FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Pay Donald Trump $5 Billion to Not Run for President Again

Sam Bankman-Fried was willing to offer $5 billion for Donald Trump not to run for office again.

When author Michael Lewis first met Bankman-Fried, the crypto wunderkind wanted to use his newly amassed wealth to solve existential threats to humanity. In order to abate risks to democracy in the U.S., Bankman-Fried considered paying Trump $5 billion not to run for president again, Lewis, author of the upcoming FTX tell-all Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, said in an interview with 60 Minutes.

“He took the view that all the big existential problems are gonna require the United States government to be involved to solve 'em,” Lewis said. “And if the democracy is undermined, all these problems are less likely to be solved. And he saw Trump trying to undermine the democracy, and he thought, ‘Trump belongs on the list of existential risks.’”

Bankman-Fried did not know if that number came from Trump directly — or if it would be a legal transaction. The FTX founder also sought out a partnership with Sen. Mitch McConnell to fund Republican candidates who didn’t support Trump, according to Lewis.

Lewis has written about ins and outs of financial systems and companies for decades, including his 2010 book-turned-blockbuster covering the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short. 

But when he first embedded himself with Bankman-Fried, the Crypto King in cargo shorts, Lewis wasn’t expecting catastrophe. 

The author had unfettered access to Sam Bankman-Fried, meeting more than a hundred times over two years. Lewis told 60 Minutes that when he started following Bankman-Fried he said to him: “I don't know what's gonna happen to you. Something's gonna happen to you. Can I just come and, you know, ride shotgun?”

“Now, riding shotgun ended up being, like, hanging on for dear life to, you know, an automobile that's goin' 270 miles an hour, and taking every hairpin turn,” Lewis told 60 Minutes. 

Going Infinite is set to be published on Tuesday, the same day Bankman-Fried is set to appear in court to face criminal charges related to FTX’s multi-billion dollar collapse late last year. The exchange was valued at $32 billion at the time of its implosion.

The book details everything from Bankman-Fried’s unusual friendship with star NFL quarterback Tom Brady, to a request for FTX to sponsor the Met Gala from Anna Wintour herself, to the hopes that FTX would become the next Apple or Google and Bankman-Fried the world’s first trillionaire.

Apple won a bidding war for the rights to the book last month. Its project will be one of at least eight in the works based on Bankman-Fried's story and the collapse of his crypto empire.

Lewis also revealed that FTX’s corporate structure was anything but secure. The exchange did not have a chief financial officer or a human resources department — and the crypto wunderkind didn’t know who was on the company’s board of directors, according to Lewis.

“It was all Sam's world,” Lewis said. “And there was nobody there to say, ‘Don't do that.’”

Bankman-Fried told Lewis that there were two people on the so-called board, but that he didn’t know their names. “Their job is just to DocuSign whatever,” he had said to Lewis. Even his friends said to Lewis: “Sam is just not built to manage people.”

But the former billionaire’s biggest fear is not having internet access, Lewis said. “Now that sounds crazy, but I do think that if he had the internet, he could survive jail forever,” he said. “Without having a constant stream of information to react to, I think he may go mad.”

Since being jailed in August, Bankman-Fried has complained about the “flesh” diet on offer (he is vegan) and lack of access to prescribed medications to treat ADHD and depression.