The Pump and Dump Presidency (w/ Jacob Silverman)

Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history, and it isn't close. Between his family's crypto business — designed to enable foreign oligarchs, criminals, and state actors to bribe the administration while enriching Trump and his family — his insider trading and manipulation of the stock market, a tariff regime designed to bind business interests to Trump's personal whims, and the advent of a virtual market for criminal fraudsters to purchase pardons from the president himself, Trump and his family have accrued billions of dollars while hollowing out the rule of law and corroding what's left of our democracy. It is brazen, appalling, and poisonous.

To guide us through this many-circled hell, we're joined by Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, who's been covering the crypto beat and the Trump-family corruption for years. Jacob helps us wrap our heads around the immensity of this problem — and what, if anything, can be done about it. 

Further Reading:

Jacob Silverman, "Teapot Dome. Watergate. They’re Nothing Compared With This." NYTimes, Oct 17, 2025.

— "Zyn and hustling in Las Vegas: Three days at the world's biggest Bitcoin party," Business Insider, Jun 6, 2025. 

— "Binance’s MAGA-Branding Strategy," The Nation, Feb 27, 2026. 

— "He Will Steal As Much As You Let Him," Jacob Silverman Substack, Jul 11, 2025.

Thomas Edsall, "‘A Blatant and Gargantuan Conflict of Interest,'" NYTimes, Aug 18, 2026.

U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary, Democrats. "Trump, Crypto, and a New Age of Corruption," Nov 24, 2025.

Michael Waldman, "Epic Corruption in Plain Sight," Brennan Center, May 19, 2026.

John Ganz, "Trump's Third-Worldism," Unpopular Front, Aug 24, 2026.

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