Sam Bankman-Fried dreamed of boosting Tom Brady as a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate instead of Donald Trump, per Puck.
This isn’t Bankman-Fried’s first reported plan to boot Trump from the candidacy: His biographer Michael Lewis said that the infamous crypto-bro once asked Trump if he could pay the former reality star and current plaintiff in four criminal cases not to run.
According to Puck, this previously unreported plan hatched sometime before the fall of FTX involved pitting Trump against his friend and “great guy” Tom Brady.
Bankman-Fried went as far as to assign his “team” to poll Americans about their thoughts on Brady as a presidential candidate, Puck reported, citing two unnamed sources. Two sources who spoke to Puck claimed that SBF also informed people in his circle of his idea involving the former NFL quarterback.
“In these conversations, Sam didn’t get into specifics beyond saying that Brady was a great, handsome guy and he believed he could win,” Puck wrote.
Puck also reported that Bankman-Fried did “express this desire to Brady directly” in a private conversation, citing “a person who was briefed directly by Sam.”
Representatives for Brady and Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular business hours.
Brady and Bankman-Fried were reportedly fond of each other, per Lewis, who said that Brady “adored” Bankman-Fried. The pair also worked together, with Bankman-Fried paying Brady $55 million to promote his now-defunct crypto exchange company FTX.
Brady is named in a class-action lawsuit for his promotion of the company. Lewis said in a “60 Minutes” interview that Brady was “angry” with SBF following the FTX collapse and subsequent indictment of Bankman-Fried.
However, Brady and Trump also have a long history. The pair have been publicly linked since 2001, when the former president approached Brady with the opportunity to judge a Miss USA competition. Brady agreed to it, and in 2002, Trump personally flew him out to Idaho in his private jet.
Since then, the two have complimented each other over interviews. Brady has called Trump his “good friend” while Trump had once even offered his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to date the football player.
Representatives for Trump and Ivanka Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside regular business hours.
