Democrats and some Republicans have been raising ethical issues about President Donald Trump’s plans to arrange a dinner with the top holders of his meme coin on Thursday.
The top 220 holders of the “$TRUMP” digital token (TRUMPUSD), which the president’s corporate empire introduced just before his inauguration in January, are invited to a dinner at Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia. Although meme coins, a kind of cryptocurrency based on online memes or celebrities, typically have little practical utility, insiders and certain traders may find them to be quite profitable.
According to the Trump coin’s official social media account, the impending dinner with the president is “the biggest crypto event of the year.” Crypto billionaire Justin Sun stated on Tuesday that he is the top purchase of the Trump coin, and the top 25 holders will receive a VIP reception. It has been projected that the top 220 meme coin holders have spent between $140 million and almost $400 million in total.
Trump is receiving a lot of criticism for his attempts to enter the cryptocurrency space and for attending the dinner for owners of his meme coin while leading an administration that is working to de-regulate and otherwise support the sector. Concerns have also been raised regarding actions taken by World Liberty Financial Inc., a cryptocurrency corporation that is 60% controlled by a Trump business entity. One such action was the introduction of a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency whose value is based on another asset, such as the dollar.
The introduction of USD1, the stablecoin of World Liberty Financial, coincides with Washington’s impending passage of a new law that would support stablecoins. Additionally, earlier this month, reports broke that MGX, a state-backed investor from the United Arab Emirates, had agreed to utilize USD1 to finalize a $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Sun, the largest owner of Trump’s meme coin, has also invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial.
According to a report released last month by the advocacy group State Democracy Defenders Fund, “the regulation of digital assets is in its nascency, but instead of divesting his crypto assets to avoid any possible conflict of interest, President Trump seems to have positioned himself to maximize profiting from them by adopting a less aggressive regulatory and enforcement program than his predecessor.” The authors of the report include Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, and Norm Eisen, a former special counsel for ethics and reform in the Obama White House.
“Congress has a unique opportunity to prevent President Trump and future presidents from using their public office for private gain by adopting legislation barring them and other elected officials from holding stablecoins and other digital assets,” the research stated.
Since then, Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo of California and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut have filed legislation similar to that, known as the Meme Act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon have led the charge on a similar bill called the End Crypto Corruption Act. Additionally, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, introduced her own legislation Thursday afternoon. The Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act is a bill that is co-sponsored by other Democrats on the panel.
Democrats Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have called for the Office of Government Ethics to look into Trump’s meme-coin dinner in addition to the proposed legislation, none of which appears likely to be approved by a Republican-controlled House and Senate or signed into law by Trump. The U.S. Constitution states that no federal official “shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Schiff and Warren wrote to that office alleging that the president might be violating “several federal ethics laws and constitutional prohibitions, including the federal bribery statute and emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.”
Murphy stated on Wednesday that he fears the upcoming meal would be a covert gathering and that foreign oligarchs are among the top purchasers of Trump’s meme coin. “It’s fundamentally corrupt – a way to buy access to the President,” the senator wrote on social media at the time. At a news conference Thursday, Warren claimed Sun “will be having an especially good time at tonight’s dinner” after learning that the Securities and Exchange Commission “has paused its fraud enforcement actions” against him.
The event has also drawn criticism from several Republicans. Earlier last month, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told NBC News that she’s “willing to say that this gives me pause,” while Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also expressed discomfort.
Former Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent, another Republican, has stated that Republican members would be condemning a Democratic president for participating in such an event. Dent told the New York Post, “Republicans would be screaming bloody murder over this stuff if the shoe were on the other foot.”
Nic Carter, a well-known cryptocurrency investor and Trump supporter, has also drawn notice for his criticism of the president’s cryptocurrency endeavors. “Creating a bunch of personal memecoins opens the door to secretive foreign buyers trying to curry influence with our leaders,” he stated in a January social media post. You should despise this as much as you did Hunter Biden’s anonymous art sales. Melania Trump’s meme coin (MELANIAUSD) was introduced in January in addition to the Trump meme coin.
Trump’s assets “are in a trust managed by his children,” according to the Trump White House, meaning there “are no conflicts of interest.” According to an email sent to MarketWatch on Wednesday by White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, Trump “is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself.” She stated that the president “only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”
During her briefing on Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a number of questions regarding the forthcoming dinner. Leavitt responded, “The event is not a White House dinner, but I can raise that question and try to get an answer for it,” when asked if she would provide the names of all dinner participants. She said that Trump is “abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable to the president” and maintained that it’s “absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.”
However, watchdogs have pointed out that the new legislation aims to remedy the gaps in the current regulations. Earlier this month, Project On Government Oversight president and executive director Danielle Brian told ABC News that Trump is exploiting “the weakness in our current ethics laws that allow a president to continue to hold financial interests in businesses.”
As a “private citizen who has been a businessman and serial investor my entire adult life,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest child, responded to ethical concerns in a statement to the New York Post, stating that it is “ridiculous to expect me to stop doing what I’ve always done to provide for my five children just because my dad was elected president.”
Additionally, Bo Hines, the executive director of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, has supported the Trump family’s cryptocurrency actions. Trump’s sons “have the right to engage in capital markets as private business people,” according to a CoinDesk story from last week. Hines also stated that it “should be exciting that they’re engaging in this space.” Trump, according to Hines, “can’t be bought.”
According to a White House itinerary, Trump is scheduled to attend a “private dinner” at the Trump National Golf Club on Thursday at approximately 7 p.m. Eastern time. He is expected to return to the White House at approximately 8:25 p.m.
