Latest news with #GalaDinner
Int'l Business Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Trump Hosts Gala For Memecoin Buyers Despite Corruption Concerns
US President Donald Trump on Thursday will host a private event for hundreds of top investors in his crypto memecoin, with leaders of the Democratic opposition blasting it as "an orgy of corruption." The unprecedented melding of US presidential power and personal business will take place at Trump's golf club outside Washington, where the 220 biggest purchasers of the $TRUMP memecoin will have dinner with the president. The top 25 investors, according to an event website, will get a private session with Trump beforehand and a White House tour. Trump launched the memecoin three days before his January inauguration, quickly increasing his net worth by billions and raising major ethics concerns, including over possible foreign influence. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and colleagues called Thursday for Trump to disclose who is attending the dinner. Calling the dinner "an orgy of corruption," Warren told a press conference that Trump "is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto." Data analytics firm Inca Digital has confirmed that many transactions occurred through international exchanges unavailable in the United States, suggesting foreign buyers. Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun claims the top investor position, having committed $20 million to the memecoin as part of his $93 million total investment in Trump-linked crypto ventures. Sun, founder of top 10 cryptocurrency TRON, was under investigation by US authorities for market manipulation, but regulators, now controlled by Trump appointees, agreed in February to a 60-day pause to seek a settlement. According to the website Popular Information, a few weeks before that decision, Sun purchased $30 million in digital assets from a venture backed by Trump and his family. "Honored to support @POTUS and grateful for the invitation to attend President Trump's Gala Dinner as his TOP fan!" Sun wrote Tuesday on X. Justin Unga of advocacy group End Citizens United described the crypto dinner as a blatant example of Trump profiting from the presidency while roiling the US economy. "Some say this is a back door to corruption," Unga said. "I would argue it's the front door with valet parking, and it's got a red carpet... and a slap in the face of hard working Americans." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the allegations of impropriety Thursday, telling a briefing that Trump is attending the dinner in his "personal time" and abiding by applicable conflict of interest laws. The dinner comes as the US Senate is pushing through legislation to more clearly regulate cryptocurrencies, a long-sought request of the industry. Senators on Monday advanced a landmark bill known as the GENIUS Act that proposes a regulatory framework for stablecoins -- a type of crypto token seen as more predictable for investors as its value is pegged to hard currencies like the dollar. That legislation had faced roadblocks in part because of Trump's dabbling in cryptocurrencies -- a rising sector he once dismissed as a scam. His stance reversed during the 2024 presidential campaign when crypto tycoons, frustrated by perceived unfair treatment under the Biden administration, became major contributors to his campaign. Bitcoin's price hit a new all-time high on Thursday, climbing above $111,000 before falling slightly. Trump's newfound enthusiasm for digital currencies has expanded into multiple ventures led primarily by his eldest sons. Their growing portfolio includes investments in Binance, a major crypto exchange whose founder seeks a presidential pardon to re-enter the US market. This investment flows through World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed venture launched last September with significant Mideast deals. The company's founding team includes Donald Jr. and Eric Trump alongside Zach Witkoff, son of Trump's diplomatic adviser. President Trump has taken concrete steps to reduce regulatory barriers, including an executive order establishing a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" for government holdings of the leading digital currency. The dinner comes as the Senate is pushing through legislation to more clearly regulate cryptocurrencies AFP
Hindustan Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Trump hosts gala for memecoin buyers despite corruption concerns
US President Donald Trump on Thursday will host a private event for hundreds of top investors in his crypto memecoin, with leaders of the Democratic opposition blasting it as "an orgy of corruption." The unprecedented melding of US presidential power and personal business will take place at Trump's golf club outside Washington, where the 220 biggest purchasers of the $TRUMP memecoin will have dinner with the president. The top 25 investors, according to an event website, will get a private session with Trump beforehand and a White House tour. Trump launched the memecoin three days before his January inauguration, quickly increasing his net worth by billions and raising major ethics concerns, including over possible foreign influence. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and colleagues called Thursday for Trump to disclose who is attending the dinner. Calling the dinner "an orgy of corruption," Warren told a press conference that Trump "is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto." Data analytics firm Inca Digital has confirmed that many transactions occurred through international exchanges unavailable in the United States, suggesting foreign buyers. Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun claims the top investor position, having committed $20 million to the memecoin as part of his $93 million total investment in Trump-linked crypto ventures. Sun, founder of top 10 cryptocurrency TRON, was under investigation by US authorities for market manipulation, but regulators, now controlled by Trump appointees, agreed in February to a 60-day pause to seek a settlement. According to the website Popular Information, a few weeks before that decision, Sun purchased $30 million in digital assets from a venture backed by Trump and his family. "Honored to support @POTUS and grateful for the invitation to attend President Trump's Gala Dinner as his TOP fan!" Sun wrote Tuesday on X. Justin Unga of advocacy group End Citizens United described the crypto dinner as a blatant example of Trump profiting from the presidency while roiling the US economy. "Some say this is a back door to corruption," Unga said. "I would argue it's the front door with valet parking, and it's got a red carpet... and a slap in the face of hard working Americans." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the allegations of impropriety Thursday, telling a briefing that Trump is attending the dinner in his "personal time" and abiding by applicable conflict of interest laws. The dinner comes as the US Senate is pushing through legislation to more clearly regulate cryptocurrencies, a long-sought request of the industry. Senators on Monday advanced a landmark bill known as the GENIUS Act that proposes a regulatory framework for stablecoins a type of crypto token seen as more predictable for investors as its value is pegged to hard currencies like the dollar. That legislation had faced roadblocks in part because of Trump's dabbling in cryptocurrencies a rising sector he once dismissed as a scam. His stance reversed during the 2024 presidential campaign when crypto tycoons, frustrated by perceived unfair treatment under the Biden administration, became major contributors to his campaign. Bitcoin's price hit a new all-time high on Thursday, climbing above $111,000 before falling slightly. Trump's newfound enthusiasm for digital currencies has expanded into multiple ventures led primarily by his eldest sons. Their growing portfolio includes investments in Binance, a major crypto exchange whose founder seeks a presidential pardon to re-enter the US market. This investment flows through World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed venture launched last September with significant Mideast deals. The company's founding team includes Donald Jr. and Eric Trump alongside Zach Witkoff, son of Trump's diplomatic adviser. President Trump has taken concrete steps to reduce regulatory barriers, including an executive order establishing a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" for government holdings of the leading digital currency. arp-gc/des
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Resourcing Tomorrow Outstanding Achievement Awards & Gala Dinner Return to London
Celebrating the Mining Industry's Most Inspiring Achievements of 2025 London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - The Resourcing Tomorrow Outstanding Achievement Awards & Gala Dinner will return on December 4, 2025, hosted once again at the stunning London Guildhall. This prestigious event celebrates the exceptional individuals, companies, and initiatives driving progress across the mining industry over the past year. Previous winners such as the Responsible Business Alliance, Ivanhoe Mines, Hancock Prospecting, Gold Fields, IMPACT Silver Corp, Cornish Tin, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have set the bar high, making these awards some of the most coveted honors in the mining sector. View past winners here. Taking place at the conclusion of the Resourcing Tomorrow Conference - where the world's mining leaders converge - the awards evening offers the industry's most prominent players a final opportunity to come together, reflect on the year's successes, and enjoy a sparkling festive atmosphere amid London's magical Christmas season. With seven award categories, the gala promises an unforgettable night filled with celebration, recognition, and networking. Further details about the evening's entertainment will be announced soon. 2025 Award Categories Include: Exploration Discovery of the Year, sponsored by TM Partners Best ESG Initiative by a Mining Company, sponsored by McCarthy Tétrault Best ESG Industry Initiative, sponsored by Eldorado Gold Mining Deal of the Year, sponsored by Pinsent Masons Mining Leader of the Year, sponsored by Stratum Rising Star(s) of the Year, sponsored by Peel Hunt Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by SLR Consulting The awards continue to grow in prestige and popularity, with all seven categories secured by sponsors early this year and last year's gala selling out well in advance. Key Dates: August 30, 2025: Nominations close September 30, 2025: Shortlist revealed Resourcing Tomorrow 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Gina Rinehart was hailed by SLR Consulting's global mining director David Walker as "a fantastic gift from Australia and quite possibly the greatest Aussie woman we have." How to Nominate: Industry leaders, peers, and stakeholders are encouraged to submit nominations to recognise outstanding contributions across the sector. Visit to nominate before the August 30 deadline. Join us on December 4th at London Guildhall for an evening of inspiration, celebration, and connection - as we honor the trailblazers shaping the future of mining. Contact: Jessica Mockler, Associate Marketing Director, Resourcing Tomorrow To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fast Company
