Trump Dodges Question About Raking in Billions From Meme Coin While President
President Donald Trump dismissed reports that he made billions after launching his new cryptocurrency token last week. Two days later, First Lady Melania Trump launched her cryptocurrency $MELANIA.
When asked by a reporter on Tuesday if he plans to continue selling products that benefit him personally while president, Trump responded, “I don’t know if it benefited.”
“I don’t know where it is. I don’t know much about it other than I launched it,” he continued. “I heard it was very successful. I haven’t checked it. Where is it today?”
When he was reminded he may have made billions off of his meme coin, the president laughed. “That’s peanuts for these guys,” he said, referring to the tech billionaires gathered to help him announce a new artificial intelligence initiative.
Trump unveiled the token, which he is calling “$TRUMP,” on Friday by inviting his followers to “Join my very special Trump Community.” The market cap of the president’s coin currently stands at $8.32 billion, while Melania’s token has settled at $777 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
Some in the crypto industry criticized the the glaring conflict of interest as Trump now has the power to set policies that regulate the industry while also benefiting directly form the sale of the Trump family’s tokens.
“It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office” Adav Noti, executive director of a nonprofit ethics group, Campaign Legal Center, said to The New York Times. “It is beyond unprecedented.”
Meanwhile, the site for Trump’s meme coin includes a disclaimer that the cryptocurrency “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency.”
“Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP,’” it states.
During his 2024 run for the White House, Trump courted crypto firms — where nearly half of the $274 million in corporate money contributed during this year’s elections came from, according to nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen. The president dubbed himself “the crypto president” and pledged to make America “the crypto capital of the planet.”