President Trump likes flying close to the sun regarding his family business, and the flight is closer than ever in his second term. Is no one advising Trump that his family’s crypto plans are inviting trouble?

Trump said last month that he’ll host a dinner with the top 220 holders of his $TRUMP meme coin at his Washington, D.C.-area golf club on May 22. Step right up and invest in the Trump crypto enterprise for a chance to rub elbows with the leader of the free world. The President says all of this is above board. But it nonetheless raises the appearance of a conflict of interest in selling access.

The Trump Organization and affiliates hold 80% of $TRUMP coin tokens. Any price appreciation caused by frenzied buying boosts the Trump family fortune, at least on paper. The Trump family businesses and their partners have benefited from more than $300 million in revenue generated by trading in the coin, according to the blockchain firm Chainalysis.

When Trump issued his meme coin days before his inauguration, he said the point was to “have fun.” The venture creates political risks and ethical conflicts. Bloomberg News reported that all but six of the top 25 holders of the $TRUMP coin that have registered on the website’s leaderboard have bought the coins using foreign exchanges. This suggests most buyers are overseas.

Then there’s the Trump family’s other crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, which has raised $550 million through token sales since October. A business entity affiliated with Trump and his family members owns a major chunk of World Liberty. DWF Labs, a crypto firm based in the United Arab Emirates, announced last month that it had bought $25 million of World Liberty Financial’s tokens. “Our visibility in the U.S. has been increased because of this deal,” a DWF Labs managing partner told the New York Times. “We would like to have direct dialogue with the policymakers.” No doubt.

Zach Witkoff, son of Trump diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, co-founded World Liberty Financial and helps run its day-to-day operations. Could he make the “dialogue” happen by pinging his dad, another co-founder?

The Trumps’ crypto peddling is especially ill-advised because the Administration will regulate crypto products and practices. Democrats are already accusing the Securities and Exchange Commission of giving the Trump crypto businesses a pass. On Thursday Democrats blocked a Senate floor vote on bipartisan legislation to create a framework for regulating stablecoins.

Expect the press to spend the next four years chasing stories about the Trump crypto family. The political optics are awful.

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Readers may recall the controversy over the Clinton Administration’s political donors who stayed in the White House Lincoln Bedroom. More recently, Trump heavily criticized Hunter Biden for courting foreign business investors and providing access to Joe Biden.

These columns heavily criticized those political grifts, as did Republicans. The Trump family crypto business also looks like a political accident waiting to happen.