{"id":1052986,"date":"2025-05-22T18:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1052986"},"modified":"2025-05-23T08:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:21:35","slug":"trump-enriches-himself-on-crypto-scheme-while-gutting-americans-health-care-and-food-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-enriches-himself-on-crypto-scheme-while-gutting-americans-health-care-and-food-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Enriches Himself on Crypto Scheme While Gutting Americans\u2019 Health Care and Food Assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In response to Donald Trump hosting a private dinner with buyers of the Trump token, <\/em>DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Donald Trump invites foreign nationals<\/a> to buy favors with the White House and lines his own pockets with crypto scheme money, Republicans in Congress are doing his bidding by passing the largest cuts to food assistance and health care in American history. From Day One, Trump has used his power to enrich himself all while hardworking families drown in bills and struggle to put food on the table. Let\u2019s be clear: Trump is a grifter just looking out for himself and his billionaire backers \u2014 not the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TONIGHT: Donald Trump is set to host a private dinner for his ultra-wealthy meme coin holders.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloomberg<\/a>: \u201cMore than half of the top holders of President Donald Trump\u2019s memecoin \u2014 who are jockeying for dinner with the president \u2014 have used foreign exchanges that say they ban US users, suggesting that many of the purchasers are based outside the US.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuyers of the Trump token, a cryptocurrency the president began marketing days before his inauguration, drove sales higher in the past two weeks after its issuers announced an unprecedented promotion: More than 200 of the memecoin\u2019s largest holders would be invited to attend a May 22 dinner with Trump at his Virginia golf club, while the top 25 would qualify for an exclusive reception beforehand and what the memecoin\u2019s website describes as a \u2018VIP\u2019 tour.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters<\/a>: \u201cBuyers of $TRUMP meme spent $148 million to win dinner with President Trump\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Post<\/a>: <\/strong>\u201cAn affiliate of Trump\u2019s family business, the Trump Organization, runs the meme coin venture alongside a separate Delaware-registered company called Fight Fight Fight \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose two entities own 80 percent of the coins, and the drop in value has affected their stake as well. But they have benefited from the coin in other ways, including by imposing 1 percent fees on purchases made through their official crypto transaction system, known as a liquidity pool.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News<\/a>: \u201cMeet the man \u2014 once sued by the SEC \u2014 who won the crypto contest to have dinner with the president\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCritics have blasted the dinner contest as potentially unconstitutional and a blatant opportunity for corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REMINDER: Trump announced a crypto token that allows people to \u201ctransfer money to the president\u2019s family in connection with his office,\u201d raising widespread concern among legal ethics experts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times<\/a>: \u201cThe move by Mr. Trump and his family was immediately condemned by ethics lawyers who said they could not recall a more explicit profiteering effort by an incoming president.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It is literally cashing in on the presidency \u2014 creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president\u2019s family in connection with his office\u2019<\/strong> said Adav Noti, executive director of Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit ethics group. \u2018It is beyond unprecedented.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politico<\/a>: \u201cThe product launch illustrates<\/strong> the lengths Trump is going to embrace the crypto industry and the blurred ethical lines he may be crossing as he prepares to take office<\/strong>. …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA president-elect launching a new business product is a highly unusual move, and it is a major concern for ethics watchdogs, who say Trump stands to profit from policy changes he is poised to usher in.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It is absolutely wild,\u2019 said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. \u2018After decades of seeing presidents-elect spend the time leading up to inauguration separating themselves from their finances to show that they don\u2019t have any conflicts of interest, we now have a president-elect who, the weekend before inauguration, is launching new businesses along with promises to deregulate \u2026 those sectors in a way to just blatantly profit off his own presidency.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Americans who bought Trump\u2019s meme coin are losing money \u2014 while Trump and his billionaire friends profit off them. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cAt least 67,000 new or small-time crypto investors like Davis have bet on Trump\u2019s meme coin, pouring $15 million<\/strong> into the volatile venture endorsed by Trump and benefiting his personal wealth, a Washington Post analysis found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut virtually all of them bought near the coin\u2019s peak, just before the inauguration, and 80 percent of them have seen the value of their holdings nosedive<\/strong>, The Post\u2019s analysis shows. One buyer who spent $10,000 has already lost, on paper, more than $8,000. \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe firm [Chainalysis] told The Post that 58 investors have so far made more than $10 million each in profits from the coin, for a total of roughly $1.1 billion<\/strong> \u2014 but that 764,000 other investors, most of whom had small holdings, have lost money on the coin. \u2026<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree Trump-affiliated wallets have received about $43 million in fees<\/strong> since the coin\u2019s debut, according to a Post analysis of data from Flipside. Those wallets have also made roughly $312 million in crypto sales.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to Donald Trump hosting a private dinner with buyers of the Trump token, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:  \u201cWhile Donald Trump invites foreign nationals to buy favors with the White House and lines his own pockets with crypto scheme money, Republicans in Congress are doing his bidding by passing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Enriches Himself on Crypto Scheme While Gutting Americans\u2019 Health Care and Food Assistance - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-enriches-himself-on-crypto-scheme-while-gutting-americans-health-care-and-food-assistance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-22T22:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T12:21:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-enriches-himself-on-crypto-scheme-while-gutting-americans-health-care-and-food-assistance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-enriches-himself-on-crypto-scheme-while-gutting-americans-health-care-and-food-assistance\/\",\"name\":\"Trump Enriches Himself on Crypto Scheme While Gutting Americans\u2019 Health Care and Food Assistance - 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