Sam Bankman-Fried applies for a pardon from Trump

Sam Bankman-Fried — the disgraced FTX founder now serving 25 years in prison for fraud and money laundering — has officially asked President Trump for a pardon, according to the Justice Department’s pardon website, as first reported by Bloomberg. That alone is a big headline. But online? People instantly turned it into a full-blown political gossip roast.

The loudest reaction was basically: come on, everyone knows what game this looks like. Commenters zeroed in on Trump’s track record of pardoning white-collar criminals and donors, then immediately started asking the obvious, deeply cynical question: what’s the going rate? One user joked, “Does the White House take Visa for pardons?” Another dragged in old Rudy Giuliani-era rumors that pardons cost $2 million, while someone else suggested the modern answer might be “TrumpCoin.” Yes, really.

But there’s also a delicious extra layer of drama here: Bankman-Fried was famous for giving huge amounts to Democratic causes, not Trump-world. That contradiction became the thread’s favorite subplot. Can a man linked to tens of millions in donations to the other side suddenly make a MAGA-friendly sales pitch? One commenter practically dared him to try. The overall mood was a mix of dark comedy, corruption speculation, and zero surprise. Nobody seemed shocked he applied — they were mostly entertained by the idea that in 2026 America, even a presidential pardon gets discussed like a sketchy luxury checkout screen.