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President Donald Trump spoke to investors of his $TRUMP memecoin from a lectern adorned with the presidential seal at Trump National Golf Club Thursday—a blatant visual representation of the intersection between his presidency and business ventures.
President Donald Trump departs the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is traveling ... More to his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia where he is holding a dinner for the top investors in his $TRUMP cryptocurrency. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Use of the presidential seal “in a manner reasonably calculated to convey a false impression of sponsorship of approval by the government” is prohibited by federal law, with violations punishable by a fine or up to six months in jail.
Trump spoke to the top 220 investors of his memecoin at his Virginia golf club after flying there from the White House on a military helicopter.
“The past administration made your lives miserable,” Trump told the attendees, referring to crypto regulations under Biden, according to The New York Times, adding, “we’re honored to be working on helping everybody here.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected conflict-of-interest concerns about the dinner, telling reporters Thursday when asked if the administration would release the guest list that “the president is attending it in his personal time, it is not a White House dinner, it’s not taking place here at the White House.”
The seal has been used as golf markers in at least five other Trump golf clubs, Forbes reported previously.
Key Background
Guests at the event included Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, the top investor in $TRUMP coins, former NBA player Lamar Odom, crypto executive Sangrok Oh and Vincent Liu, chief investment officer of the Taiwanese crypto firm, Kronos Research, according to The New York Times. Multiple attendees told The Times they planned to pitch Trump on crypto policy. Trump’s memecoin is among several crypto ventures he’s launched since his first term in the White House, when he was a skeptic of the industry.
Further Reading
Trump Hosts Meme Coin Dinner—What We Know About The Exclusive Crypto Gathering (Forbes)
Trump’s New Partner For Crypto Venture Is KuCoin — An Exchange Banned In U.S., Fined $300 Million For Money Laundering (Forbes)
How Trump’s Bitcoin Policies Are Making The U.S. A Crypto Superpower (Forbes)
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