April 24, 2025

The announcement called it “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” a chance to have “an intimate private dinner” with the Talking Yam at his members-only golf club in Virginia, followed by a tour of the White House. A seat would be reserved for each of the top 220 investors in $TRUMP, the cryptocurrency that El Cheatolini launched on the eve of his inauguration. Via The New York Times:

In an astonishing escalation of the Trump family’s efforts to profit from cryptocurrencies, a website promoting Mr. Trump’s so-called memecoin announced on Wednesday that the coin’s largest buyers would be invited to meet with him. The effort was, in effect, an offer of access to the White House in exchange for an investment in one of Mr. Trump’s crypto ventures.

Astonishing to the New York Times maybe, but not to many other sentient beings.

“Have Dinner with President Trump and the $TRUMP Community!” the invitation said. “Let the President know how many $TRUMP coins YOU own!”

For months, Mr. Trump’s forays into the crypto industry have created ethical conflicts with little precedent in presidential history. As he markets digital currencies to the public, Mr. Trump has also appointed regulators who are scaling back crypto enforcement and called for legislation that would boost the industry’s prospects in the United States.

As news of the dinner invitation spread on social media, the memecoin’s price surged more than 60 percent, suggesting that investors were rushing to accumulate the coin to qualify for a seat at the dinner.

Just coincidentally: Trump family has so far made ~$1 billion on memecoins, NFTs, stablecoin, Bitcoin mining, etc., per Bloomberg calculations.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T14:21:34.546Z

https://bsky.app/profile/sassydenise.bsky.social/post/3lnfxhzasvs2w

This Trump family crypto empire is set to profit precisely because Trump is gutting the regulations that would normally constrain it — brazen self-dealing that represents perhaps the most flagrant exploitation of presidential authority in American history.

Molly White (@molly.wiki) 2025-04-17T22:46:38.092Z

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