“The president assists him in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner. He is not taking place here at the White House,” said Karoline Leavitt, a white house secretary.
But the organizers of the event did not market it as a personal event. The dinner website says: “President Donald J. Trump is known as the ‘president of Crypto!’ In this intimate private dinner, he listens to the president first hand Trump talk about the future of cryptography. ”
According to several photos published in X by people who said they were inside the event, Trump had to speak from a podium with the presidential seal.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump was not acting to enrich himself. “President Trump only acts in the best interest of the American public, so they overwhelmed him over this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses of false media,” he said.
Trump’s total immersion in cryptocurrency is an acute investment for a few years ago, when he attacked the industry. “I am not a bitcoin fan and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is very volatile and is based on thin air,” he said in a series of publications in social networks in 2019.
Like other meme coins, the $ Trump currency is far from being a traditional investment. He is not linked to anything with tangible value, and is part of an carnival-cane atmosphere that has returned to cryptocurrency since Trump was re-elected in November.
The small print on the $ Trump website says that the coins “are intended to function as an expression of support and commitment to the ideals and beliefs incorporated by the Trump symbol and are not destined to be, or be the subject of an investment opportunity, investment contract or security of any kind.”
The secret around the invitation list triggered a fight to confirm who paid money to attend dinner. The website of the event published a classification table of the WHO owner of the currency more than $ Trump, but with user names instead of real names.
Using public information available from the Currency Blockchain record maintenance system, Bloomberg News reported great interest in the currency among non -American. According to Bloomberg, 19 of the 25 main headlines bought in foreign exchanges that say they exclude US clients, and 56% of the 220 main bought in those exchanges.
The Superior Holder identified in X this week as Justin Sun, a cryptographic businessman born in China whom the United States stock and values commission demanded in 2023, claiming fraud. The case is still pending, although the SEC has explored a possible agreement or dismissal after Trump’s second inauguration.
When attendees began to arrive for the event, the price of $ Trump suddenly fell into approximately 6%, indicating a significant sales volume, before it stabilized again.
Meanwhile, the protesters used megaphones to amplify their songs while standing in the rain for hours. They included a mixture of local democratic groups, as well as the leftist group, the public citizen.
Rose Fabia, 66, a former employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the event was a shameless example of corruption.
“These rich people are just here to pay access. That’s,” he said. “And he is taking advantage of that and saying: ‘How much are you going to give me? How much are you going to pay for my cryptographic currency?’ It’s a joke.
A person at dinner, Kendall Davis, full of protesters, rejected his statement that he is a blind defender of Trump and implicitly defends his policies. Davis, a young owner of Crypto Black, said the industry has made him a billionaire after he previously had no home. He characterized his assistance as a unique opportunity in life for dinner with a acting president.
“I don’t feel any type of remorse to come here. My dad is black. He’s proud of me. My grandmother is black. She is proud of me. They are Democrats,” he said. “No one in my family has eaten with the president. Let me say this: if it were Joe Biden or Barack Obama, I would have come.”
The protesters joined Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Ore, who spoke the legislation, the Crypto Corruption Law of End, who presented this month with the leader of the Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, Dn.Y. The measure would prohibit the senior officials of the Executive Branch, including the president, to financially benefit from issuing, supporting or sponsoring cryptographic assets.
“The spirit of the Constitution was that no one chosen would be selling influence to anyone because it must be the government and for people, their constituents, not the government for and for people who give it money through the table,” Merkley said.
David Ingram reported from San Francisco; and Nnamdi Egwuonwu reported from Sterling, Virginia.
