House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared blasé over concerns that Donald Trump is using his presidential power to help line his pockets, arguing that, unlike Joe Biden, the president does “everything out in the open.”
While speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday, the GOP congressman rushed to the president’s defense over alleged conflicts of interest stemming from a recent private dinner with top investors in his meme coin, $TRUMP.
Brushing off Trump corruption concerns, Johnson instead took aim at the “Biden crime family.”
The Republican questioned whether people could buy access to the former president through his son, Hunter Biden, despite a House Republican report concluding that there was no evidence of impeachable offenses or wrongdoing by Joe Biden.
“The difference, of course, is that President Trump does everything out in the open. He’s not trying to hide anything,” Johnson said. “There's no shell companies or fake LLCs or fake family businesses. He’s putting it out there, so everybody can evaluate for themselves.”
Trump threw a black-tie gala for the top 220 buyers of his meme coin Thursday night at his Virginia golf club. The president flew in on Marine One and spoke at a lectern emblazoned with the presidential seal.
The White House argued that it was a “private” event and he was “attending it in his personal time.”
With the guest list for Thursday’s cryptocurrency dinner firmly under wraps, several lawmakers voice ethical concerns about investors' potential to sway the president on crypto policy.
When pressed about the public being made aware of who attended the president’s dinner, Johnson conceded, “I guess.”
Johnson said that he had no knowledge of the dinner due to his busy work schedule shepherding Trump’s one “big, beautiful bill” through the House last week, before adding that Trump has “nothing to hide.”
“I mean, again, I don’t know anything about that dinner. I do know that President Trump is the most transparent president in the most transparent administration, probably in history. He has nothing to hide,” he said.
It’s not the first time that Johnson has attempted to distance himself from Trump’s meme coin venture.
On May 14, Johnson told reporters that he knows nothing “about the meme coin thing.”
“I don’t know, I can just tell you that, I mean, President Trump has nothing to hide. He’s very upfront about it,” he said. “There are people who watch all the ethics of that, but I mean, I’ve got to be concerned with running the House of Representatives.”
