[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 103 (Monday, June 16, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GENIUS ACT

  Mr. DURBIN. On another topic, over the weekend, President Trump 
hosted a military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. 
Army and, coincidentally, his 79th birthday.
  Spending up to $45 million of taxpayers' money on this kind of pomp 
and circumstance, while at the same time proposing a budget to 
eviscerate medical research for the military and to take health 
insurance away from 16 million Americans is not a cause for national 
celebration.
  Meanwhile, the President's crypto business unfolds. Throughout his 
first term, President Trump was officially skeptical of crypto 
currency. In a social media post from July 11, 2019, the President 
said:

       I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which 
     are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based 
     on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate 
     unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal 
     activity.

  That is a quote from the President in his first term. Once the 
President figured out how to personally make this part of his 
investment portfolio, his tune changed.
  This is how President Trump is using the unregulated crypto industry 
to enrich himself and his family. Three days before he took office, 
President Trump launched his meme coin, a novelty item similar to 
baseball cards or Beanie Babies. Yet they hold no intrinsic value.
  Meme coins are risky and highly volatile. Despite the risk, many 
investors purchased President Trump's meme coin, and in the first few 
weeks after its launch, the President, in his second term, profited up 
to $100 million in trading fees, while more than 200,000 investors lost 
money. There has never been a precedent for anything like this in the 
history of the Presidency.
  Then President Trump auctioned off access to himself by hosting a 
``crypto gala'' dinner here in Washington. The President made a 
whopping $148 million just off this dinner, from 220 investors willing 
to pay for face time with the President. But nearly half of the 
``winners'' of this meme coin competition were still ``losers.'' About 
95 attendees suffered a net $8.95 million loss by purchasing President 
Trump's meme coin. In total, 764,000 investors lost money to President 
Trump's meme coin scam.
  But his corruption does not stop there. His family started its own 
crypto firm now, World Liberty Financial, and, in March, they launched 
their own stablecoin, right as the Senate was working on the GENIUS 
Act, legislation to regulate--so-called regulate--the stablecoin 
market.
  Conveniently, this legislation allows the President and his family to 
continue owning and issuing stablecoins. There has never been anything 
like this in the history of the Presidency. Passing the GENIUS Act will 
help the stablecoin market grow tenfold, over the next 3 years, to a $2 
trillion market.
  I am going to vote no on this legislation when it comes up this week. 
We prohibit Members of Congress from activity in crypto currency. The 
same should be true for the Presidency. Why are we having two different 
standards? I think the answer is obvious.
  That means, if the Senate passes this legislation tomorrow, it would 
give Congress's blessing for President Trump and his family to further 
enrich themselves, with very little protection for consumers.
  President Trump's crypto dealings, reportedly, account for nearly 40 
percent of his net worth. All of the years and decades of investment 
notwithstanding, 40 percent of President Trump's net worth has been 
generated in just a few months in the second term of his Presidency 
with this cryptocurrency. In just a few months, the family--the Trump 
family--has pulled in approximately $1 billion from crypto--$1 billion.
  Tomorrow's vote on the GENIUS Act could bring us closer to enabling 
President Trump's latest scam. This is shameful; it is corrupt--
especially since we could have stopped this from happening if we had 
conducted an open amendment process, as Leader Thune promised. We could 
have had amendments on the floor that would have brought real 
regulation to this industry. Instead, we have phony regulation.
  I filed an amendment to crack down on ATM operators who are scamming 
seniors out of their life savings with crypto machines. My amendment 
would have created guardrails to prevent crypto ATM fraud. 
Approximately 13 States have done so, and we should do so on a national 
basis.
  But we won't have that opportunity. They have foreclosed all 
amendments to this bill. We can't even debate it on the floor and ask 
for a vote.
  Instead, the GENIUS Act will allow the crypto scam to continue at the 
expense of unsuspecting Americans and to the enrichment of the 
President and his family.
  I yield the floor.

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