Here's How Much Trump's Shady Crypto Dinner Auction Raked In | The New Republic
By: Hafiz Rashid (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
This scheme was a massive success for Trump.
People spent an estimated $148 million on Donald Trump's meme coin in a contest to dine with the president at his private golf club in Sterling, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., later this month.
Reuters reports that Trump will host the top 220 holders of his cryptocurrency at a gala dinner on May 22, which he marketed as the "most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world." The top 25 buyers will get an "ultra-exclusive private VIP reception" and "Special VIP Tour" with the president.
The contest to dine with the president resulted in the top 220 holdings amounting to $147,586,796.41. The holders of Trump's coin include companies based in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
The top wallet, holding close to $18.5 million of coin, is called "SUN" and is held by a Seychelles-based crypto exchange known as HTX. Justin Sun, a Chinese national accused of fraud known for spending$6.2 million on a banana and then eating it, is on HTX's board and already has a financial relationship with Trump.
Sun said he invested $75 million into the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, after the 2024 election. He was then fortunate enough to have Securities and Exchange Commission charges dropped against him in February.
Not all have been so lucky. Trump announced the $TRUMP coin on the weekend of his inauguration in January, and since then, 592,962 cryptocurrency wallets, most of its investors, have lost a combined $3.9 billion.
It's quite evident that Trump's meme coin has been a vessel for corruption for the president, allowing millions of dollars in foreign money to flow freely into his and his family's pockets. Every time the president makes a policy decision or even speaks about cryptocurrency, it causes the value of his coin to go up. Trump is openly flaunting corruption as president, and only congressional Democrats are saying anything, with the little power they have.
"The Trump meme coin is the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president," Senator Chris Murphy told Reuters in a statement on Friday. "Donald Trump is essentially posting his Venmo for any billionaire CEO or foreign oligarch to cash in some favors by secretly sending him millions of dollars."
Trump's Crypto Grift Is Pissing Off MAGA
Far-right commentator Ben Shapiro called Donald Trump out.
Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Donald Trump's cryptocurrency scheme is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some of his biggest supporters.
Speaking on his podcast Monday, far-right influencer and The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro called on the president to "stop," openly questioning how Trump's meme coin grift could be considered good for America, rather than just good for his pockets.
"It just isn't America first in any conceivable way," Shapiro said.
Last month, Trump announced a competition to see who could obtain the highest average Trumpcoin balance within a three-week period. That period ended Monday, with the top 220 reportedly winning a private dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Washington with the president.
The top 25 investors in TRUMP tokens are eligible to receive VIP access to the dinner event, opening the opportunity for them to take photos alongside Trump and receive a guided tour of the property the following day. As of last week, 19 of the top 25 holders registered on the meme coin site used foreign exchanges that exclude U.S.-based customers, reported Bloomberg. That means—as Shapiro deduced—that "foreigners are buying a lot of meme coin and then getting meetings with President Trump.
"This raises the question of influence peddling," Shapiro continued. "If you basically buy a bunch of Trump meme coin and then funnel money to organizations associated with President Trump so you can have dinner with Trump. That doesn't look great."
Shapiro also chastised Trump for recently accepting several gifts that could be interpreted as foreign bribes, including a super luxury jumbo jet from Qatar—one of the most lavish gifts ever bestowed to a U.S. president.
"Does any of this help advance the president's agenda?" Shapiro continued. "You know the agenda that we all voted for, the agenda we want to see implemented. Does this make his presidency stronger or weaker? Now I'm gonna repeat again, I don't know whether this activity is criminal in any way, but things do not have to be criminal to hurt the agenda.
"Why in the world would President Trump be well served by this sort of vulnerability? Again, more importantly, why would those of us who voted for him, who gave to his campaign, who stumped for him, campaigned for him, be well served by this? The answer is we aren't, and that's why it needs to stop," Shapiro said.
Shapiro isn't the only MAGA talking head to come down hard on their political leader for accepting the plane. Earlier Monday, Laura Loomer went scorched earth on Trump, damning his acceptance of the jet as a "$400 million 'gift' from jihadists in suits."
Non-MAGA critics of Trump's cryptocurrency have flagged the investment as a novel way to circumnavigate Federal Election Commission contribution limits, which prevent individuals from donating more than $3,500 per election to their candidate of choice.
Trump has tried to position himself as a pro-crypto president. At a bitcoin conference in Nashville in July, Trump promised to build out a "strategic national bitcoin reserve" if elected, according to CoinDesk.
But others have derided the memecoin as little more than another money-grabbing grift. Trump's long list of election-year hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and a limited-edition $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by "God Bless the USA" singer Lee Greenwood. Trump also took the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social public and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., that even the president's allies have criticized as a "huge mistake."
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And the grift goes on...
I've noticed that the maga faithful have recently stopped mentioning joe and hunter biden and burisma ...
But I thought America was "The Land of Opportunity", the place where the aim is to get as rich as one can because it's the rich who get respect, much more respect than creativity, talent, expertise. Who is more admired, a Nobel laureate or a Bill Gates, a Dr. Jonas Salk or a Warren Buffet? Well, I'm not anywhere near that class, cause my father believed in and lived that if you did not have the cash in your pocket to buy something, you couldn't afford it. He started as a 13 year old immigrant to Canada with less than a dollar in his pocket to his life ending as a millionaire with a successful manufacturing/refurbishing factory, homes in Canada and Florida and a Cadillac that I inherited from him - ALL fully paid for. Too late I learned that lesson from him, but now I live comfortably, retired, with a bank account but no credit cards, no loans, no debts, and Amex owes ME about 50 cents from the past when I did use that card.
So, most of the bribers are foreign. Imagine that.
no need for magnetometers at that event, all of those people love him ...
No, it's not a mistake. Trump knows exactly what he's doing.
Well, all I can say is that this never was about America first. Look at who they made their deals with. It does not take much to discover that Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump and nothing else.