Newsom wants to issue “Trump corruption currency”. How many “outrageous actions” will the new US president perform after

Current California Governor Gavin Newsom and current US President Trump have been in constant conflict in recent years.

Recently, Newsom said on Pivot, a podcast hosted by technology reporter Kara Swisher and New York University professor Scott Galloway, that he plans to issue a “Trump Corruption Coin” to satirize Trump’s use of cryptocurrency for personal gain.

In the podcast, Newsom’s criticism of Trump was very sharp, and this “deep hatred” did not arise overnight. The months-long tension between the two sides was the cry of some American people who deeply hated Trump’s abuse of power for personal gain. It was also a microcosm of the donkey-elephant dispute in the United States.

Trump’s corruption controversy is a long-standing issue. According to a Washington Post investigation, the Trump International Hotel hosted official delegations from at least 47 countries between 2017 and 2020. The Saudi Arabian government spent over $270,000 at the hotel, while the US government’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the same period reached $110 billion. This practice of exchanging preferential policies for commercial rewards is shocking.

During their presidency, which began in 2025, the Trump family is best known in the Web 3 industry for issuing the meme token TRUMP and launching World Liberty Financial. According to the New York Times, as of July 1st of this year, Trump and his partners held $6.9 billion worth of TRUMP and 15 billion Wi-Fi tokens through World Liberty Financial. The Wi-Fi presale saw generous donations from individuals and institutions including Justin Sun, DWF Labs, and the Aqua 1 Foundation.

In late May of this year, Trump hosted a dinner at his private country club outside Washington for the top 220 TRUMP token holders. Hoping to capitalize on the opportunity, those eager to “climb the ladder” rushed out to buy TRUMP tokens before the event began. However, the outcome was a surprise to many. Not only did Trump only make a brief appearance and deliver a nonsensical speech, but the previously advertised “close encounter” with Trump was absent, and the food was so mediocre it was unappealing. Such behavior by a president sparked public protests.

A White House spokesman insisted that the Trump family’s actions in cryptocurrency were led by a family trust and had nothing to do with Trump himself. In fact, the TRUMP and WIFI tokens are just the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s “corruption” during this term.

The most controversial event for Trump this year has been the US Department of Defense’s announcement on May 21st that it had accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar. Xinhua News Agency reported that critics have pointed out that the president’s acceptance of a high-value gift from a foreign government may violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional consent. This clause is intended to prevent government officials from favoring the gift-giving country due to expensive gifts, thereby causing their foreign policy decisions to deviate from national interests.

Trump, relevant US government departments, and Qatari officials have all argued that the aircraft was donated to the United States, not Trump personally. Democrats have also seized the opportunity to attack, with Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee stating they have launched an investigation into the matter and demanding that the Trump administration submit legal documents explaining the legality of accepting the aircraft.

Similar examples have become numerous in just a few months. Since taking office, Trump has abolished 50-year-old government ethics regulations, laid off oversight agencies, and relaxed restrictions on lobbying and foreign bribery. He has also limited enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, citing “national security” as a pretext, effectively protecting American companies and their associated politicians from engaging in overseas bribery.

Trump also lent his full support to the financial backers who helped him win the election. Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, a rising American car manufacturer, was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors, but was pardoned after he and his wife donated $1.8 million to Trump’s campaign. Jared Isaacman, a major investor in Musk’s SpaceX, also became the youngest administrator of NASA with the support of Musk and Trump. Musk himself was granted “special government employee” status, which circumvented asset disclosure and conflict of interest scrutiny. Of course, the falling-out between the two is a story for another time.

In an article titled “Trump Abuses His Power to ‘Make Money,’ Why Aren’t Americans Outraged?”, the New York Times commented that the US may have become numb to presidential abuses of power, which has become, to some extent, an “unspoken rule.” To paraphrase Trump’s son, his low-key approach during his first term was widely criticized, making it better to act openly and honestly. Regarding the Trump family’s brazen behavior, Michael Johnston, a professor emeritus at Colgate University and author of several books on American corruption, stated, “I’ve been following and writing about corruption for 50 years, and I’m still shocked.” Even with Trump’s high profile, unless the Democrats deliberately use this as an excuse to bring him down, the Republican Party and the interest groups behind it remain a difficult barrier for any individual or organization to easily destabilize.

The current California Governor Newsom seems to be the “boxer” most likely to fight Trump at the moment.

Newsom, who took office in 2019, has always been a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party. Immediately upon taking office, he signed SB 54, a bill prohibiting state police from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in arresting illegal immigrants. Later, the Trump administration sued California, alleging its “sanctuary state” status was unconstitutional and threatening to cut federal funding. Newsom responded forcefully, saying, “If you dare, go arrest people in California.” After a second trial, the federal court ruled that the White House must continue to provide funding, but California must also hand over certain data. This marked the beginning of a feud between the two.

After that, the two sides frequently exchanged blows, and the incident that completely broke Newsom’s defense happened in June this year.

More than two months ago, after ICE raids on immigrant communities sparked unrest, Trump, without Newsom’s approval, ordered 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles. Newsom immediately sued Trump and the Secretary of Defense for unconstitutional action and joined 22 Democratic governors in condemning the “federal misuse of the military.” Since then, the two have escalated from mutual dislike to a cyberwar of words. In the podcast mentioned at the beginning of this article, Newsom unleashed a furious barrage of criticism against Trump.

From immigration to troop deployments, the conflict between Newsom and Trump has evolved beyond policy disagreements to encompass an institutional confrontation between federal centralization and state autonomy, and between red America and blue America. Newsom, who has repeatedly expressed no interest in the presidency, first raised the possibility of a run this year. The potential 2028 presidential showdown between the two makes the “California vs. White House” drama increasingly resemble a presidential frontrunner.

Some have recently argued that the Trump administration’s shocking acquisition of a stake in Intel represents a plan to implement “state capitalism” to save the United States, a policy that conflicts sharply with the nation’s long-standing commitment to a free market. While Trump’s flurry of unconventional tactics has produced some results, they have also exposed corruption, with cryptocurrency becoming an unintended beneficiary of the political struggle.

Despite strong support for cryptocurrency in the US Congress, many state cryptocurrency reserve bills have yet to make it past the governor’s desk. Web 3 industry lobbying is a significant source of funding, and while the US’s current support for Web 3 is undoubtedly beneficial to the industry’s development, it’s not necessarily motivated by good intentions. While the federal government appears to be open to crypto, it’s actually harboring undercurrents.

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