Exclusive: Coinbase explains donation to Trump's ballroom
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Coinbase President and COO Emilie Choi speaks at Axios' BFD event. Screenshot: Axios.
Coinbase donated to President Trump's $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange's president and COO, said at Axios' BFD event on Tuesday.
The big picture: Major companies including Google, Amazon, Palantir Technologies donated to the project, which critics have argued amounts to a pay-for-play relationship with the federal government.
Driving the news: Axios' Dan Primack asked Choi whether the donation was intended "to keep good relations with the White House," to which she replied "sure."
What they're saying: "Frankly I don't even have a problem" with the donation, Choi said.
- "I think if you go to D.C., there's a lot of buildings that need to be updated, and so if private industry has to do that, it is what it is."
Catch up quick: The Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit that partners with the National Parks Service, is accepting and managing donations for the ballroom renovation.
- Choi explained that Coinbase "made a check" to the nonprofit.
- "We give a lot to different foundations now," she said, adding that "the specifics of it, we we weren't aware of."
Zoom out: The White House released a list of 37 donors last month, which included Meta, Apple, Lockheed Martin, and T-Mobile.
- A $24.5 million settlement between the president and YouTube will also support the ballroom.
Flashback: Trump held a thank you dinner for donors last month, noting that some of them offered as much as $25 million for the ballroom.
Yes, but: Ethics experts told Axios that the donations and dinner set a dangerous precedent.
- Don Fox, former acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, told Axios' Avery Lotz that events such as the dinner have a "potential coercive effect on people to donate," noting, "one of the president's favorite words is retribution."
- Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law professor, said it fosters "a favorable atmosphere of gratitude and reciprocity."
- When "there's personal solicitation and personal response," he added, "that just increases the likelihood that there'll be the give and take."
