President Donald Trump hosted a dinner Thursday evening for the most important spenders on his memecoin, a corrupt affair the place wealthy individuals—lots of them overseas and unable to donate to Trump’s political campaigns—paid for entry to the president.
Trump held the occasion at Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in Virginia, utilizing a taxpayer-funded navy helicopter to get there.
He then appeared earlier than a podium emblazoned with the presidential seal, regardless that earlier within the day White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the occasion was not a part of his official duties.
“On the president’s dinner tonight, will the White Home commit to creating an inventory of the attendees public so individuals can see who’s paying for that type of entry to the president?” NBC Information correspondent Garrett Haake requested Leavitt, to which she replied that Trump wouldn’t be releasing the names as a result of, “The president is attending it in his private time.”
“It isn’t a White Home dinner, it’s not happening right here on the White Home,” Leavitt mentioned.
Actually, Leavitt’s declare that the dinner was a private occasion and never an official one may open Trump as much as authorized peril, because the right-wing Supreme Court docket mentioned Trump is barely immune from prosecution for official acts.
In the meantime, the individuals who attended—lots of them overseas nationals who would in any other case be banned by legislation from donating to Trump’s political marketing campaign—explicitly admitted that they spent hundreds of thousands on Trump’s shitcoin to realize entry to Trump, The New York Occasions reported. That is as blatant of a “pay-to-play” scandal because it will get.
Among the many visitors was Chinese language crypto magnate Justin Solar, who The New York Occasions reported spent $40 million to attend the dinner. Sure, FORTY MILLION. Solar was being sued by the Securities and Alternate Fee with fraud, however the case was dropped after Solar injected tens of hundreds of thousands into Trump’s pockets.
And on the dinner, Solar obtained a gold watch from Trump, which Solar then gleefully posted about on X.
“As the highest holder of $TRUMP and proud supporter of President Trump, it was an honor to attend the Trump Gala Dinner by @GetTrumpMemes,” Solar wrote in a publish on X. “Thanks @POTUS to your unwavering assist of our trade!”
One other overseas crypto investor, Sangrok Oh, even described the dinner as a fundraiser for Trump, The New York Occasions reported.
“He’ll all the time be good to his sponsors,” Oh mentioned, suggesting he expects a return on funding for giving hundreds of thousands to Trump.
And on the dinner, Trump promised to take steps to assist line the pockets of the dinner attendees much more, saying “There may be loads of sense in crypto. Lots of widespread sense in crypto. And we’re honored to be engaged on serving to everyone right here.”
Democrats have been elevating alarms about simply how corrupt Trump’s crypto enterprise is.
“That is the crypto corruption membership,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was heard chanting exterior of the occasion, The New York Occasions reported, saying that Merkley was chanting so loud he misplaced his voice.
Already, Congress helps mainstream the crypto trade with the GENIUS Act, which the Senate superior earlier this week. The laws would put a regulatory framework in place for stablecoins—a kind of cryptocurrency tied to the worth of an precise monetary asset such because the U.S. greenback or gold—and legitimize the forex with traders.
However various Democratic lawmakers are towards that, too.
“Individuals didn’t ship us to Congress to assist Trump flip the White Home right into a crypto money machine,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) mentioned on Thursday. “We won’t look the opposite method when the President hosts a non-public dinner for his prime meme coin consumers—or move crypto payments just like the GENIUS Act that will additional line his pockets.”
