Trump to headline $Trump memecoin event at Mar-a-Lago amid ethics criticism

Donald Trump is scheduled to appear on 25 April at a cryptocurrency event at his Mar-a-Lago club for top purchasers of his memecoin, $Trump, renewing criticism from leading Democrats and ethics watchdogs that he is using the presidency for personal financial gain.

Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is linked to Trump, has promoted the gathering as “THE MOST EXCLUSIVE CRYPTO & BUSINESS CONFERENCE IN THE WORLD”. According to the memecoin’s official website and social media account, the event will include a luncheon with Trump as keynote speaker.

To increase sales of $Trump, Fight Fight Fight LLC announced last month that attendance at the 25 April event would be limited to the top 297 coin purchasers. The top 29 investors are to be invited to a special reception with Trump.

Memecoins are highly volatile crypto tokens whose value is tied not to a real-world asset but to social media virality. Trump launched his memecoin just days before his 2025 inauguration.

The event is also expected to feature several crypto entrepreneurs and Trump allies, including former boxer Mike Tyson. It closely resembles a dinner Trump hosted at his Virginia golf club last May for 220 purchasers of $Trump. That dinner reportedly brought in $148m and drew sharp criticism from Democrats and watchdog groups, which called it a “pay to play” ploy and a conflict of interest because the president was hosting a gala for his personal financial benefit rather than for campaign donations.

A disclaimer on the memecoin website says Trump may not be able to attend the all-day event. The site says that if he cannot attend, the gathering may be rescheduled or qualifying participants will receive “a limited edition Trump NFT (Non Fungible Token) in lieu thereof”.

Ethics experts and several top Democrats have already voiced strong concerns ahead of the event.

Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as a top ethics adviser to President George W Bush during part of Bush’s second term, told the Guardian that the event “is a dangerous conflict of interest and a ‘use of public office for private gain’ which for any other federal officer or employee would violate the express language of federal ethics rules”.

“This is also payment of money to get access to the president, which meets the original understanding of the meaning of the word ‘bribery’ that was included in the impeachment clause of the constitution, even if modern federal criminal bribery statutes (eg 18 USC 201) are not violated unless the president agrees to a specific official act in exchange for purchase of his $Trump coin,” Painter said.

Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Adam Schiff of California have also written to Fight Fight Fight LLC to express concern about Trump profiting from the event.

“We have previously raised concerns with President Trump’s willingness to use the presidency for personal profit – including a similar dinner President Trump promoted for meme coin holders last year,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is essential that Congress fully understand the extent to which President Trump and his family are profiting off of his cryptocurrency ventures.”

The senators’ letter said that “notably not all $TRUMP holders have benefited from their investment”, citing a February industry report that found $TRUMP and the first lady’s meme coin, $MELANIA, “erased an estimated $4.3 billion in retail wealth” in recent months, with 2 million holders currently underwater. The same report said that 45 other crypto wallets that were early holders of $Trump had profited by about $1.2bn.

Unlike previous presidents, Trump has declined to place his assets in a completely blind trust or divest from his businesses, despite appeals from ethics experts.

After the earlier memecoin event raised conflict-of-interest questions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is “abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president”.

Trump has dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest. In January, he told the New York Times that he has a “very honest family” and had never taken his presidential salary.

Critics including Democrats, watchdog groups and scholars say Trump’s aggressive promotion of $Trump reflects a transactional style of governing that has benefited his personal finances and the crypto industry. The event is one of several crypto ventures promoted by Trump or his two eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr, during his presidency that reports say have increased his wealth by at least $3bn, according to Forbes.

Trump and his two eldest sons launched their own crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in the fall of 2024 during his third presidential campaign. Last year, World Liberty Financial, which Eric and Don Jr helped promote, launched a dollar-pegged stablecoin that has proved lucrative.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump raised millions of dollars from the crypto industry while pledging to make the US “the crypto capital of the world”. He has also followed through on promises to ease SEC regulation of cryptocurrency, a longstanding industry goal and a major shift from his earlier views. In 2021, he called crypto a “scam” and a “disaster waiting to happen”.

Analysts say the crypto industry has benefited from weaker regulation and Trump’s support since he returned to office, while crypto firms and executives have contributed many millions of dollars to Trump’s Super Pac and his ballroom project.

Some scholars warn that weaker regulatory oversight of the fast-growing crypto sector by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies could create broader economic risks.

Eswar Prasad, a Cornell economist, told the Guardian that it was “clear that, under Trump, the government’s regulatory apparatus is keen to look past any and all sins of favored crypto promoters, a group that comprises individuals who have directly benefited the Trump family’s financial interests”.