WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump rewarded top investors in one of his cryptocurrency projects with a swanky dinner on Thursday night, an event that showed the ascendance of an emerging financial industry — and also the president’s willingness to mix public office with personal profit.
Some 220 of the biggest investors in the $TRUMP meme coin were invited to Trump’s luxury golf club in Northern Virginia, where they dined on filet mignon and halibut. According to participants’ posts on social media, Trump spoke for about half an hour before dancing to the song “YMCA.”
Despite the White House insisting that Trump would be attending the event “in his personal time,” he stood behind a lectern with the presidential seal as he touted an industry that’s generating profits for his family business.
After feeling unfairly targeted under President Joe Biden, the crypto industry has quickly become a powerful political force, donating huge sums to help Trump and friendly lawmakers. The U.S. Senate is advancing key pro-crypto legislation while bitcoin prices soar.
However, even some pro-Trump crypto enthusiasts worry that the president’s personal involvement may be undermining their efforts to establish credibility and stability for the industry.
“It’s distasteful and an unnecessary distraction,” said Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and partner at the crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, who said the president is “hugging us to death” with his private crypto businesses. “We would much rather that he passes common sense legislation and leave it at that.”
As the president uses crypto as a platform to make money for his brand in unprecedented ways, it’s also creating an opportunity for potentially shadowy buyers to use the anonymity of the internet to buy access to the president.
The lack of transparency was evident on a poster board at the dinner, where participants signed a ranking of top investors. Some used their real names; others used pseudonyms.
No media was allowed into the dinner, and the president was at his golf club for only about an hour. Protesters gathered outside the club holding signs that said “stop crypto corruption” and “no corrupt fools.”
Trump said the event was “good, very good” as he returned to the White House.