$1.7 MILLION PER PLATE to attend the #GrifterInChief's #MemeCoin dinner is 500 TIMES the legal political donation limit. #MostCorruptPotusInHistory #DisasterPresidency #Emoluments #TheGriftGoesOn

#Trump, the first #convicted #felon elected president, has erased #ethical boundaries & dismantled the instruments of accountability that constrained his predecessors. There will be no official investigations because Trump has made sure of it. He has fired government inspectors general & #ethics watchdogs, installed partisan loyalists to run the DOJ, FBI & regulatory agencies & dominated a Republican-controlled Congress unwilling to hold hearings.

Yet a mark of how much #Trump has transformed Washington since his return to power is the normalization of moneymaking schemes that once would have generated endless political blowback, televised hearings, official investigations & damage control. The death of outrage in the Trump era, or at least the dearth of outrage, exemplifies how far the president has moved the lines of accepted behavior in Washington.

By conventional Washington standards, acc/to students of official #graft, the still-young #Trump admin is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate & other famous scandals.

“I’ve been watching & writing about #corruption for 50 years, & my head is still spinning,” said Michael Johnston, a professor emeritus at Colgate University & author of multiple books on corruption in the United States.

And #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 Trump personally. [He also gave the top investors a White House tour on Friday]

Just last week, #Qatar handed over a luxury #jet meant for #Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his [nonexistent]*presidential library* after he leaves office. Experts have valued plane, formally donated to the *Air Force*, at $200M, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

31 years later, after dinner at Mar-a-Lago, #JeffBezos agreed to finance a promotional film about #MelaniaTrump that will reportedly put $28M directly in her pocket—280 times the Clinton lucre & in this case from a person with a vested interest in #policies set by her husband’s govt. Scandal? Furor? Washington moved on while barely taking notice.

The former NBA star #LamarOdom — now promoting his own #memecoin, $ODOM — posted on social media that he would be attending the event, & appeared in guests’ photos from inside #Trump’s club.

The dinner list also included #NicholasPinto, a 25-year-old entrepreneur from Cranford, NJ, who first became rich by selling scooter wheels when he was 13 & has since branched out to build a sprawling moneymaking social media presence & invest in #crypto.

Others guests included #VincentLiu, the chief investment officer at #KronosResearch, a #crypto firm founded in Taiwan. #Kronos profits by conducting high-frequency trading on crypto platforms across the world — except in the US.

But with a nod from #Trump & his *#regulators*, Liu wants to enter the US market. His firm bought enough of the $TRUMP coins to ensure he had a seat at the dinner—with the hope he might get Trump’s ear.

#SangrokOh, a Korean #crypto exec, arrived at the dinner with a collection of red baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Make Crypto Great Again” that he planned to hand out at the event. He said he had flown all the way from Seoul to attend the dinner.

“It’s kind of a fund-raiser” for #Trump, Oh said in an interview at his hotel in Virginia. “And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.”

Wearing a black bow tie & accompanied by an assistant who held an umbrella over his head, #JustinSun was among the first guests to arrive. In a brief interview at the club, he told NYT that the dinner would be his first meeting w/ #Trump.

“I’m very excited to meet him & discuss about #crypto’s future,” Sun said.

The dinner menu featured filet mignon and pan-seared halibut, as well as a “Trump organic field green salad.” #Trump spoke from a lectern adorned with the #PresidentialSeal & with American flags arrayed behind him.

Perhaps the best known #crypto investor at the dinner was #JustinSun, a Chinese #billionaire who runs the crypto platform #Tron. He spent more than $40 million on $TRUMP coins, earning himself the top spot on the leaderboard.

“It’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,” Leavitt said before #Trump headed to the club. “This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly.”
Outside the club, men in tuxedos began gathering by a sign-in table at 5PM, collecting wristbands & raffle tickets as they made their way inside to escape the rain. Many of the guests flashed foreign passports as ID.

“This is the crypto corruption club,” Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) yelled at the entrance to #Trump’s golf course, speaking so loudly that he had to stop after he lost his voice.

“This is like the Mount Everest of #corruption,” Merkley said.

At a *news* conference on Thurs, WH propagandist, Karoline Leavitt, rejected any suggestion that Trump was acting inappropriately by hosting the dinner.

But none of these profit-seeking pitches has been more explicit than the #memecoin dinner. The event was unlike anything in American history — not a campaign fund-raiser but a gathering arranged by #Trump’s business partners to directly enrich the first family.

As guests were flowing into the club, protesters held signs with slogans like “Stop Crypto Corruption,” “Release the guest list” & “No Kings.”

The gala attendees made whooping noises while #Trump spoke, & applauded as he declared: “They were going after everybody. It was a disgrace frankly,” according to a video provided to NYT by a dinner guest.

Trump promised to change that approach. “There is a lot of sense in #crypto. A lot of common sense in crypto,” he said. “And we’re honored to be working on helping everybody here.”

It was a spectacle that could only have happened in the era of Donald J. Trump [no other president has ever so corrupt]. Several of the dinner guests, in interviews w/NYT, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing #Trump & US #financial #regulations.

“The past administration made your lives miserable,” Trump told the dinner guests, referring to [always obsessing over] the #Biden admin’s enforcement actions against #crypto companies.

The gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Washington, where #Trump flew from the WH on a military helicopter, turned into an extraordinary spectacle as hundreds of guests arrived, many having flown to the US from overseas.

At the club’s entrance, the guests were greeted by dozens of protesters chanting “shame, shame, shame.”