A US lawmaker is seeking to ban US President Donald Trump, his family and members of Congress from trading cryptocurrencies or stocks.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, the Democratic representative for California’s 17th Congressional District and vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, used an appearance on MSNBC to raise concerns about Trump’s apparent conflict of interest with crypto via his son’s crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI), alleging that the recent pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was “blatant corruption.”
“You have a foreign billionaire who was basically engaged in money laundering,” Khanna said of CZ, adding, “and then he asks Donald Trump for forgiveness after basically funneling money to terrorists.”
However, CZ recently hit back at similar accusations from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, saying she “failed to present the facts properly.”
CZ pleaded guilty to a single count of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act after failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance.
Khanna alleged that the Binance co-founder was freed thanks to Binance’s financial support of WLFI – echoing the recent sentiments of US Representative Maxine Waters.
“And what he does is he says ‘I’m going to support World Liberty,’ which is the president’s son’s cryptocurrency company, which they’re making millions of dollars from while Donald Trump is president. And Donald Trump gives him a pardon while he’s basically funding Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency stablecoin.”
Trump has been repeatedly criticized for his ties to the WLFI; however, his son Eric Trump has always denied any connection to the project. In an interview in September, Eric emphasized that his father “runs a nation. He is not involved in our businesses in any way, shape or form.”
Khanna did not go into specific details of his legislative proposal, but did not mince his words, concluding by calling for a ban on “any elected official from holding cryptocurrencies and accepting foreign money.”
According to government records, Khanna’s latest bill has not yet been formally introduced.
Related: How Changpeng Zhao regained power between prison and pardon
Ban government officials from trading
The question of whether government officials should be allowed to invest in areas such as the stock market has been highly controversial for some time.
The debate is currently raging in the United States through Congress’ bipartisan securities trading bill, which is expected to be voted on soon.
To explain how murky the waters are, although Khanna has called out Trump’s ties to crypto, he also has his own vested interests in the stock market, highlighting some potential hypocrisy.
According to data from Quiver Quant, Khanna himself recorded stock trading volume worth $80.3 million in 2025.
Since becoming a California Representative in 2017, Khanna has completed more than 35,000 trades representing a total volume of more than $580 million, with his top three traded sectors being financial, information technology and healthcare.
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