Insider information: How did Trump be banned by the encrypted promotional post of "close friend in ear" Ballard?

Author: Rachael Bade & Caitlin Oprysko, POLITICO

Compiled: Tim, PANews

PANews Editor's Note: On March 2, Trump posted a message on his "Truth Social" platform that he instructed the presidential task force to promote strategic reserves of cryptocurrencies including XRP, SOL and ADA . At that time, the crypto community was also surprised: Why were BTC, ETH and other valuable currencies not included in the strategic reserves? It was not until March 3 the next day that Trump issued a statement saying that the crypto reserves also include BTC and ETH . The crypto community is still puzzled by this "mistake incident". In the early morning of May 8, the famous American political media POLITICO gave the answer and revealed 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:

One early Sunday morning in early March, Trump posted a post on the Truth platform promoting "strategic reserves of cryptocurrency". A few hours later, he realized that he seemed to be being fooled.

That weekend, at Mar-Lago, a lobby company run by Brian Ballard had an employee attending the estate’s donation. She stopped the president from lobbying many times, promoted her willingness to promote the development of the gambling industry, and even handed him a template for tweets he had drawn up.

After Trump posted that post on social media, he realized that Ripple Labs, the company behind a cryptocurrency project mentioned in the article, was actually a customer of Ballard. According to two anonymous people who knew the inside story, Trump was furious about this and called himself being exploited.

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

Ballard has been an unpopular figure in the White House since then.

Since Trump's return to Washington, Ballard has established himself as the leading lobbyist in Washington politics. Reports about his company are often mentioned, he has hired White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Reports also always emphasize his decades of friendship with Trump, who has represented the Trump Group intermittently for many years and has been the main fundraiser of Trump's presidential campaign.

As a lobbyist who can "send" voice to Trump, since the US election last November, Brian Ballard's company has attracted amazing 130 new customers, including business giants such as Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, Palantyre, 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 revenue reached $14 million in the first three months of 2025, more than triple its lobbying revenue in the same period last year.

But there is a huge gap between Ballard's reputation and what the White House currently thinks of him.

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

According to three people familiar with the matter, Ballard has been temporarily excluded from the White House core circle after the cryptocurrency post, and White House staff were asked not to meet with him. But five people close to Trump said that the outside world's dissatisfaction with Ballard is not limited to this. Some White House officials believe he is using Trump's reputation to make a profit and hype his relationship with the president and Wiles, which are actually far less closely linked than he advertises.

Another ally close to Trump said: "The common practice of causing Trump to dislike is to make him feel that you are consuming his reputation." The ally also pointed out that Ballard always exaggerates his status and role.

Trump understands that lobbyists want to make money, and he knows it. But the question is, Ballard still wants to show off and show off himself?

The White House declined to comment.

In a statement, Ballard said he and his company "has been used to false allegations from anonymous sources due to the success of the company." He told POLITICO that he had never attracted clients by boasting about his relationship with White House people, and he also refuted claims that he had been marginalized.

There are signs that he has not completely cut off contact with the White House: POLITICO has reviewed invitations to Trump’s fundraising campaign since the March incident and a record of arranging calls with senior Trump administration officials. Additionally, Ballard’s agent clients can still get a chance to meet with senior government officials, such as the one that was Ballard’s client when the president met with NFL executives earlier this week.

“Despite these anonymous sources’ attempts, Ballard Partners will continue to provide customers with excellent results and efficient agency services as always, a commitment we have been in place for twenty-five years,” he said.

As for the Truth Social incident, a Ballard colleague said he never tried to mislead the president on issues concerning the letter.

But this situation seems to have caused some commercial troubles to Ballard. Some Ballard clients have contacted other Trump allies to try to meet with the president or people in his core circle, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Others close to the core circle are even more outspoken.

“Ballard packaged himself as a universal lobbyist who had unimpeded access to the Trump administration, but that wasn’t true at all,” noted one of four people familiar with the matter.

New business craze

Since Trump's victory in November, Ballard's new business has seen a surge in growth, especially as Trump uses the president's overwhelming influence to launch a full-scale offensive against his identified political rivals.

Ballard’s clients have achieved some results during Trump’s administration. TikTok hired the company last fall, thanks to Trump's promise to temporarily not implement the ban, and is still operating in the United States. BMW, another Ballard customer, will benefit along with the entire automotive industry as Trump announced a partial tariff suspension last week.

