President Donald Trump Has Attended Plenty of Black Tie Dinners

President Donald Trump has attended plenty of black tie dinners with the wealthy

President Donald Trump will be attending a black tie dinner with 220 wealthy investors at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on May 22. The dinner is a reward for the investors who made the leaderboard in a contest to be among the top purchasers of the $TRUMP meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency.

The dinner is being protested by Democrats and ethics experts, who say it provides a way for the wealthy to influence the president by funneling money to his business. An affiliate of The Trump Organization and the company Fight Fight Fight LLC own 80% of the meme coins, according to the cryptocurrency’s website.

"This is one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency I've ever seen," said Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"President Trump is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. "President Trump only acts in the best interest of the American public - which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media."

The dinner guests are not being disclosed. However, one of those attending is Chinese-born crypto mogul Justin Sun, who announced his plans on social media.

"As the top holder of $TRUMP, I'm excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry," said Sun, who is worth $8.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Trump, who once criticized the crypto industry but has since become a huge booster and investor, also has promoted cryptocurrencies on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Nashville in July for the Bitcoin Conference that he wanted to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet and bitcoin superpower of the world." He has promised favorable regulation of the industry, which supported his campaign.

The president held a crypto summit in the White House with prominent figures in the industry and signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. The administration also dismantled a Justice Department unit targeting crypto fraud.

But Trump's financial stake in the industry has raised ethical concerns. Among other ventures, he launched a pair of cryptocurrency tokens and owns 60% of the crypto platform World Liberty Financial.

Two of the cryptocurrency investments owned by Trump-affiliated entities alone have made at least $300 million in trading fees on sales of his meme coin and other digital currency since January, according to ethics watchdogs, Democratic lawmakers, crypto analysts and other experts.

Greater potential profits lie in the Trump entities' stake in the value of the meme coin and their other Trump-themed crypto investments, these analysts and other experts say.

Recently, World Liberty Financial announced that one of its digital coins is being used by an Abu Dhabi investment firm for a $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Democratic lawmakers and crypto analysts said the deal was a conflict of interest that could earn World Liberty at least $27 million annually.

"President Trump's financial entanglements to the $TRUMP coin, as well as the attempted use of the White House to host competitions to prop up the value of $TRUMP, represents an unprecedented, pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the Presidency to the highest bidder," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, who opened a preliminary investigation into Trump's crypto businesses this month.

"The Trump Organization's involvement in this venture, and the potential for personal gain by President Trump, raise serious concerns about a clear conflict of interest and abuse of office."

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research and advocacy group, estimated that Trump and his entities could be making about $88,000 to $110,000 a day in trading fees on the sales of the $TRUMP meme coin.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

The president's actions come as Congress is considering legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies, which has been a subject of bipartisan interest on Capitol Hill.

"It appears that President Trump is personally profiting from the promotion of his own meme coin, in addition to taking advantage of the administration's role to intervene in the market on his own behalf," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, who has been critical of the president's actions.

"This is a stunning public display of corruption: The White House and President Trump are selling access to the government for personal profit."

The president's actions also come as his administration accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar in a deal that has raised concerns about the foreign nation trying to curry influence with the president.

"It's no secret that we're in the midst of a deep and troubling corruption scandal as President Trump peddles access to the highest bidders," said