Insider revelations: How was Trump tricked by Ballard's encrypted propaganda post?

By Rachael Bade & Caitlin Oprysko, POLITICO

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

PANews Editor's Note: On March 2, Trump announced on his "Truth Social" platform that he instructed the Presidential Working Group to promote the strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies including XRP, SOL and ADA . At that time, the crypto community was excited and surprised: Why were BTC, ETH and other valuable currencies not included in the strategic reserve? On the next day, March 3, Trump posted that the crypto reserve also included BTC and ETH . The crypto community is still puzzled by this "oolong incident". In the early morning of May 8, the famous American political media POLITICO gave the answer and broke the inside story of this crypto reserve post, which involved Trump's core circle of friends and many senior White House officials.

The text is as follows:

A few hours after Trump published a post on the Truth platform promoting a "strategic reserve of cryptocurrency" early one Sunday morning in early March, he realized he seemed to have been tricked.

That weekend at Mar-a-Lago, an employee of Brian Ballard’s lobbying firm attended the estate’s donation drive and repeatedly stopped the president to pitch her intentions on boosting the gaming industry, even handing him a copy of a tweet she had prepared.

After Trump published the post on social media, he realized that Ripple Labs, the company behind a cryptocurrency project mentioned in the post, was actually a client of Ballard. According to two anonymous people familiar with the matter, Trump was furious and said he was being used.

He told White House aides that month: "Ballard is not allowed to participate in any affairs in the future." People familiar with the matter revealed that the president specifically mentioned the ban on Ballard during the conversation.

Since then, Ballard has become persona non grata in the White House.

Since Trump's return to Washington, Ballard has established himself as a leading lobbyist in Washington. Reports about his firm often mention that he hired White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Reports also always emphasize his decades-long relationship with Trump. Ballard has represented the Trump Organization on and off for many years and has been a major fundraiser for Trump's presidential campaign.

As a lobbyist who can "speak" to Trump, Brian Ballard's company has won an astonishing 130 new clients since the US election last November, including business giants such as Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, Palantir, Netflix, Bayer, United Airlines and T-Mobile. In April this year, POLITICO's parent company Axel Springer Group also hired Ballard to communicate and lobby with the Trump administration.

Ballard's firm took in $14 million in the first three months of 2025, more than three times its lobbying revenue in the same period last year.

But there is a huge gulf between Ballard's reputation and how he is currently viewed in the White House.

 A photo of Trump on Inauguration Day hangs on the wall of Brian Ballard's new Washington, D.C., office. The photo was taken by POLITICO photographer M. Scott Mahaskey in his office on March 13, 2018.

According to three people familiar with the matter, Ballard has been at least temporarily excluded from the White House inner circle after the cryptocurrency post, and White House staff have been asked not to meet with him. But five people close to Trump said that the dissatisfaction with Ballard is not limited to this. Some White House officials believe that he is profiting from Trump's reputation and touting his relationship with the president and Wiles, which is actually far less close than he advertised.

Another close ally of Trump said: "A common way to annoy Trump is to make him feel that you are exploiting his reputation." The ally also pointed out that Ballard always exaggerates his status and role.

Trump knows that lobbyists want to make money, and he knows this very well. But the question is, why does Ballard want to show off and promote himself in public?

The White House declined to comment.

In a statement, Ballard said he and his firm were "inured to false allegations from anonymous sources due to our success." He told POLITICO that he had never touted his White House connections to solicit clients and rejected suggestions that he had been marginalized.

There are signs he hasn’t completely severed ties with the White House: POLITICO reviewed invitations to Trump fundraisers sent to Ballard since the March incident, as well as a transcript of a call scheduled with a senior Trump administration official. In addition, Ballard’s clients continue to get meetings with high-level government figures, such as when the president met with executives of the National Football League, a Ballard client, earlier this week.

“Despite the attempts of these anonymous sources, Ballard Partners will continue to deliver the superior results and efficient representation that we have been delivering for our clients for more than 25 years,” he said.

As for the Truth Social incident, a Ballard colleague said there was no attempt to mislead the president about the letter.

But the situation appears to be causing some business headaches for Ballard, which has reached out to other Trump allies in an effort to secure meetings with the president or people in his inner circle, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Others close to the inner circle were more outspoken.

“Ballard presented himself as a versatile lobbyist with unimpeded access to the Trump administration, but that simply is not true,” said one of the four people familiar with the matter.

New business craze

Ballard has seen a surge in new business since Trump’s victory in November, particularly as he has used his overwhelming influence as president to launch an all-out offensive against his perceived political enemies.

