Dems Call for Ethics Investigation After Trump-Linked Meme Coin Surfaces at High-Dollar Dinner
Washington’s crypto-skeptics pounce as MAGA-themed token appears at elite fundraiser—just another day in the politicization of digital assets.
Senate Democrats demand probe into whether the meme coin’s promoters received preferential access—because nothing says ’drain the swamp’ like mixing political fundraising with speculative crypto schemes.
The irony? A token named after the man who called Bitcoin a ’scam’ now fuels ethics complaints. Meanwhile, the coin’s price pumped and dumped faster than a Trump administration official.
Greatest of them all
Despite the president’s impassioned support of the crypto industry, critics have remained wary.
In a complaint filed in February, U.S. nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen claimed that Trump’s actions appear to be "soliciting money in exchange for nothing."
Late last month, Trump touted the meme coin as the "greatest of them all," with the market reaction prompting a 7% uptick.
At the time, Andrew Rossow, digital media attorney and CEO of AR Media, told Decrypt that those actions may have "set a dangerous precedent" on how public office could be Leveraged "for personal financial gain."
Warren and Schiff’s letter cites several reports concerning anonymous foreign influence, including one instance where an investor bought roughly $13 million worth of tokens through a purportedly Chinese-founded crypto exchange.
The pair also claims that there is a "troubling prospect" that foreign actors may be using the meme coin "to buy influence with President Trump and his associates" without “needing to disclose their identities publicly."
Organizers explicitly require attendees to provide their legal name, contact information, and wallet address, according to the event’s webpage.
The White House Press Office did not immediately return Decrypt’s requests for comment.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
