Good morning, it's Sunday, August 16. A federal regulator just approved a bank charter for the Trump family's cryptocurrency company — and the official who signed off was appointed by the president himself.

Also in today's issue: Mangione pleads guilty, Nevada fake electors walk, Midwest floods break records, DNC reshapes 2028 map.

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The president of the United States now has a federally chartered bank — and the person who approved it works for him.

On Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the federal agency that oversees national banks — gave conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company to become a national trust bank. World Liberty Trust is backed by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture Trump co-founded with his three sons. The Trump family owns 38% of the company. And here's the number that should stop you mid-scroll: Trump reported $1.4 billion in crypto earnings in his 2025 financial disclosure, filed with the Office of Government Ethics. That's more than he earned from every golf course, hotel, and real estate deal combined.

Now look — the OCC is supposed to be an independent banking regulator, making sure banks operate safely and don't put your money at risk. The person running it, Comptroller Jonathan Gould, was appointed by Trump — the same Trump whose family company just received the charter. When the president profits from an industry and his own appointee approves its bank charters, every American with a savings account has reason to ask: is this serving the public, or the president's wallet?

The charter lets World Liberty Trust issue and manage USD1, a stablecoin — a digital token pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar, backed by Treasury bonds and cash, with a market cap of roughly $4 billion. A bank tied to the sitting president would directly manage billions in dollar-pegged assets. And this is where things get more complicated.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a company backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates — purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. Eric Trump signed the deal days before the January 2025 inauguration. It was never publicly disclosed. Weeks later, the U.S. agreed to give the UAE access to 500,000 advanced AI chips per year.

Here's the honest truth about why this is different from past ethics concerns. During Trump's first term, the debate was about foreign diplomats booking hotel rooms — thousands of dollars. This is half a billion from a foreign government official flowing into a company the president co-founded, now holding a federal bank charter approved by his own appointee.

The OCC noted the charter complies with the GENIUS Act — the stablecoin law Congress passed in 2025. Other crypto firms like Coinbase and Circle have received similar approvals. The charter itself isn't unique. What's unique is who owns the company, who profits, and who signed off. Five Democratic senators led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts launched a probe in July into the deal's national security risks. But conflict-of-interest laws exempt the president — leaving Congress with questions and no legal remedy.

Watch for whether the OCC grants final approval and whether the Senate probe produces subpoenas. This isn't really about crypto. It's about whether financial regulation can function when the regulator's boss has a billion-dollar stake in the outcome.

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Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges. Luigi Mangione, the 28-year-old who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk in December 2024, pleaded guilty Thursday to two federal stalking charges — without a plea deal. "I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died," he told U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett. In his courtroom statement, Mangione took aim at the health insurance industry, noting UnitedHealthcare responded to a fake investor email he sent within an hour — while patients routinely face weeks of delays and denials. Prosecutors told reporters they will seek life in prison; sentencing guidelines suggest 24 to 30 years. Sentencing is set for December 18. His separate state murder trial in Manhattan is scheduled for September 8, and his defense argues that double jeopardy — being tried twice for the same act — should block it.

Nevada fake elector charges dismissed for the second time. Clark County Judge Mary Kay Holthus on Wednesday threw out forgery charges against six Nevada Republicans who submitted a false electoral certificate declaring Trump the winner of the state's 2020 election. The judge ruled prosecutors failed to prove intent to defraud and criticized the attorney general's office for withholding evidence from the grand jury. Nevada is now the fourth state — after Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona — where fake elector cases have collapsed. Only Wisconsin's prosecution, where Attorney General Josh Kaul filed charges against three alleged scheme architects, remains active. AG Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said he will appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court. Nearly six years after the most organized attempt to override a presidential election, the legal system has produced almost no accountability.

Midwest flooding hits worst levels in over 30 years. Historic flooding across central Indiana escalated Friday as Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett ordered evacuations along the White River, declaring a local emergency. The river crested at 24.9 feet in Anderson, Indiana — smashing a record that had stood since 1913. Five deaths have been confirmed across the state; more than 150,000 people lost power in Indiana and Ohio. Governor Mike Braun requested FEMA emergency assistance, and National Guard vehicles joined rescue crews. Here's the buried problem: according to the First Street Foundation, FEMA's flood maps undercount at-risk properties by more than half, meaning many of the affected families likely carry no flood insurance. When the water recedes, those repair bills will land on homeowners who never knew they were in a flood zone.

DNC locks in its 2028 primary calendar. The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved a new presidential primary schedule at its summer meeting in Austin, Texas. South Carolina goes first on January 22, 2028, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia — all before Super Tuesday. Iowa, which led Democratic nominations for decades, was removed from the early lineup entirely. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart pushed back, noting that no Midwest or Mountain-time-zone state made the first four spots. The shift puts states with large Black, Latino, and union-member populations at the front of the process — a direct response to the demographic gaps that hurt Democrats in 2024. DNC Chair Ken Martin warned that if New Hampshire tries to jump ahead again, as it did last cycle, punishment will be more severe. The party is betting the road to the White House starts in the Deep South, not the corn belt.

That's how much President Trump earned from crypto ventures in 2025, according to his annual financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics. The same year his administration began approving federal bank charters for crypto firms — including his family's own.

P.S. Should a president profit from banks his appointees approve? Hit Reply — one word is enough.