Ballard’s clients have seen some success during the Trump administration. TikTok hired the firm last fall and is still operating in the U.S. thanks to Trump’s promise not to enforce a ban. BMW, another Ballard client, will benefit along with the entire auto industry after Trump announced a reprieve from some tariffs last week.

One of the company's first clients in Washington was Reynolds American, the tobacco giant that makes the best-selling menthol cigarettes in the U.S. and placed its bets on Trump in last year's presidential election. The bet paid off just days after the new Trump administration took office when Trump withdrew his proposal to ban menthol cigarettes.

Ripple Labs, an American cryptocurrency company, was mentioned in Trump's cryptocurrency-related announcements, and its XRP token was also related to this. It is worth noting that the top financial regulator during the Trump administration has now withdrawn its appeal of a landmark enforcement case against the company. (PANews Note: On May 9, Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a settlement agreement and intends to settle the case for $5,000)

Ballard has also been a fundraiser for the president. A strong fundraiser, he has served as the finance committee chairman for every Republican presidential candidate in Florida since John McCain's campaign in 2008. He has raised tens of millions of dollars for Trump's presidential campaign and the political action committees it supports, and served as vice chairman of finance for Trump's 2016 inaugural committee.

Ballard opened his firm in Washington, D.C., shortly after Trump was sworn in in 2017. At the time, the business community and world leaders were eager to get to know the political newcomer to the White House. In his first year in Washington, he quickly accumulated many high-profile clients, and Ballard Partners became one of the highest-grossing lobbying firms on K Street (a gathering place for Washington lobbying firms).

The company's lobbying revenue declined after Trump left office, but Ballard Lobbying Group, despite having many lobbyists with Democratic backgrounds, remains competitive with other established lobbying firms in Washington.

Ballard Partners’ Washington office is the firm’s first branch outside of Florida. Today, the firm has offices in nearly a dozen cities on three continents. Last year, Ballard launched a series of strategic partnerships with multiple government affairs firms around the world, with partners in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

Ballard's past disputes with White House Chief of Staff Wiles

In some ways, Ballard’s reputation as a top lobbyist in the Trump administration is at odds with his past with the president’s chief of staff. Many Trump administration insiders who admire Wiles believe that Ballard pushed him out of his firm at a time when Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was trying to destroy Wiles’ career.

Wiles worked for Ballard Partners in Florida for many years before leaving in 2019 due to health issues. At the time, it was reported that Governor DeSantis spread the news that he had instructed Ballard to fire her. However, both Ballard and Wiles said that her resignation had nothing to do with DeSantis.

Some believe their relationship has since been repaired. As Ballard became more integrated into the 2024 campaign, Wiles was proactive and unwilling to harbor grudges, according to two people close to him. What’s more, his infusion of money into Trump’s campaign coffers was particularly welcome.

"Susie puts the campaign first," said one Trump confidant.

 White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles appears in the White House Rose Garden before the "Make America Prosperous Again" event on April 2, 2025. —Francis Chung, POLITICO

Still, many members of Trump’s inner circle, despite their allegiance to their chief of staff, remain skeptical of him.

"No one will forget (past grudges)," Trump's ally said.

"Any suggestion to the contrary that Susie Wiles has been, is, and will remain a close friend of mine even after we retire from politics is simply false," Ballard said in a statement.

Ballard’s client list has also raised some eyebrows within the White House. He recently signed deals with Harvard University and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, both of which have been publicly criticized by the president.

But the “Truth Social” incident was a turning point. That weekend, Ballard employees at Mar-a-Lago repeatedly asked Trump to release the statement.

"He (Trump) had been trying to put her (Ballard employee) off, and then she kept pestering him, and finally he just threw the matter to an assistant to handle it," a person familiar with the situation described the incident.

Within minutes of the president’s announcement, David Sacks, the White House’s cryptocurrency chief, angrily called Wiles to complain, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The White House was preparing to host a cryptocurrency summit in Washington next week, and the president’s singling out of some companies while ignoring others was inappropriate.

Wiles did not accompany the president that morning, and David Sacks began calling around to find out what was going on. Soon, White House officials realized that one of the clients mentioned in the truth social platform post was Ballard's, and the tweet did not even mention Trump's own nascent cryptocurrency company.

Trump then followed up on the matter by adding the names of other cryptocurrency companies in a second "Truth Social" post. But it was too late and Trump was furious.

Trump's aides were also furious, accusing Ballard of assigning his staff to get Trump to promote his products to his clients. One of the president's top aides even called to berate Ballard.