Chase Herro is an online salesman who proudly calls himself a “dirtbag of the internet”, able to sell anything to anyone. Zachary Folkman ran a company called Date Hotter Girls, offering advice under a pseudonym on how to pick up women at bars.
Other crypto experts have expressed doubt, even alarm, about the business, Trump’s involvement and his partners. Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, said Herro and Folkman did not appear to have the technical or financial savvy to make the venture work. A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about the company’s plans, Jim Redner, who was hired in September as World Liberty Financial’s spokesperson, said he had just quit. Herro, Folkman and World Liberty Financial did not respond to requests for comment.As recently as 2021, Trump himself said crypto “seems like a scam”. The FBI has said it is riddled with pervasive fraud that cost Americans billions of dollars last year alone.
Its business model remains murky. One person involved in the business, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private planning, said the platform would facilitate borrowing and lending in cryptocurrencies. The promotional materials say the company isn’t owned or managed by Trump, the Trump Organisation or Trump family members, though they may receive compensation.Herro and Folkman have a history of jumping from project to project.
His girlfriend left him after he demanded she get an abortion and told her she would look fat in a swimsuit, he has said.In his telling, everything changed when he discovered social media marketing and made his first million within months. “All the bad things about me are from, like, 10, 11 years ago,” he has said.