By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 26, 2025 ~
Last Thursday, two things happened that tens of millions of Americans believed could never happen in their country. First, the sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump, brazenly and openly courted monetary investments from foreign actors in one of his personal crypto business schemes in exchange for access to the President at an invitation-only reception and dinner, at which the press was barred from attending.
The marketing site for the event included this language: “The Top 25 $TRUMP Meme Coin Holders on the leaderboard will enjoy a Private VIP Reception with President TRUMP and Separately by us to a Special VIP TOUR.”
In law-abiding countries this is known as illegal quid-pro-quo by a sitting government official. The U.S. previously dealt with such matters with criminal prosecution. But that was before Donald Trump turned the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney General, and the FBI Director into his handmaidens.
Secondly, instead of resolutions of impeachment or congressional investigations, the Republican majority in Congress did effectively nothing to challenge Trump’s spiraling foray into lining his pockets using the imprimatur of the U.S. Presidency – just as they did nothing to stop the 34-count felon (convicted unanimously by a jury of 12 members that were vetted by both prosecutors and Trump’s defense counsel) from holding a second term as President of the United States, despite Trump fomenting an attack on the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power to the duly-elected President Joe Biden.
Democrats, who lack the votes in Congress to take meaningful action against Trump, were left with few options other than holding a fiery press conference on Thursday in advance of Trump’s crypto dinner that same night.
At the presser, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said: “This is the most corrupt White House in the history of the country.” Senator Murphy explained that Trump has created demand for his crypto meme coin by “essentially opening a channel for bribery. If you buy his coin, the price goes up and he makes more money. If you buy his coin, you get secret access to the President….”
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted drug traffickers and organized crime, told attendees at the press conference: “This story is about Republicans complicit in Donald Trump’s corruption. They are aiding and abetting corruption by their silence.”
Protest Signs Outside of Trump’s Private, Invitation-Only Crypto Dinner on May 22, 2025
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), a former national security analyst for the Pentagon, called Trump’s crypto schemes “a Mount Everest of corruption.” Merkley also attended the lively protest outside the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia on Thursday evening, where the crypto dinner was held.
Congressman Sam Licarrdo (D-CA), a former criminal prosecutor in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, said this at the Democrats’ press conference: “It’s time to make corruption criminal again.” Liccardo called Trump’s meme coin a “pump and dump scheme” which has thus far cost thousands of Americans who invested in it more than $2 billion in losses. (For important background, see our January article: It’s Being Called the Biggest Grift by a President in U.S. History: Trump and First Lady Launch their Own Crypto Coins.)
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee and a former Harvard Law professor, called Trump’s crypto dinner “an orgy of corruption.” (Watch the entire press conference in the PBS YouTube video below.)
Well known author and attorney Norm Eisen described the dinner to NPR as “the most profound ethics and constitutional emoluments violations in the history of our presidency.”
The New York Times’ political reporter, Peter Baker, appeared to struggle in his Sunday article to find English language words that could capture the depravity and insidious nature of Trump’s presidential grifting. Baker took a stab at it with this:
“The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.
“And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.”
Baker was astute in zeroing in on how Trump’s torrent of corrupt acts makes it next to impossible for the media to stay focused. Baker writes: “…at a time when Mr. Trump provokes a major news story every day or even every hour — more tariffs on allies, more retribution against enemies, more defiance of court orders — rarely does a single action stay in the headlines long enough to shape the national conversation.”
Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that less than 72 hours after Trump’s brazenly corrupt crypto dinner, two of the key Sunday talks shows – NBC’s Meet the Press and Face the Nation on CBS – didn’t find the crypto dinner newsworthy enough to report on to the American people.
On Sunday’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on CNN, Tapper did question House Speaker Mike Johnson about Trump’s crypto dinner. Johnson, incredulously, had this to say:
“I don’t know anything about that dinner. I do know that President Trump is the most transparent president in the most transparent administration probably in history. He has nothing to hide, and he’s out there trying to advance America’s interests. That’s what America First policies are all about. And that’s what our big reconciliation bill will deliver for the people. We’re really proud of the product.”
House Speaker Johnson was clearly engaging in the Trump administration’s adopted version of Orwellian reverse-speak. Trump’s entire adult life has been built around attempting to hide his corrupt behavior from public view. Consider Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump, in which Trump was unanimously convicted by a jury on each of the 34 felony counts. These felony counts involved concealment of crimes and/or blatantly nontransparent behavior. Bragg outlined the charges as follows in 2023:
“The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan is home to the country’s most significant business market. We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct. As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws. As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.
“According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, from August 2015 to December 2017, TRUMP orchestrated his ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.
“In one instance, American Media Inc. (AMI), paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about a child TRUMP had out of wedlock.
“In a second instance, AMI paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with TRUMP. When TRUMP explicitly directed a lawyer who then worked for the Trump Organization as TRUMP’s Special Counsel (‘Special Counsel’) to reimburse AMI in cash, the Special Counsel indicated to TRUMP that the payment should be made via a shell company and not by cash. AMI ultimately declined to accept reimbursement after consulting their counsel. AMI, which later admitted its conduct was unlawful in an agreement with federal prosecutors, made false entries in its business records concerning the true purpose of the $150,000 payment.
“In a third instance – 12 days before the presidential general election – the Special Counsel wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress. The Special Counsel, who has since pleaded guilty and served time in prison for making the illegal campaign contribution, made the payment through a shell corporation funded through a bank in Manhattan.
“After winning the election, TRUMP reimbursed the Special Counsel through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose. Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement. In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.”
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