Exclusive: Coinbase explains donation to Trump's ballroom

Coinbase donated to President Trump's $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange's president and COO, said at Axios' BFD event on Tuesday.The big picture: Major companies including Google, Amazon, Palantir Technologies donated to the project, which critics have argued amounts to a pay-for-play relationship with the federal government. Driving the news: Axios' Dan Primack asked Choi whether the donation was intended "to keep good relations with the White House," to which she replied "sure." What they're saying: "Frankly I don't even have a problem" with the donation, Choi said. "I think if you go to D.C., there's a lot of buildings that need to be updated, and so if private industry has to do that, it is what it is."Catch up quick: The Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit that partners with the National Parks Service, is accepting and managing donations for the ballroom renovation. Choi explained that Coinbase "made a check" to the nonprofit. "We give a lot to different foundations now," she said, adding that "the specifics of it, we we weren't aware of." Zoom out: The White House released a list of 37 donors last month, which included Meta, Apple, Lockheed Martin, and T-Mobile. A $24.5 million settlement between the president and YouTube will also support the ballroom.Flashback: Trump held a thank you dinner for donors last month, noting that some of them offered as much as $25 million for the ballroom. Yes, but: Ethics experts told Axios that the donations and dinner set a dangerous precedent. Don Fox, former acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, told Axios' Avery Lotz that events such as the dinner have a "potential coercive effect on people to donate," noting, "one of the president's favorite words is retribution."Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law professor, said it fosters "a favorable atmosphere of gratitude and reciprocity." When "there's personal solicitation and personal response," he added, "that just increases the likelihood that there'll be the give and take."

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