Bribing the President has Gotten a Whole Lot Easier.

​Donald Trump’s propensity to profit off the presidency knows no bounds. He has made millions of dollars from the sales of Trump branded merchandise, used his campaign to fund raise and pay for his personal legal team, and has enriched the Trump Organization by holding government and political functions at his various properties. Foreign governments spent over $8 million at Trump properties during his first term, and various special interest groups use the same tactic to curry favor with him. Trump routinely overcharges the Secret Service for accommodations at his resorts while there to protect him and his family.  The House Republicans hosted a retreat last month at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami as a way to pay homage to their party leader, and line his pockets, setting the example for any other group or individual looking to gain access to Trump.

​Trump’s latest scheme to enrich himself and his family is the most insidious because it exists in the unregulated and shadowy domain of the crypto world. On January 17, 2025, just a few days before his inauguration, Trump announced to his millions of followers on Truth Social that he was releasing his own crypto meme coin. Not to be left out of the latest Trump family scheme, the incoming first lady released her own crypto meme coin two days later.

                                 Dogecoin

Meme Coins: Also known as meme tokens, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency based on a meme or image. They have been around for about ten years. The first and best-known meme coin is Dogecoin, inspired by the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog.

Meme coins can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges alongside other digital assets, or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin meme coins are not used as a form of currency and have no intrinsic value. Consider them as collectables such as trading cards or beanie babies in digital format. As with other collectables there are speculators who buy meme coins with the expectation that they will increase in value. But they are highly speculative, so buyer beware.
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Anyone can create their own meme coin and start selling them to the public for a very modest fee. If you are interested in creating your own meme coin, Pump.fun is a popular website to get started. For more on cryptocurrencies  you can refer to my 2022 blog on the subject.

​Trump Meme Coin: Trump Meme, sometimes referred to as Official Trump, has the trading symbol $TRUMP.  Trump Meme is marketed with an image of Trump, fist raised in the air with the words “Fight, Fight, Fight” splashed across it. $TRUMP can be purchased through most cryptocurrency exchanges or through the Trump Meme website. According to the website one billion $TRUMP coins were created and so far 200 million have been released for sale in the open crypto market. The remaining coins will be released for sale over the next 36 months.

The ownership of Trump’s meme coins is hidden behind limited liability companies controlled by the Trump family. Fight Fight Fight  is the company that owns the official website for the meme coin, and  Fight Fight Fight   is owned by Trump’s CIC Digital and Celebration Cards. These two companies own the 800 million Trump coins yet to be sold. As of this writing the $TRUMP coin is trading for $18.89, bringing the value of the remaining coins to approximately $16 billion.
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The creators of the Trump meme coin receive a share of the trading fees, which can be quite lucrative. In the few short weeks that the coin has been trading the Trump controlled entities behind the coin have made an estimated $100 million in trading fees. 

Influencing the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies: Currently there are no federal regulations governing the issuance and trading of meme coins, and federal regulations surrounding other cryptocurrencies are in flux.  The Biden Administration attempted to build a comprehensive strategy for regulating digital assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through Executive Order 14067: Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.

​Three days after taking office President Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14067 with an executive order of his own, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology”.   This executive order puts into motion Trump’s promise to make America the “Crypto Capitol of the World”. Its purpose is to create a friendly regulatory environment in which digital assets and related technologies can grow across all sectors of the economy. Trump’s new treasury secretary will oversee all provisions of this executive order.

​True to his vision to make America the crypto capitol of the world, Trump is stacking his cabinet with crypto friendly secretaries. The new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is a former hedge fund manager with pro-crypto views. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a strong backer of cryptocurrencies, and his department will take a leading role in establishing regulations for digital assets. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, is the current CEO and principal owner of Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York Investment Bank with extensive dealings in the cryptocurrency space.

Trump will essentially be selecting all the leaders whose agencies will be tasked with enforcing existing laws as well as developing new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry.  Trump’s recent entry into the meme coin business is nothing short of a massive conflict of interest, one that could benefit him and his family handsomely. 

 Money Grab or Something More?  The Trump family gets a cut of the fees generated from the buying and selling of every Trump meme coin. All information surrounding these transactions is encrypted and stored on the block chain. This means that there is absolutely no transparency surrounding the sale of these coins.  There are no searchable transaction ledgers, no ownership certificates, no public records, and no way to trace the money flows in and out of any account holding Trump meme coins. As one investigative reporter from Bloomberg put it, “the Trump family crypto business offers anyone seeking favor with the new administration a legal way to send money directly to the president”.

In a January 22, 2025, letter to the acting directors of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Jake Auchincloss detailed the inherent conflicts of interest and potential for foreign influence and corruption that the Trump meme coin creates. Their letter points out that Trump’s meme coin “opens the door to secretive foreign buyers seeking to curry influence with the administration, and the possibility of foreign emoluments clause violations”. I doubt that Senator Warren will ever have her letter answered or concerns assuaged.

​As more and more Trump meme coins pour into the market there should be a ready source of buyers: individuals, companies and foreign entities looking to curry favor with the president. As a Washington Post reporter put it, “This meme coin has become the easiest, most convenient way to do that. The Saudis no longer need to stay at one of Trump’s hotels to line the president’s pockets, they can flash their digital wallet to show how much they boosted his net worth. After all, every dollar they put into propping up the value of Trump’s meme coin will effectively add cash to Trump’s bank account, emoluments clause be damned”. 

​The issuance and sale of the Trump and Melania meme coins are just the latest examples of how Trump and his family are using the presidency to build vast wealth. The conflict of interest that these meme coins present are glaring and the potential for corruption has enormous implications for the prestige of the presidency as well as for national security. Ordinarily a president’s team of lawyers and advisors would have steered him clear of such blatant conflicts. But Trump’s team of advisors was hand picked to rubber stamp any of his directives, legal or not.



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Armchair American