Transcript
Stacey Abrams (0:00)
Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams is brought to you by bookshop.org I love reading across genres, whether it's a great sci fi novel that explains our world by taking me to a different one, an historical romance with a bold and inspiring heroine and a dashing hero, or a policy deep dive by a fellow wonk on a subject that is completely new for me. There is no limit to what I can find@bookshop.org and right now, for no particular reason, I'm reading Survive, Reset, Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times by Rebecca Homkes. When you purchase from bookshop.org, you're supporting more than 2,000 local independent bookstores across the country, ensuring they'll continue to foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading for generations to come. And there's exciting news. Bookshop.org has launched an ebook app. You can now support local independent bookstores even when you read digitally. Use Code stacy to get 10% off your next order@bookshop.org that's code Stacy S T A C e y@bookshop.org welcome to assembly required with Stacey Abrams. I'm your host, Stacey Abrams. Before we start today, I wanted to do something. I want to say thank you. Thank you for believing that the individual actions that we can take that sometimes feel too small for the moment can actually work. Across this country, more and more of us are reclaiming the fact that the government is supposed to work for us. From the mail carrier to the national park custodian, to members of Congress and yes, to the people in the White House, they work for us. And your commitment to calling, to emailing, to showing up is making a difference. Of course a handful of awkward town halls will not stop this wholesale assault on our national integrity. But. But it's an important marker and it's an important start. It's one that says we won't be silent and we won't go away because we have to remember, politicians have recognizable triggers. They respond to money, peer pressure and attention. We're going to talk about money in a minute. And peer pressure has to come from within their ranks. But we can bring attention to their complacency, we can bolster their courage, and we can remind them that a job review is coming up in 2026. So thank you for what you've done and let's keep at it. Let's keep insisting now to the issue of money. With Trump's second administration, we are seeing an escalation of the grotesque self enrichment that marked his first term and his post presidency. And it's what got him there in the first place. From foreign dignitaries spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at his Washington D.C. hotel during sensitive moments in their relations with the United States, to a post presidency hawking products like bibles, sneakers, cologne, and profiting from his massive stake in his own social media company, there has been no shortage of efforts to use his status to line his pockets. And it's by no means a new phenomenon. And Trump is not singular nor is he solely responsible for ushering in this political era of state capture, of mixed messages, of money buying power. But he is normalizing a more crooked world. We see this in the way he profits off of his position and doesn't even try to hide it anymore. You may remember his commercial that blasted through network television stations in the thick of the presidential election, one that peddled his limited edition watches that could be yours for the low, low price of $100,000. But what he left out in the ads, and what he forgets to tell us is that these watches are crypto themed and can only be purchased using bitcoin. This isn't the first time that Trump has leane unofficial role as the crypto president. A day before Trump took office, he attached his name to a crypto token, also known as a meme coin, that he called, not surprisingly, the Trump Coin. Negative points for originality, but this move was immediately followed by the launch of First Lady Melania Trump's meme coin, and the crypto ventures didn't stop there. But what has befuddled millions, including a lot of you listening today, is what exactly is crypto? How does it work? And how is Donald Trump scamming America in a whole new way. We'll get into all of this and more during today's episode, including the ways that other people with skin in the game are benefiting from having Trump on their side. There's a reason that multiple billionaire investors with crypto ties donated millions of dollars to his presidential campaign and funded dozens of congressional races. While some applaud the president for embracing digital currency and pushing it mainstream, many of us are rightfully confused, skeptical, or both. So this week, we're doing a deep dive into crypto to explore the good, the bad, and the gray areas. And as always, we'll talk about where you, the listener, come in. To accomplish all of that, we're excited to be joined by two extraordinary guests, Zeke Fox, who is an investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek, and Annie Lowery, who is a staff writer at the Atlantic covering politics and economic policy, both of whom will be here to help demystify crypto right here on Assembly Required. Zeke Fox, Annie Lowry. Welcome to Assembly Required.