Image source: Bloomberg
Protesters gathered outside US President #Trump's Virginia golf course on Thursday evening, where he planned to hold a private dinner with hundreds of buyers of his crypto tokens.
Holding signs reading “Fraud Gala,” “No King,” and “No One is Above the Law,” people gathered to protest Trump’s upcoming dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, where as many as 220 of his family’s top cryptocurrency holders allegedly purchased access to the president.
The protest outside Trump's private club followed a smaller rally on Capitol Hill, where a half-dozen Democrats from the House and Senate condemned the dinner, some of whom called it one of the most corrupt acts in American history and demanded that Trump release a full list of his guests.
"This is the Mount Everest of corruption," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. He then read excerpts from the Constitution and listed examples of corrupt presidential schemes from early U.S. history. "We have to stop this," he said.
Trump and his business partners organized the event last month by announcing what they called the world’s “most exclusive invitation”: a competition to win access to the president by buying #TRUMP, a cryptocurrency token launched on the eve of Trump’s inauguration. The first 220 buyers will dine with the president at his golf club, while the top 25 will attend a more intimate cocktail party and tour of the White House the next day.
Trump posted on his social media platform Thursday evening: "Going to Loudoun County, Virginia for a Cryptocurrency Dinner in a while. The United States is leading the way in cryptocurrencies, #Bitcoin, and more, and we will keep it that way!"
During the competition, a leaderboard on the website of Trump’s memecoin, called $TRUMP, allowed cryptocurrency investors to see how much they would need to buy to move up the rankings and win a spot.
A memecoin is a cryptocurrency associated with an online joke or mascot; it usually has no function beyond speculation. But Trump’s tokens have become a vehicle for investors, including some overseas, to funnel money to his family.
“Go, MAGA baby,” one Trump fan shouted to protesters outside the club as they left on Thursday, as Secret Service officers guarded the entrance.
White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt rejected any suggestion that Trump acted inappropriately by hosting the dinner.
“It’s ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the president is profiting from the presidency,” Ms. Levitt said at the White House before Mr. Trump left for his golf club. “This is a president who was incredibly successful before he served his country, and he not only lost his fortune, he nearly lost his life. He sacrificed a lot to get here.”
But the response failed to impress protesters.
“This is like a black market scheme,” said Ross Fabia, 66, a former federal employee from Arlington, Va. “He’s going to use cryptocurrency to line his pockets.”
The dinner proposal set off a frenzy among cryptocurrency executives around the world, several of whom showed up with the express intention of influencing U.S. policy. The event was unlike anything in recent American history — not a campaign fundraiser but a gathering arranged by the president’s business partners and designed to directly enrich the first family.
Many of the guests have a stake in how cryptocurrencies are regulated in the U.S. They saw the dinner as a chance to hear directly from Mr. Trump and learn how they can expand their businesses in the U.S. after Biden-era regulations led many of them to avoid investing in the country.
This week, Justin Sun, the cryptocurrency billionaire who runs the Tron platform, announced he would also be at the dinner — and that he controls the No. 1 account on the leaderboard, holding more than $20 million worth of tokens. Sun was indicted by the SEC in 2023 for fraud and is also a big investor in World Liberty Financial, another Trump family cryptocurrency venture.
The SEC suspended its fraud investigation into Sun shortly after Trump took office in January. “Honored to support the President and grateful for the invitation,” Sun wrote on X this week.
Some of the attendees were lower-profile entrepreneurs, influencers or Trump super fans who were willing to pay for a chance to meet the president.
“If I can get a selfie, a handshake or an autograph, that in itself is priceless to me,” said Vincent Derieux, a 27-year-old adviser who ranks No. 165 on the $TRUMP leaderboard.
A business entity associated with the Trump family holds a large amount of $TRUMP cryptocurrency and collects fees every time those tokens change hands. According to cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis, the token has generated at least $320 million in fees so far, and the Trump family shares these fees with their business partners.
The contest was set up by a company called Fight, Fight, Fight, which was founded in January and named after Trump's response to the assassination attempt on him in July.
Initially, the Fight, Fight, Fight website, run by Bill Zanke, a longtime business associate of the Trump family, promised a “special VIP tour to the White House” for the top 25 token holders. But references to the White House have been removed from the site, which now only promises a “VIP tour” without specifying a location.
Mr. Zunker did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about the change, a senior administration official said the White House had not arranged special tours for the cryptocurrency investors and had “nothing to do” with the memecoin campaign.
But the official said dinner organizers may still take guests on a tour of the East Wing, which is open to the public.
A spokesman for the Trump Organization also sought to distance the company from the event, saying it had no involvement. But the Trump family itself received a share of the profits through a corporate entity called CIC Digital, and the dinner was held at a golf club it owns.
Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., called the dinner an affront to the principles of clean government in the United States.
“No politician could have devised a scheme better suited to facilitate corrupt conduct by foreign individuals than issuing digital assets that virtually conceal the identity of the purchaser,” said Mr. Liccardo, a member of the House Financial Services Committee who is generally supportive of the cryptocurrency industry.
Skybridge founder Anthony Scaramucci told CNBC that Trump helped create a better regulatory environment for the U.S. cryptocurrency industry, but his memecoin activities "destroyed the entire industry." Scaramucci briefly served as White House communications director during Trump's first term.
“It makes people think of the dark side of blockchain and cryptocurrency, rather than the positive side,” he added. “So I didn’t like the dinner. I’m sure there were people in the president’s team who didn’t like the dinner.”
Winners of Trump's Memecoin Contest Begin to Gather for Dinner
