Trump’s memecoin gala triggers call for probe into ‘pay-to-play corruption’

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It was a jaw dropping and unprecedented offer.

Now Democratic senators have said US President Donald Trump’s memecoin dinner may be “pay-to-play corruption.”

On Friday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, joined Senator Adam Schiff of California in calling for an investigation into Trump’s extraordinary invitation to top holders of his memecoin.

“President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay-to-play’ corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities,” the senators wrote in a letter to Jamieson Greer, acting director of the US Office of Government Ethics.

White House bribery?

Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Schiff said the scheme appears to violate federal ethics laws, including bribery.

Even for Trump, who has promoted everything from steaks to gold-embossed sneakers, the offer to host the top 220 holders of $TRUMP at one of his golf clubs was audacious.

“Have dinner with President Trump,” his website says. “The most exclusive invitation in the world.”

No sitting president, of course, has ever issued a vanity cryptocurrency, nor has any commander-in-chief in modern history so brazenly sold access for personal profit.

The president is doing this even as his administration is ending the many enforcement actions taken by regulators against crypto over the last four years.

Family ventures

Not long after Trump released his memecoin, Hester Peirce, the pro-crypto member of the US Securities Exchange Commission, said the joke tokens weren’t subject to the agency’s jurisdiction.

The Trump family’s crypto ventures, which also include Bitcoin mining, a DeFi project, and the development of crypto ETFs, have caused angst in industry circles.

In March, French Hill, a Republican senator who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, told reporters Trump family’s crypto ventures have made drafting crypto legislation “more complicated.”

Meanwhile, the industry has a lot at stake in Washington over the coming months.

Two landmark stablecoin bills are advancing in the Senate and the House, plus the SEC has formed a task force to review crypto regulatory practices. Heavy hitters such as Andreessen Horowitz are trying to influence the outcome.

Now Trump’s memecoin gala has provided crypto critics with a fat target.

Memecoins, which have virtually no utility other than laughs, tend to benefit insiders at the expense of investors.

Indeed, after peaking at $8 billion in value on January 22, $TRUMP rapidly lost more than two-thirds of its value.

It jumped 60% last week after Trump tendered his invitation to “an unforgettable gala dinner.”

Liam Kelly is a Berlin-based reporter for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com. Edward Robinson is the story editor for DL News. Contact the author at ed@dlnews.com.