Sam Bankman-Fried has provided a 10-part explanation defending the decision to terminate government employees, as he seeks to gain favor with President Trump.

The cryptocurrency mogul, who has a criminal record and was once a supporter of the Democratic Party, is now seeking a pardon from the Trump administration following his 25-year fraud-related sentence.

Now he’s shared a thread on Elon Musk’s X defending sweeping departmental cuts in an effort to root out wasteful spending within government.

‘I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days,’ he wrote.

‘I can confirm that being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks.’

Bankman-Fried acknowledged the difficulty of firing individuals, stating that it is a challenging task that can often stem from faults on both the part of the employer and the employee.

‘It sucks for everyone involved. My experience: a) it is usually not the employee’s fault that they got fired b) it is usually correct to let them go anyway,’ he said.

‘More often, the problem is that the company just doesn’t have the right job for them.  I’d tell this to everyone we let go: that it was as much our fault for not having the right role for them, or the right person to manage them, or the right work environment for them.’

Sam Bankman-Fried has defended the decision to fire government employees with a 10-part explanation justifying the decision as he tries to suck up to President Trump

Bankman-Fried was behind a $32billion dollar crypto exchange startup which collapsed in December 2022

The convicted cryptocurrency king is angling for a full pardon from the Trump administration after he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud

Bankman-Fried was behind a $32billion dollar crypto exchange startup which collapsed in December 2022.

He was arrested in the Bahamas and charged with fraud. He was later convicted of stealing money from his customers and lying to investors and creditors.

Despite being a prolific Democrat donor before his arrest, Bankman-Fried indicated his loyalties have turned behind bars.

In an interview with the New York Sun from prison, Bankman-Fried echoed Trump’s criticism of the Department of Justice, insisting it has been ‘politicized’ in recent decades.

He noted that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his trial was also involved in a civil case against Trump.

‘I know President Trump had a lot of frustrations with Judge Kaplan,’ Bankman-Fried said. ‘I certainly did as well.’ 

He also voiced support for Musk’s work dismantling government agencies, acknowledging his ‘chainsaw approach’ and arguing that in some cases upwards of 70 per cent of a workforce must be fired in order to make significant change. 

Bankman-Fried said in his experience, sometimes businesses simply did not have the time or resources to adequately give their staff work.

Now he’s shared a thread on Elon Musk ‘s X defending sweeping departmental cuts in an effort to root out wasteful spending within government

‘We saw it at competitors that hired 30,000 too many employees and then had no idea what to do with them – so entire teams just sat around doing nothing all day,’ he said.

‘And we saw it internally, when a manager would get busy or distracted, and half of a department would lose its bearing at the same time. 

‘It isn’t the employee’s fault, when that happens. It isn’t their fault if their employer doesn’t really know what to do with them, or doesn’t really have anyone to effectively manage them. It isn’t their fault if internal politics lead their department to lose its way. 

‘But there’s no point in keeping them around, doing nothing.’

Bankman-Fried’s apparent efforts to secure a pardon for himself come after Trump granted an unconditional pardon to the creator of the notorious dark web page Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht.

Ulbricht, 40, was arrested in 2013 because the dark website he founded facilitated the sale of illicit drugs using cryptocurrency.

In early 2015 he was sentenced to two life terms in prison plus 40 years for drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit money laundering and computer hacking, operating under the pseudonym ‘Dread Pirate Roberts.’