President Donald Trump is welcoming the top investors of his personal cryptocurrency, $TRUMP Coin, to the president’s golf club in Virginia on Thursday. It's an event some believe violates anti-corruption laws — something that even his son Eric Trump thought might mean the event couldn't happen.
Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey said that businessman Bill Zanker is collaborating with Trump on the meme coin events.
"So, when we got to the White House and asked about this event, they said, we don't comment on it. The White House has nothing to do with it. The White House isn't vetting the guests. The White House has nothing to do with what the president is doing. It's a personal business commitment," Dawsey said.
He revealed that once the Journal started investigating, it discovered that White House aides had tried to talk Trump out of going to the dinner.
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"His own son, Eric Trump, had been surprised that the dinner existed," said Dawsey. "When that dinner was announced, people in the White House thought — some of them — that it was a fake. There was nothing on his calendar. There was nothing that they saw that was planned. And they said, What's this? And they learned he had signed up for it. He had agreed to do this. So it is a dinner at his private club with investors. The White House is not vetting for a private business. Just to be clear."
CNN's Dana Bash said, "Just to be clear," that the gathering is "a money-making event" that has nothing to do with a campaign or charity, but personal business.
"And the folks who — the investors who were there got promised White House tours. So they're coming down — they're going to his golf club. They're paying for their dinner with the president, and then they get a tour of the White House like that. That is just a fact of what this dinner is."
Bash noted that it isn't even clear who will be at the event. One person, however, has announced that they are going: H.E. Justin Sun, a Chinese-born Kittitian crypto billionaire and founder of Blockchain, who previously served as the Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization from 2021-2023. He invested $75 million with Trump, CNBC reported.
A senator on an investigation subcommittee is among those sounding the alarm about corruption.
“What’s happening tonight at Trump’s golf course — where he is hosting a dinner for the top investors in his meme coins — is in effect, putting a ‘For Sale’ sign on the White House. It’s auctioning off access,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in a joint statement with Accountable.US.
“The Founders wanted to prevent exactly this kind of corruption — the President becoming beholden to a foreign power through private benefits going to him, which is exactly what’s happening here through Trump’s meme coins, through Fight, Fight, Fight, and through World Liberty Financial," he added.
"As Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I have launched an inquiry and written to both companies asking for details. The responses I have received have been completely inadequate, but I am going to persist.”
The New York Times reported in early May that an "Emirati venture fund backed by the government of Abu Dhabi was using the Trump firm’s digital coins to make a $2 billion business deal," said Yahoo News.
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