A poorly catered 'orgy of corruption'
Trump's dinner for crypto buyers disappointed attendees, but the payoff no doubt awaits
By Sam Bellamy
Donald Trump’s self-enriching crypto dinner scheme – dubbed “an orgy of corruption” by Sen. Elizabeth Warren – apparently wasn’t the night of capitalist debauchery its participants hoped it would be. Even the food was underwhelming, it seems.
“I am very disappointed with the dinner. I did not like the menu,” Nicholas Pinto, a 25-year-old “social media influencer,” told The Wall Street Journal in the video clip below. “I was expecting either Big Macs or pizza.”
Aww. Poor thing.
Pinto purchased more than $360,000 worth of $TRUMP memecoins to become one of the 220 buyers awarded what was described by the Trump Organization as “an intimate dinner” with the huckster in chief.
But, as it turned out, Trump didn’t actually dine with his collected admirers. He gave a speech lasting about 25 minutes from a podium bearing a presidential seal. But he didn’t join the crowd for what Pinto ridiculed as “Walmart steak, man” and instead got back in his helicopter and left.
“I’m very disappointed President Trump didn’t spend more time at the event. He was not interacting with us. He gave a short speech. It was kind of – I wasn’t very impressed by the speech, to be honest,” Pinto said.
Even though the attendees left disappointed, they didn’t leave empty-handed. The top donors got a free Trump watch – presumably not the “RUMP” version – and they all got a pledge from Trump that he’s continue looking out for crypto interests.
Trump has made at least $320 million in fees from sale of the coins since they were issued in time for his inauguration in January. A special Melania memecoin was also launched, and various Trump-related crypto coins have been released since then.
Warren and other Democrats have blasted the dinner as one of the worst, if not the worst, act of influence peddling ever in the White House.
Even some Republicans have grumbled that the event was unseemly. “The Trump family activity in the memecoin space makes my work in Congress more complicated,” Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., told CNBC.
Aww. Poor thing.
“Most of the ppl here are sketchy ngl,” Pinto texted Fortune. “Ngl” stands for “not gonna lie.”
Sketchy is a polite way of putting it. The identity of the majority of the buyers on Trump’s “leaderboard” for the dinner hid behind initials or nicknames, although The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets were able to determine the names of some through social media post and other means.
All totaled, the dinner generated purchases of $148 million of $Trump coins for a chance to win what was billed as “the most exclusive invitation in the world.”
And worldwide it was.
An analysis by Bloomberg News found that at least 56% of the top 220 purchasers of $Trump memecoins bought them on foreign exchanges that do not sell to U.S.-based buyers.
And all but six of the top 25 bought their memecoins from those exchanges, according to research by reporters Leonardo Nicoletti, Anthony Cormier and David Kocieniewski.
The scheme drew the ire of Democrats, who said the number of unidentified foreign buyers raises the possibility that some were seeking to win Trump’s favor in his ongoing tariff war with the world.
So far, Democrats have had no luck getting Republicans to agree to a congressional investigation that, under any other administration, would have started back in January when the $Trump coins hit the market.
Pinto, who was driven to the event in his Lamborghini by his dad, told CNBC the experience wasn’t what he and others desired. “The food sucked,” he said. “Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once.”
Something tells me that glasses of those attendees won’t remain empty for long.