PANews reported on May 9 that Politico reported that due to an internal turmoil caused by a post by Trump on Truth Social about "Crypto Strategic Reserves" mentioning Ripple Labs, Brian Ballard, a lobbyist who has long had close ties with Trump, was "banned" by the White House. The post was posted by Ballard's employees at Mar-a-Lago to lobby Trump. Afterwards, Trump was furious when he learned that Ripple was a client of Ballard, saying that he was "being used" and ordered the White House to refuse to contact Ballard. Although Ballard denied manipulating his speech, the incident has dealt a blow to his influence in Trump's circle.