22-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Trump's 4,000 meme-coins-per-plate crypto dinner is an American embarrassment
On Thursday, President Donald Trump will sit down for an intimate evening at his Northern Virginia golf club with 220 of his favorite people in the world: a group of cryptocurrency speculators who have spent an estimated $148 million on Trump's eponymous memecoin, making the president and his associates millions of dollars in the process. Even by Trump's standards, this dinner will be the culmination of one of the most cartoonish episodes of executive-branch graft in recent memory. Last month, Trump announced that at the end of a predetermined period, he would host an 'unforgettable Gala DINNER' for the top 220 holders of $TRUMP, allowing winners to discuss the future of the industry with the 'Crypto President' himself. The top 25 token holders would also get to attend an 'Exclusive Reception' with Trump, along with a 'Special VIP White House Tour.' (Hours after the contest went live, its website was quietly edited to promise the top 25 finishers only a 'Special VIP Tour,' with no location specified. It remains unclear whether that event will indeed take place at the White House, or at a golf resort facility of the president's choice.) The contest's organizer, a Trump-affiliated LLC called Fight Fight Fight, maintained an online leaderboard of those jockeying for position during the sweepstakes, which ended on May 12. The website also includes helpful information about the dress code (black tie optional) and the plus-one policy (none, because 'if you earned a seat at the table, it's because you earned it'). For Trump, the logistical details were far less important than the chance to juice the market for $TRUMP, which had cratered after launching in January but then spiked by more than 50% when he announced the contest. In the two days that followed, the Trump Organization and its affiliates, which together control roughly 80% of the token's supply, took in nearly $1 million in trading fees; by the end of the sweepstakes, that number had jumped to $3 million, according to a Washington Post analysis. In all, the Post estimates that since the coin's debut four months ago, Trump and company have made $312 million from crypto sales and $43 million in fees. As it turns out, one of the perks of being the person in charge of U.S. cryptocurrency policy is the freedom to profit off of cryptocurrency without fear of meaningful consequences. The details of the frenzy to secure a spot on the leaderboard make clear just how for sale the federal government is right now. Making the top 220, according to Wired, required holding or buying more than 4,000 $TRUMP tokens worth about $55,000 altogether; those who made the VIP list held an average of 325,000 tokens worth a collective $4.3 million. Many of the people who made the cut made their purchases on exchanges that suggest they are non-U.S. residents who jumped at the chance to bend the U.S. president's ear in a semiprivate setting. Sure enough, although the leaderboard identifies winners only by username and alphanumeric crypto wallet address, among the confirmed attendees are Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto speculator who is, in a wild coincidence, trying to settle civil fraud charges with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission; an Australian crypto entrepreneur who hopes to pitch Trump on adopting an even more industry-friendly regulatory stance; and a to-be-determined representative of MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto collective that told New York magazine that whomever it sends hopes to ask Trump, 'Are you a meme, or the result of one?' Fight Fight Fight calculated the value of contestants' holdings based on both the amount of $TRUMP in a wallet and the length of time they'd held it, thus rewarding early investors for their commitment to padding the president's bottom line. That said, earlier this month, the journalist Molly White found that of the wallets on the leaderboard at the time, 62% started buying $TRUMP only after he dangled the dinner invitation. Once acquiring a floundering memecoin came with a shot at a sit-down with the literal President of the United States, people who were previously uninterested apparently decided to reevaluate their investment priorities. Since the event is closed to the press, there will be no independent coverage of what Trump says to attendees, or what the attendees say to Trump, or even who the attendees are. The entire spectacle amounts to an off-the-record jam session between a bunch of people who have already gotten rich off crypto, brainstorming ways to keep getting rich off crypto. For Trump, the event is only the latest celebration of his whirlwind romance with crypto, which he spent years disparaging before realizing that embracing it could help fast-track his return to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate on the campaign trail last year, promising to create a national crypto stockpile and appoint industry luminaries to prominent administration roles. In another wild coincidence, around the same time, his adult sons helped launch World Liberty Financial, a crypto project structured to funnel 75% of revenue to the Trump family. WLF was basically a hedge against the results of the 2024 election: Even if Trump lost, he would at least have a new source of income to pay his legal bills. The fact that Trump won that election, of course, has made this alliance even more successful for everyone involved. In the hours before his inauguration, the price of Bitcoin spiked to nearly $110,000, then an all-time high. Demand for World Liberty Financial's coins exploded, too, especially from foreign investors whom federal law bars from giving directly to presidential campaigns or inaugural funds. (Sun, who will attend Thursday's dinner, has spent nearly $75 million on WLF tokens, making him its single largest known investor.) More recently, Abu Dhabi announced that it would use a WLF-issued stablecoin, USDI1, for its state-backed investment firm's $2 billion deal with the crypto exchange Binance—a choice that just so happens to put tens of millions of dollars in the Trump family's pockets. In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year, Eric Trump spoke of the family's pivot to crypto in glowing terms, describing World Liberty Financial as 'one of the more successful things we've ever done.' The numbers bear this out: In March, Fortune estimated that Trump's crypto holdings were worth $2.9 billion—not bad for an asset he was dismissing as 'not money,' 'highly volatile,' and 'based on thin air' a few years earlier. Pundits often describe Trump's involvement in crypto as 'unprecedented,' and in a sense, this is right: Given Washington's enduring obsessions with political scandals and conflicts of interest, traditionally, sitting presidents have not developed active side hustles in industries they have the power to regulate. But Trump has never cared about adhering to norms like this one, because he has always viewed the power of the office he holds primarily in terms of its potential to make him wealthier. He agreed to shake hands with a couple hundred crypto enthusiasts this week for the only reason he has ever done anything: He saw a chance to make money, and no one stopped him from taking it.
Zawya
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Zawya
Thai SELECT Royal Gala Night Elevates Thai Cuisine on the Global Stage with "The Five Spirits of Thai Taste"
An Extraordinary Gala Dinner Celebrates the Refinement of Thai Flavors and the International Prestige of Thai SELECT Certification BANGKOK, THAILAND - Media OutReach Newswire - 19 May 2025 - The Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), Ministry of Commerce, will host the Thai SELECT Royal Gala Night on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok. Presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, the event seeks to elevate the global stature of Thai cuisine and the Thai SELECT certification. Guests will experience a remarkable Thai culinary showcase themed "THE FIVE SPIRITS OF THAI TASTE", celebrating the distinctive refinement of Thai flavors through an extraordinary gala dinner. This prestigious occasion underscores Thailand's commitment to promoting Thai SELECT, a mark of excellence that certifies the authenticity and quality of Thai cuisine. It applies to both restaurants serving traditional dishes and ready-to-eat Thai products made with genuine ingredients and time-honored techniques. The Thai SELECT seal serves as a powerful emblem of Thailand's soft power, enhancing the global reputation of its culinary heritage. In 2025, the Ministry of Commerce has taken bold strides to amplify the visibility of Thai SELECT, in alignment with the national strategy to harness cultural influence as a driver of economic growth. A newly introduced rating system— the Orchid Star of Honor —categorizes certified establishments into four tiers: Thai SELECT Three Stars, Two Stars, One Star, and Thai SELECT Casual. At the gala, guests will be immersed in"THE FIVE SPIRITS OF THAI TASTE", representing the five essential dimensions of Thai cuisine: sour, sweet, creamy, salty, and spicy. Curated by acclaimed chefs from five celebrated Thai SELECT restaurants, each course is a culinary expression of one spirit, offering a journey through the vibrant soul of Thai gastronomy. The experience includes: · The Awakening Spirit (sour) by BLUE ELEPHANT · The Grounded Spirit (salty) by AMDANG TYPHOON GROUP · The Fiery Spirit (spicy) by R-HAAN · The Soulful Spirit (creamy) by Royal Osha · The Nostalgic Spirit (sweet) by The Artisans Ayutthaya Adding to the evening's distinction is a special appearance by Ethan Bernath, a prominent American chef, author, and digital food creator. He will share his impressions of Thai cuisine and engage with leading Thai chefs in a dialogue that explores the connection between flavor, well-being, and the Thai way of life. The Thai SELECT Royal Gala Night represents a pivotal moment in advancing the international prestige of Thai cuisine. By reinforcing the excellence embodied in Thai SELECT, the event opens new avenues for global expansion of Thai food businesses—further propelling economic growth through Thailand's cultural influence. Hashtag: #ThaiSELECT The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Thai SELECT
