{"id":28614,"date":"2025-05-26T13:16:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T13:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=28614"},"modified":"2025-05-26T13:16:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T13:16:33","slug":"trumps-crypto-supper-stirs-dc-yet-one-political-powerhouse-stays-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=28614","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Crypto Supper Stirs DC\u2014Yet One Political Powerhouse Stays Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has kept quiet on a growing ethics flap around a crypto dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump. He told CNN on May 25 that he hadn\u2019t heard about the event and wouldn\u2019t weigh in. Meanwhile, 35 House Democrats want a Justice Department probe and the guest list made public.<\/p>\n

Democrats Call For Probe<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to reports, 35 House Democrats formally asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump\u2019s May 22 dinner for top holders of his Official Trump (TRUMP)<\/a> memecoin. They worry that some of the biggest buyers may be foreign nationals, which could break bribery rules or the Constitution\u2019s emoluments clause. Senator Elizabeth Warren called it an \u201corgy of corruption\u201d at a press conference on the same day.<\/p>\n

Questions Over Foreign Funds<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Based on reports<\/a> from Bloomberg on May 7, a majority of the 220 invitees to the dinner likely came from outside the US. That includes Justin Sun, the Chinese-born CEO of Tron, who has the largest share of TRUMP tokens. Some critics point out there\u2019s no clear record of where the money came from or how much each person paid to attend.<\/p>\n

Johnson Stays Silent<\/strong><\/p>\n

On May 25, Jake Tapper asked Johnson why the names weren\u2019t released and if he\u2019d be upset if a Democratic president did the same. Johnson said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t know anything about the dinner\u201d and that he\u2019d been \u201ca little busy\u201d passing a $1.6 trillion budget bill. He also praised Trump as \u201cthe most transparent president\u201d and insisted there was nothing to hide.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New Bill Seeks To Ban Profits<\/strong><\/p>\n

That same day, Representative Maxine Waters and 14 colleagues introduced the \u201cStop TRUMP in Crypto Act.\u201d<\/a> The bill would bar Trump and his family from making money off any crypto venture while he\u2019s in office. Waters pointed to figures showing Trump\u2019s crypto platform, World Liberty Financial<\/a>, has made over $350 million in fees and profits tied to his memecoin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wider Crypto Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Investors in TRUMP tokens saw a 60% jump in price when the dinner was announced. Australian entrepreneur Kain Warwick even told The New York Times on May 12 that he bought enough tokens to get into the top 25 holders so he could get an invite. Sheldon Xia, CEO of BitMart in the Cayman Islands, posted photos of himself at the event, adding to questions about foreign influence.<\/p>\n

Legal Limits On Gifts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the Constitution\u2019s emoluments clause<\/a>, a president may not accept any gift from a foreign state without Congress\u2019s approval. If some of the crypto investors gave what amounts to a gift or payment to gain access, they could be in legal hot water. Ethics experts say the lack of transparency makes it hard to rule out violations.<\/p>\n

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has kept quiet on a growing ethics flap around a crypto dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump. He told CNN on May 25 that he hadn\u2019t heard about the event and wouldn\u2019t weigh in. Meanwhile, 35 House Democrats want a Justice Department probe and the guest list made public. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-28614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}