One of the company’s first clients in Washington was Reynolds American, the U.S. tobacco giant, which makes the best-selling mint-flavored cigarettes in the U.S. and puts bets on Trump in last year’s presidential election. The bet paid off a few days after Trump's new administration came to power - Trump withdrew his proposal to ban mint-flavored cigarettes.

American cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs was mentioned in Trump's cryptocurrency-related announcement, and the XRP tokens it issued was also related to this. It is worth noting that the top financial regulator in the Trump administration has now revoked an appeal against a landmark law enforcement case for the company. (PANews Note: On May 9, Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have reached a settlement agreement and intend to close the case for $5,000)

Ballard has always been the president's "fundraising expert". As a strong fundraiser, he has served as chairman of every Republican presidential candidate in Florida's Finance Committee since the 2008 John McCain campaign. He raised tens of millions of dollars for Trump's presidential campaign and the political action committee he supported, and served as vice-chair of the Trump 2016 inauguration committee.

Shortly after Trump was sworn in in 2017, Ballard opened a company in Washington, D.C. At that time, business and leaders of various countries were eager to get to know the political novice who entered the White House. In his first year in Washington, he quickly accumulated a number of well-known clients, and Ballard Partners ranked among the highest-paid lobby agencies in K Street, a gathering place for Washington lobbying companies.

The company's lobbying revenue has declined after Trump stepped down, and the Ballard lobby group remains competitive in front of other established lobby agencies in Washington despite numerous Democratic lobbyists.

Ballard Partners’ office in Washington is the company’s first branch outside Florida. Today, the company has established offices in nearly 12 cities on three continents. Last year, Ballard launched a series of strategic partnerships with several government affairs companies around the world, with partners ranging from Canada, Japan, South Korea, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Ballard's entanglement with White House Chief of Staff Wiles

In some ways, Ballard's reputations with the Trump administration's top lobbyists have always been deviated from his past entanglement with the president's chief of staff. Many Trump administration insiders who admire Wiles believe that Ballard squeezed out of his company as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Republican, tried to destroy his career.

Wiles, who worked for many years in Ballard Partners in Florida, then left in 2019 on health issues. At that time, it was reported that Governor DeSantis spread news to the outside world, claiming that he instructed Ballard to fire her. However, Ballard and Wiles both said that her resignation had nothing to do with DeSantis.

Some believe that their relationship has been repaired since then. According to two close people, when Ballard gradually integrated into the team in the 2024 campaign, Wiles showed a positive attitude and was unwilling to have grudges. More importantly, the money he injected into the Trump campaign vault is particularly welcome.

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

 White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles appeared at the White House Rose Garden before the \"Make America Rich Again\" event on April 2, 2025. ——Francis Chung, POLITICO

Despite this, many of Trump's core circle members, despite their loyalty to the chief of staff, remain skeptical of him.

"Everyone will not forget (the grudges I've been there)," Trump's allies said.

"Susie Wiles was, is, and will remain my best friend in the future even if we exit politics, and any other statement to the contrary is wrong," Ballard said in a statement.

Ballard's client list has also attracted some attention inside the White House. He recently signed a partnership agreement with Harvard University and the Public Broadcasting Corporation, both institutions that have previously been publicly criticized by the president.

But the "truth social" incident was a turning point. That weekend, Ballard employees at Mar-a-Lago asked Trump to issue that statement.

"Before he (Trump) had been evading her (Ballard employee), but later she kept pestering her, and in the end he simply threw the matter to an assistant to deal with it," a person who knew the situation described the incident.

According to three sources with knowledge of the inside story: Just minutes after the president released the news, David Sacks, the White House cryptocurrency director, angrily called Wiles to complain. The White House was preparing to hold a cryptocurrency summit in Washington next week, and it seemed inappropriate for the president to name a few companies alone and ignore others.

Wiles did not accompany the president that morning, and David Sacks began calling around to inquire about the situation. Shortly afterward, White House officials realized that one of the clients mentioned in the Truth Social Platform’s post was Ballard’s, and the tweet didn’t even mention Trump’s own fledgling cryptocurrency company.

Trump then added the names of other cryptocurrency companies to his second "Social" post to follow up on the matter. But it was too late, and Trump was furious about it.

Trump aides were also very angry, accusing Ballard of assigning his employees to get Trump to sell products for his customers. One of the president's senior aides also called to scold Ballard.