In brief
- Senators Warren and Schiff urged the Office of Government Ethics to look into the Trump Dinner
- The letter cites risks of foreign payments through anonymous crypto investments to gain influence
- The TRUMP token has steadily ticked upwards since the dinner’s announcement
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) demanded an ethics investigation on Friday into President Trump’s invitation, which offered top holders of his meme coin an “intimate, private dinner” at his golf club.
These actions raise “grave ethics and legal concerns, including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access,” the solons wrote in their April 25 letter to the Office of Government Ethics.
Warren and Schiff’s concerns center on the promotion announced last Wednesday, which offered the top 220 registered holders of the TRUMP Solana token exclusive access to a May 22 dinner at Trump National Golf Club.
Of these, the top 25 investors were to receive a VIP reception with President Trump. The token’s price went parabolic on the news, only to plunge 18% the day after.
At the time of writing, data shows the token’s price rising from about $12 to $15.2 since the letter from the two Democrats. Its market capitalization has ballooned to just over $3 billion from $1.6 billion just a week ago.
Greatest of them all
Despite the president’s impassioned support of the crypto industry, critics have remained wary.
In a complaint filed in February, U.S. nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen claimed that Trump’s actions appear to be “soliciting money in exchange for nothing.”
Late last month, Trump touted the meme coin as the “greatest of them all,” with the market reaction prompting a 7% uptick.
At the time, Andrew Rossow, digital media attorney and CEO of AR Media, told Decrypt that those actions may have “set a dangerous precedent” on how public office could be leveraged “for personal financial gain.”
Warren and Schiff’s letter cites several reports concerning anonymous foreign influence, including one instance where an investor bought roughly $13 million worth of tokens through a purportedly Chinese-founded crypto exchange.
The pair also claims that there is a “troubling prospect” that foreign actors may be using the meme coin “to buy influence with President Trump and his associates” without “needing to disclose their identities publicly.”
Organizers explicitly require attendees to provide their legal name, contact information, and wallet address, according to the event’s webpage.
The White House Press Office did not immediately return Decrypt’s requests for comment.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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