White-collar crime convict Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to convince the internet that he has been a GOP supporter since the Biden administration. The holder of the former FTX chief’s X account wrote a thread late Thursday, in which he explained the reasons for backing Republicans in 2022.
Before the fall of FTX in late 2022, Bankman-Fried attended a dinner in Washington’s Wharf district. He met Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell during a fundraising period ahead of the midterm elections.
McConnell was seeking financial support as Republicans fought for Senate control, and Bankman-Fried supposedly wanted to expand his influence as the US Securities and Exchange Commission was breathing down his neck.
1) Why I became a Republican in 2022. pic.twitter.com/otNVWmzvya
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 30, 2026
In August, he reportedly sent $10 million to a McConnell-aligned political group named One Nation. Although the payment was not publicly disclosed at the time, it may be the largest single Republican-directed donation from an FTX executive.
He later told crypto creator Tiffany Fong that “all his Republican donations were dark” because “reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to a Republican” and that he “didn’t want to have that fight” with “super liberal” journalists.
“I grew up in a liberal household and gave five million to Dems in 2020. In 2022, I gave tens of millions to Republicans,” the former beleaguered exchange CEO wrote on X.
SBF blames regulators and justice officials for 25-year jail term
On social platform GETTR, Bankman-Fried told the public that he moved from center-left to centrist views earlier in the year of FTX’s collapse. He mentioned that a “high-ranking” Democratic official at a conference said his priority was the employment of people with intellectual disabilities in all state agencies. That was supposedly the first reason he gave for taking his donations to the GOP.
6) Insane Dem woke policies.
I was at a conference once. A high-profile Dem said his biggest priority was employing people with intellectual disabilities at every state agency. pic.twitter.com/jkAf91N6VE
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 30, 2026
Bankman-Fried also bashed the actions by regulators under former President Joe Biden, arguing that federal agencies were “unfair and aggressive” on the crypto industry during Biden’s tenure.
“I was a centrist, and privately donated tens of millions to Republicans. Weeks later, Biden’s anti-crypto SEC/DOJ went after me. They had me arrested weeks before the crypto bill I was working on was set for a vote. And the night before, I was set to testify before Congress. Biden bungled crypto. He didn’t have to; plenty at the party had reasonable thoughts! But he chose Gensler for SEC chair,” the former billionaire asserted.
He also said his case was similar to that of businessman Miles Guo, alleging that the SEC, SDNY, and bankruptcy system were “weaponized to take over Guo’s companies and put him behind bars.”
Is SBF planning for a political comeback?
According to court filings released after Bankman-Fried’s conviction, the former CEO had been drafting ideas from jail to “rebrand his image.” In a personal Google document, he wrote one entry that read, “Go on Tucker Carlsen, come out as a republican.”
He also planned to criticize legal professionals handling bankruptcy cases, which is likely an effort to show he was targeted by the legal establishment. He intended to argue that public donation records told only part of the story.
“I had a good relationship, probably better with Republicans in DC, as with Democrats, by that point in time. Although that wasn’t public. It wouldn’t have been easy to see that from the outside.”
Last year, the New York Intelligencer revealed a document displaying Bankman-Fried’s strategy to distance himself from Democrats. It described his plan to say public records were different from which political party he was supporting and oppose what he called a “liberal progressive agenda.”
Bankman-Fried also expressed support for President Donald Trump, writing that the POTUS was “right for crypto.” Trump has granted clemency to several white-collar crime defendants he viewed as over-prosecuted.
Last year, the US President pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and dark web crypto marketplace Silk Road developer Ross Ulbricht. Despite those pardons, Trump told The New York Times he does not plan to pardon Bankman-Fried.