Outside Trump’s meme coin dinner: Tuxedos, luxury SUVs and a protest

“The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner. It’s not taking place here at the White House,” stated Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. However, event organizers did not advertise it as a personal event. The dinner’s website mentions: “President Donald J. Trump is Known as the ‘Crypto President!’ At this Intimate Private Dinner, Hear First-Hand President Trump Talk about the Future of Crypto.”
According to several images shared on X by individuals claiming to be present at the event, Trump was scheduled to address the audience from a podium adorned with the presidential seal.
Guests were seen arriving at the ball. Maansi Srivastava covered the event for NBC News.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly clarified this week that Trump was not acting to benefit himself. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media,” she commented.
Trump’s deep dive into cryptocurrency marks a significant change from a few years ago when he criticized the industry. In a series of social media posts in 2019, he stated, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.”
Similar to other meme coins, the $TRUMP coin is far from a traditional investment. It lacks ties to anything with tangible value, and it is part of a festive-casino ambiance that has reemerged in the cryptocurrency realm since Trump’s re-election in November.
Guests were seen arriving at the ball. Maansi Srivastava covered the event for NBC News.
The fine print on the $TRUMP project’s website indicates that the coins “are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol $TRUMP and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”
The secrecy surrounding the guest list sparked efforts to confirm who paid to attend the dinner. The event’s website displayed a leaderboard of the top $TRUMP coin holders, but only using usernames, not real names.
Drawing from publicly accessible information in the coin’s blockchain recordkeeping system, Bloomberg News reported strong interest in the coin among non-Americans. Bloomberg noted that 19 of the top 25 holders purchased from foreign exchanges that prohibit U.S. customers, and 56% of the top 220 holders bought from those exchanges.
Guests were seen arriving at the ball. Maansi Srivastava covered the event for NBC News.
The top holder identified himself on X this week as Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur whom the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued in 2023 for alleged fraud. The case is ongoing, though the SEC has explored potential settlement or dismissal following Trump’s second inauguration.
As attendees arrived for the event, the price of $TRUMP suddenly dropped by around 6%, indicating significant sales, before stabilizing once more.
Meanwhile, protesters used megaphones to amplify their chants while enduring hours of rain. The demonstrators included various local Democratic groups and the left-leaning organization Public Citizen.
Guests were seen arriving at the ball. Maansi Srivastava covered the event for NBC News.
Rose Fabia, 66, a former Department of Veterans Affairs employee, criticized the event as a clear instance of corruption. “These wealthy people, they’re just here to pay for access. That’s all it is,” she remarked. “And he’s taking advantage of it and saying, ‘How much are you gonna give me? How much you gonna pay for my crypto coin?’ It’s a joke. It’s corruption in our faces.”
One attendee, Kendall Davis, engaged with protesters, rejecting their claims that he blindly supports Trump and implicitly endorsing his policies. Davis, a young Black crypto owner, attributed his newfound wealth to the industry, which transformed him from being homeless to a multimillionaire. He viewed his attendance as a unique chance to dine with a sitting president.
“I don’t feel any type of remorse for coming here. My dad is Black. He’s proud of me. My grandma is Black. She’s proud of me. They’re Democrats,” he stated. “Nobody in my family has ever eaten with the president. Let me say this: If it was Joe Biden or Barack Obama, I would’ve come, too.”
Other notable figures at the dinner included Sandy Carter, the COO of blockchain-based Unstoppable Domains.
Among the protesters was Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who highlighted the legislation he introduced with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The End Crypto Corruption Act aims to prevent senior executive branch officials, including the president, from financially benefiting from issuing, endorsing, or sponsoring crypto assets.
“The spirit of the Constitution was that no one elected would be selling influence to anyone because it’s to be government by and for the people, your constituents, not government by and for people who hand money across the table to you,” Merkley stated.
This article was reported by David Ingram from San Francisco and Nnamdi Egwuonwu from Sterling.