Donald Trump’s dinner for memecoin holders gets ‘shame, stop crypto corruption!’ chants
President Donald Trump on Thursday hosted an exclusive dinner for hundreds of top investors of his ‘memecoin’ cryptocurrency at his golf club outside of Washington, with protesters yelling ‘shame’ at the guests.
Protesters stood outside Trump National Golf Club with signs reading ‘Stop crypto corruption’, ‘America is not for sale’, as guests arrived to attend dinner hosted for $TRUMP memecoin holders.(AFP)
Trump flew in to attend the gala and meet the 220 biggest purchasers of his $TRUMP memecoin. Citing an event website, news agency AFP reported that the top 25 investors were to get a private session with Trump beforehand and a tour of the White House.
The President had announced the launch of his crypto just three days before his inauguration in January, resulting in a quick surge in his net worth and prompting ethical questions at the same time.
On Thursday, the White House dismissed any concerns over ethics and insisted that Trump was attending the dinner in his “personal time”.
Ahead of the exclusive gala for memecoin investors, Trump took to his Truth Social network and posted, “Heading to the Crypto Dinner in Loudon County, Virginia, in a little while. The U.S.A. is DOMINATING in Crypto, Bitcoin, etc., and we are going to keep it that way!”
‘Shame! Stop Crypto Corruption!’
Meanwhile, around 100 protesters were heard screaming “Shame!” and “I hope you choke on your dinner!” within the range of the security checkpoint at Trump’s golf club as guests arrived for the event. They also held up signs like “America is not for sale” and “Memecoin grifters go to jail” at the venue.
The demonstrators were protesting against alleged crypto corruption. Some other signs also read “no kings” and “stop crypto corruption”.
Democrats decry memecoin investor dinner
Democrats also criticised Trump’s gala for his memecoin investors, describing it as an “orgy of corruption”.
Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed him for “using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto”.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, during an interview earlier this month, referred to the dinner and said, “In effect he is putting a ‘For Sale’ sign on the White House lawn.”
How were investors chosen for dinner?
Holders of the Trump memecoin had to register on an online leaderboard to qualify for the dinner. The leaderboard tracked their average holdings over a period of three weeks. Following this, the top 220 holders of $TRUMP memecoin got invited, of which the top 25 were called for a special pre-dinner reception with the President.
$TRUMP memecoin
According to a Bloomberg report, memecoin’s market cap reached nearly $15 billion soon after its launch in January. However, it has since taken a sharp dive to about $2.9 billion.
The announcement of the dinner gala at Trump’s golf club modestly boosted the memcoin’s price. Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump, share 80 per cent of the memecoin’s total supply.
The Trump family has expanded its network of crypto businesses. Last year, Trump, along with his sons Donald Jr and Eric Trump, launched World Liberty Financial. The venture has raised more than $550 million.
