Enough, already: Impeach Trump NOW
Americans need to hear all the details about his $Trump meme coin swindle
By Sam Bellamy
We’re now a hundred days into his historically corrupt and deeply unpopular second presidency, and Donald Trump has yet to be impeached.
It’s time. It’s very, very much time.
Last week, Trump announced that he’ll host “an intimate private dinner” for 220 individuals who buy the most $Trump meme coins from him between now and May 12. The top 25 buyers will be invited to a reception prior to the dinner and given a “VIP tour” of the White House.
Meme coins are digital assets that, unlike conventional shares sold on the stock market, are not tied to any real product or activity. Trump is essentially selling bottled air – and, worse, the tantalizing prospect that he’ll do something that will enrich the buyers of those bottles.
The proceeds from the purchases are not going into a campaign fund, the traditional way politicians sell access. It’s going directly into Trump’s pockets.
And what large pockets they are. As Forbes magazine explains in its current issue, Trump’s exact take is difficult to determine. But in the days after Trump’s pre-inauguration release of $Trump coins, various entities made an estimated $350 million in fees from sales, with Trump likely securing about $100 million after taxes.
This past week’s “earnings” for Trump were undoubtedly much higher. According to NBC News, “The $TRUMP meme coin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion.”
Forbes points out that the meme coins – along with Bible sales and other schemes tied directly to his office – have reversed the grim situation Trump faced a year ago, when he owed $454 million on a fraud judgment in New York and faced asset seizure because he didn’t have enough cash – “only” $413 million – available to him.
Since he returned to the Oval Office, Forbes estimated in this month’s issue, he’s doubled his estimated fortune, from $2.3 billion to $5.1 billion. And that has undoubtedly shot upward because of the dinner scam.
It is, inarguably, corrupt – as masterful bit of grift that no doubt eases the pain of recent polls showing that only 41% of Americans approve of the work he’s supposed to be doing when he’s not engaged in shakedowns.
The Trump team is promising that no recordings will be allowed at the dinner or reception for meme coin buyers. (Please, wait staff, push “record” on your cellphones.)
The total lack of transparency is, of course, especially worrisome.
Trump is essentially selling bottled air – and, worse, the tantalizing prospect that he’ll do something that will enrich the buyers of those bottles.
Molly White, an independent crypto researcher, told NBC News that the “leaderboard” for meme coin sales shows only the top $TRUMP holders and only by their chosen screen names, making it tough to figure out who they really are.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, who’ve called for an ethics investigation, said public reports already show that some $Trump investors are using foreign exchanges. At least one buyer is using Binance, a cryptocurrency company that doesn’t allow American users.
Their ethics investigation is certainly necessary. So is impeachment. There’s already enough evidence here to bring our stable genius to trial.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution – known as the emoluments clause – expressly forbids federal officials from accepting profits of any sort from a foreign state without congressional approval.
It’s not known if a foreign government is currying favor with Trump through meme coin sales. But that’s the problem, isn’t it?
We won’t know who’s buying favors here – from abroad or in the United States. Although the dinner is ostensibly about the future of cryptocurrency, only a fool would believe the agenda will stay entirely on point. The pay-to-play possibilities are endless.
Previous attempts to hold Trump accountable to the emoluments clause failed, and the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear it’s not interested in abiding by the rules that generations of Americans had believed to be in place to prevent widespread presidential corruption and wholesale power grabs.
And then, as Sen. Jon Ossoff pointed out at a meeting with constituents in Georgia last week, there’s the not insignificant fact that Democrats do not hold the majority in either the House or the Senate.
In the video below, Ossoff acknowledged that impeachment proceedings are needed.
“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him, there is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense,” he said.
However, he said, time would be better spent on helping Democrats gain a majority in the midterm elections next year.
You’re never going to achieve that majority, Sen. Ossoff, if the American people remain largely unaware of the grift, the indisputable corruption, that Trump is engaged in.
Impeachment proceedings would ensure the story is shared – and shared loudly – increasing the likelihood that many more Americans will learn their president is prostituting their government to the highest bidders.
Tell them. And, who knows, maybe enough Republicans – staring at plummeting approval ratings and hostile town hall crowds – will relocate the spines they left hanging in the House and Senate cloakrooms back in 2016.
Clearly, there’s an appetite for hauling Trump to a public accounting for his relentless swindling.
In their call for investigations, Sens. Warren and Schiff wrote, “This latest action raises grave ethics and legal concerns, including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities, to include foreign nationals and corporate actors with vested interests in federal action, while personally enriching the President and his family.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, blessedly, is much more direct: “This isn't Trump just being Trump. The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”
I’m confident many Americans – beyond already incredulous Democrats – also will see this for what it is.
Let’s make sure Congress acts.
Call, text, write a letter to your elected representatives – and to those in states around you. Tell them to impeach. Now.
And spread the word about $Trump. Tell others to call, text, or write letters.
The number for the Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121; individual email addresses are available here.
It’s time. It’s very, very much time.
Contacted Moreno & Husted OH senators about impeaching trump the #KingFelonFürher & his düfus minions NOW.
Both of them are just a corrupt as the Felon Fürher😔
I appreciate you pointing out Trump's egregious level of grift, secrecy, and conflict of interest with his gross meme coin dinner scheme. He is taking every opportunity to monetize the presidency to put money in his personal pocket. It's just so heinous. So yes, keep shining the light on his misdeeds and abuse of the office.
However, I differ with you on the question of Impeachment. We all know that Trump has an incredibly long list of impeachable offenses, but readers have to understand how the House and Senate work. I'm no expert, but from what I understand, impeachment proceedings will not happen with Republicans holding the House; Speaker Johnson will not bring it to the floor. Jon Ossoff is right.
And having some kind of shadow impeachment hearings done by Dems is not what will raise awareness of Trump's crimes; I really don't think that's the best use of their time. BUT there is still PLENTY Dems can do between now and midterms. For one, what WILL raise awareness of Trump's grift and massive corruption is for lawmakers to find creative ways to draw public attention to themselves - a la Cory Booker - and hammer on Trump's illegal actions. They also have to show how Trump’s grift, etc., hurts regular Americans, AND they have to articulate what the Dem party offers that will solve real working people's problems.
AOC and Bernie are doing a bang-up job. We need to push all our Dem lawmakers in both houses of Congress to get big and public and loud with their anger, in whatever way they can. They have different comfort levels with different kinds of actions, but we need them to be a lot louder.
After midterms, we can reevaluate the possibility of Impeachment. Now, if Republicans miraculously change their position on Trump (not likely), then if the numbers are there we could talk impeachment. Remember, though, that the destruction of the administrative state and concentration of power in the president is totally Steven Miller's doing. And Vance would still be there, and he's anti-Europe, pronatalist, and a general dimwit. And if HE were gone, we'd have Johnson, the fakey Christian anti-woke warrior pushing these Godawful bills through. So yuck. I say we find other ways to neuter this regime's power and focus on turning more and more of the public against them. Only massive nonviolent action and/or economic failure that affects Trump will change anything he tries to do.