In this news:
Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called for an ethics probe in April to investigate an upcoming dinner between President Donald Trump and top investors in his meme coin, $TRUMP.
In a letter to Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who serves as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, Schiff and Warren expressed concerns about clear conflicts of interest.
“This latest action raises grave ethics and legal concerns. Including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities, to include foreign nationals and corporate actors with vested interests in federal action, while personally enriching the President and his family,” the letter states.
Following the April 23 announcement of the dinner, which is set for May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club, the meme coin’s value increased by more than 50%, netting insiders $900,000 in trading fees in just two days.
The event is divided into two tiers: The top 220 investors are promised an “unforgettable” gala dinner with Trump to discuss “the Future of Crypto,” and the top 25 investors are promised an exclusive reception before the dinner and a “Special VIP Tour.”
Warren and Schiff’s letter is the latest effort by Democrats to expose what many experts believe is a transparent pay-to-play scheme being perpetrated by Trump within the shady world of cryptocurrency.
Trump first launched his $TRUMP coin shortly before his inauguration, which immediately raised bright red conflict of interest flags, with Trump and his “associated business entities” controlling an unregulated and insecure 80% stake in the meme coin.
The move prompted Warren to warn that the coin posed an enormous risk to consumers, saying that the entire operation was the perfect vehicle for dark money payoffs.
Soon after, more than 800,000 retail investors were cleaned out of around $2 billion by insider investors who were able to sell off early.
In response, Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo of California introduced the appropriately named “Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act,” which seeks to “prohibit the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, senior Executive Branch officials, and their spouses and dependent children from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing a security, future, commodity, or digital asset.”
It would also ban officials from promoting similar securities and digital assets.
One of the more glaring examples of the $TRUMP coin’s pay-to-play nature is the involvement of sketchy crypto bro Justin Sun, who was facing a series of fraud and securities charges in connection with various crypto pump-and-dump schemes.
Sun made a splashy $30 million investment in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform that issues $TRUMP. Shortly after Trump assumed office, the Securities and Exchange Commission miraculously dropped its case against the Chinese billionaire.
Cryptocurrency exchange platforms are notorious for being used for money laundering, which the Trump family is now increasingly involved with. Last month, World Liberty Financial announced that it would be offering a stablecoin, which promises investors less market volatility by claiming to have actual fiat currency tied to it.
In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family’s stablecoin has been developed with the crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. In November 2023, Binance’s founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations. The company agreed to pay $4 billion to resolve the case.
And just this past week, World Liberty Financial announced that its stablecoin is being used by Abu Dhabi’s MGX in a $2 billion investment in Binance.
Trump’s increasingly deep connections to the crypto world should be a blaring alarm for Americans worried about corruption, as demonstrated by his relationship with Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who is facing his own crypto scandal.
The money being thrown at Trump by the crypto community and other digital spaces is allowing him to control the very apparatus that is meant to investigate corruption.
Surely no conflict of interest here!
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