President Donald Trump has a meme coin, and he went out of his way to gather and praise all those who hold it. Trump hosted a highly anticipated “exclusive” dinner for the largest holders of his meme coin, “Official Trump,” at his golf club in Virginia on Thursday night.
Official Trump ($TRUMP) is a meme coin launched by Trump on Jan. 17 on the Solana blockchain. Promoted as the only official Trump meme token, it quickly gained popularity, reaching a peak price of $75.35 before settling around $14.28. The coin’s supply is capped at 1 billion tokens, with 80% reportedly controlled by Trump-affiliated entities like CIC Digital LLC.
While it garnered massive trading volume and market interest, the project has been surrounded by controversy. Ethical concerns have emerged regarding Trump’s financial gains from the token and a high-profile gala dinner attended by top holders who paid over $1 million.
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Additionally, legal experts are examining potential violations related to anonymous crypto funding and foreign involvement. Despite the controversy, the token remains actively traded on platforms like CoinDCX and Crypto.com, appealing to supporters and speculators alike. Investors are advised to approach it with caution due to its volatility and political ties.
According to Axios, Fight Fight Fight, LLC — a company linked to President Trump’s family — sold a digital token that gave anyone in the world a chance to pay for a night of access to the commander-in-chief, which has apparently shocked ethics experts and one Democrat called it “the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the White House.”
It seems like this dinner is a way for Trump’s backers to have unsupervised time with their investment, have conversations that may not be fit for the White House. “We’ve never had a president actually try to raise money and get people to buy an interest in a venture of his at the same time that he’s sitting in the White House,” Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer, told Politico.