Trump's Crypto Endorsement Backfires: Lobbyist's Ripple Connection Sparks Fury

Holy smokes! President Donald Trump was totally played by a slick lobbyist with ties to Ripple, leading him to shout out certain cryptos on Truth Social. The post, which came out in March, talked about setting up a U.S. crypto reserve, but it ended up causing a huge mess and getting the lobbyist booted from Trump's inner circle!

So, Trump goes and posts on Truth Social, hyping up Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA) as the stars of a new U.S. "Crypto Strategic Reserve." But guess what? The real drama wasn't about the market—it was about who wrote that message!

According to the folks at Politico, Trump dropped this bombshell in early March, saying his admin would make the U.S. the "Crypto Capital of the World" by putting these select tokens in a shiny new reserve system. Talk about making waves!

But then the plot thickens! Trump finds out that the mastermind behind the post was actually a lobbyist from Ballard Partners, a firm that's all cozy with Ripple Labs, the big shots behind XRP.

Rumor has it, two anonymous sources spilled the beans to Politico that a Ballard employee slipped Trump the draft at a donor event at Mar-a-Lago and urged him to go public with the crypto love. And Trump, not knowing the full deal, just went for it!

But when he realized he'd been played by the Ripple connection, Trump was fuming and told his team to cut ties with the lobbyist ASAP. "He is not welcome in anything anymore," one insider quoted Trump as saying. Ouch!

Staff Firing

Now, Ripple might say they don't control XRP, but they're definitely a big fish in that pond and have been caught up in all sorts of legal and regulatory drama.

And get this—the timing of Trump's post, and the crazy price jumps in XRP, SOL, and ADA, made people wonder if there was some shady market manipulation or political games going on.

Ballard Partners, led by Brian Ballard, a longtime Trump buddy, has been a major player in Washington since Trump's 2016 win. They raked in a cool $14 million in lobbying cash in Q1 2025 and represent big names like TikTok and BMW. But after this fiasco, Ballard's been given the cold shoulder by Trump's crew, with orders to steer clear of any meetings with them.

Ballard's not taking this lying down, though. He told Politico that his firm is used to being hit with "false accusations" and denied using his Trump connection for business. But some close to the prez think the fallout was bound to happen. "One way to get yourself in the doghouse is for the president to think you're trading on his name," a Trump confidant dished.

Trump tried to smooth things over later, saying Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) would also be part of any strategic reserve, but the damage was already done.

The White House and Ripple are keeping tight-lipped about the whole thing, but you know this story's far from over!