Trump's Crypto Dinner Guests Admit They're Trying to Buy Him Off
'I will definitely not hesitate to share my perspective,' Vincent Liu, CIO of Taiwanese-based crypto firm Kronos Research, who bought enough Trump's crypto to attend the dinner Thursday night, told The New York Times. 'It's great to see the current direction that everything's going.'
'It's kind of a fund-raiser' for Mr. Trump, Korean crypto executive Sangrok Oh and another dinner attendee, told the Times. 'And he'll always be good to his sponsors.'
The dinner was held at Trump's private golf club in northern Virginia on Thursday evening for the top 220 holders of the president's memcoin cryptocurrency—after an auction that brought in $147,586,796.41. Protesters lined the entrance to the building, chanting 'shame, shame, shame!' and other holding up signs while attendees arrived.
The event was promoted as the 'most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world,' according to an email. While the top 220 buyers got into the gala, the top 25 buyers received much more personal, 'ultra-exclusive private VIP reception' and 'Special VIP Tour' with Trump, allowing them unfettered access to the president.
There were also some other high profile attendees there (with much smaller pockets than the likes of Liu and Oh). Embattled former NBA player and reality TV star Lamar Odom posted a video on X of himself walking into the event while boos and jeers rained down on him from the crowd.
'I'm just about to pass through security and officially walk into the Trump Gala.
Honestly… I'm fired up. Think about it—what meme coin has ever done this?' Odom wrote on X, plugging his own memecoin as well. '$ODOM isn't just a token, it's taking the stage at a presidential gala tonight!'
Trump's cryptocurrency has been widely condemned as a blatant conflict of interest that completely blurs the lines between executive power and private business.
'Donald Trump's dinner is an orgy of corruption. That's what this is all about,' Senator Elizabeth Warren said that evening. 'Donald Trump is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto, and he's doing it right out there in plain sight. He is signaling to anyone who wants to ask for a special favor—and is willing to pay for it—exactly how to do that.
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