges, including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other “adult men.”

Gaetz posted on X yesterday that the House Ethics Committee was “doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.” He also blamed former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, hinting that McCarthy was attempting some payback over Gaetz’s efforts to oust the California Republican from the speakership.

At the time, Gaetz claimed that he was opposing McCarthy over the latter’s work with Democrats, but leaked private communications between Gaetz and a close friend later revealed that he took action against McCarthy for refusing to stop the House probe into Gaetz’s alleged sexual misconduct.

In addition to the latest revelations, the probe has revealed that Gaetz would show videos of his sexual conquests to other staffers and members of Congress on Capitol Hill, and bragged about using erectile dysfunction medicine–energy cocktails to “go all night.”

If the bosses at Boeing intended for CEO Dave Calhoun’s performance during a Senate hearing to smooth over the company’s abject turmoil, they were woefully mistaken.

Calhoun was forced Tuesday to answer on the record whether the embattled aerospace company had retaliated against any of the more than a dozen whistleblowers who have raised concerns over the safety standards and ethics of the company, and he gave the answer many already suspected to be true.

“I know it happens,” said Calhoun, adding that the company had taken action against those who had retaliated.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, who asked Calhoun the question, also read testimony from the late John Barnett, a Boeing whistleblower who was found dead in his vehicle from what police said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In his opening remarks, Blumenthal said that Barnett had “committed suicide under the immense pressure the company put on him for raising safety claims.”

Barnett, who brought up concerns about missing parts, was apparently called by one of his supervisors 19 times in one day, and was told, “I’m going to push you until you break.”

Blumenthal recounted Barnett’s testimony in which he said one of his coworkers was physically assaulted for raising concerns about safety. The senator asked whether Calhoun had followed up on this report, and the CEO said he didn’t know.

Calhoun was also absolutely decimated by a surprisingly strong line of questioning from the blatantly opportunist Senator Josh Hawley, who demanded that he should resign. But after the hearing ended, Calhoun’s humiliation was still far from over.

Nadia Milleron, whose daughter was killed in a 2019 Boeing crash, tore into Calhoun Tuesday night during an interview on CNN for his opening apology to the family members of people who died in two 737 Max crashes. “I apologize to the grief we have caused,” he’d said, turning to face the family members present in the Senate chamber. “I want you to know we are totally committed to work focused on safety.”

Milleron wasn’t so convinced. “It wasn’t a real apology. What he was doing is he doesn’t want us to know the details of how it happened,” she told CNN’s Abby Phillip.

Milleron recounted making eye contact with Calhoun as he gave his apology. “He looked at me in the eye and he said, ‘I am sorry,’ and I said, ‘You are sorry? Are you sorry for the bombs Boeing produced that kill innocent kids in Rafah? Are you sorry for that, too?’”

Boeing helped to develop Israel’s missile defense system, and has continued to arm the Israeli Defense Forces as it wages its brutal military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people, including thousands of young children.

“Like how can he sleep?” MIlleron asked rhetorically. “This person is a psychopath. We can not have people running these companies that do not care about human life. We have to have responsible people running these companies.”