On Sunday night, John Oliver returned to the desk of “Last Week Tonight” from his summer hiatus, and there was, naturally, plenty to discuss.
The HBO host, whose contract is up at the end of 2026 — and whose parent company is facing a probable acquisition by Paramount Skydance, putting the lefty comedian directly in the crosshairs of a pro-Trump owner who’s already implemented a number of administration-friendly changes to CBS News — focused nearly the entirety of the show on President Trump, who’d previously called crypto “a disaster waiting to happen” that “may be fake” on Fox Business, but now refers to himself as “the first crypto president.”
“Trump realized just how much money he personally could end up making from dealing with a speculative asset because it’s turned out to be a lot,” offered Oliver. “His recent financial filings show that in just his first year back in office, his personal income surged to more than $2.2 billion, most of which came from his family’s crypto businesses, which brought in about $1.4 billion. In fact, crypto has become the family’s dominant business interest, overshadowing their real estate empire and every other business they have ever had.”
As Virginia Canter, a prominent ethics attorney, stated, “This is like a perfect vehicle to funnel money to [Trump] and his family to enrich them.”
