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Republican strategist and self-described “dirty trickster” Roger Stone has called for Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s “execution” after the lawmaker accused President Donald Trump of “cashing in” on his cryptocurrency coins from a position of power in the White House.
Kelly slammed Trump’s cryptocurrency assets, the $TRUMP memecoin, as “corruption in broad daylight.”
Trump is actively promoting investment in the memecoin from the White House and is hosting a $1.5 million-a-head dinner for top investors in his coin later this month. Many of the investors are foreign, raising particular concerns among lawmakers that they may be seeking favors from the American president in exchange for lining his pockets that may not be in the nation’s interest.
“Trump is cashing in on his presidency and making millions from his own crypto coins. It’s corruption in broad daylight,” Kelly said in a post on X. The senator is co-sponsoring a bill that would make it illegal for the president, senior executive branch officials and members of Congress from issuing, endorsing, or sponsoring crypto assets while in office to avoid a conflict of interest.
Stone, a longtime Trump loyalist, responded to the post by accusing Kelly of “treason.” He said Kelly should be executed specifically because he claimed the senator is a “partner” in a “Chinese communist company“ that makes spy balloons.
Kelly, a former astronaut, was a co-founder of Tucscon-based Arizona company World View Enterprises, specializing in high-altitude balloon, near-space exploration. Chinese tech company Tencent was an investor from 2013-2016. Kelly’s stock in the company has reportedly been held in a blind trust since 2021.
Kelly could not immediately be reached for comment about Stone’s attack.
Stone wrote in his reply to Kelly’s post on X about Trump Thursday: “Senator Mark Kelly is cashing in on his US Senate seat as a partner in a Chinese communist company that makes surveillance balloons,. He should be charged with treason and if convicted executed, consistent with federal law.”
Democrats want to crack down on what they call “cryptocurrency corruption by Trump and other government officials.”
Some Republicans are also bothered by the set up. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski have suggested it’s improper for a president to openly profit from cryptocurrency while in office. Lummis calling for a "regulatory framework" that would address the issue.
Eyebrows were raised after investors in Trump’s memecoin began bidding to become the top 220 owners of his coin, which will win them a dinner with the president later this month at his Virginia golf club.
Around 80 percent of the memecoin’s supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and its affiliates. All but six of the top 25 investors outside of the Trumps used foreign exchanges that are closed to U.S. residents, Bloomberg has reported. At least 56 percent of the 220 holders used other similar offshore exchanges.
The opportunity to gain access to the American president at the upcoming dinner triggered a buying frenzy, and a 20 percent jump in the memecoin’s value. The Trump family has raked in an estimated $320 million-plus from the memecoin since January.
When challenged about the ethics of “profiting off the presidency,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker: “I’m not profiting from anything.”
He added after Welker pressed him: “If I own stock in something, and I do a good job, and the stock market goes up, I guess I’m profiting.”
Trump’s cryptocurrency controversy comes as Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr have embarked on a worldwide tour in recent weeks drumming up business with stops across Europe and the Middle East promoting Trump-associated business ventures that could directly benefit the president.
The deals include a $1 billion luxury hotel in Dubai, a golf course and villa complex in Qatar, a hotel in Serbia, and a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi-backed venture capital fund using a currency offered by the Trump family’s crypto firm World Liberty Financial.
The Trump Organization has claimed that the president’s businesses and assets are being held in trust while he’s president and has no direct link to them.
A court case filed against one of his golf courses in Scotland, however, stated that Trump is actively involved in running that business.
On the home front last month, Donald Trump Jr announced the launch of a $500,000-per-membership exclusive club in Washington, D.C., called, cheekily, the Executive Branch, the name for the category of federal offices that include the presidency.
Stone was pardoned by the president during his first administration after he was sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, lying to Congress and witness tampering.
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