An unprecedented scheme to profit from the presidency

President Trump has invited virtually anyone, including foreign governments, government contractors, and people under federal criminal investigation, to compete to see who can personally enrich Trump the most. The winners will get a personal audience with Trump on May 22 — and potentially a "VIP White House Tour."

It is a brazenly corrupt scheme to profit from the presidency.

The contest involves $TRUMP, the crypto meme coin that Trump launched shortly before his inauguration. Last week, Trump announced that the top 220 holders of $TRUMP will be invited to have dinner with him at his private golf club near DC. According to the promotional materials, Trump will discuss policy issues at the dinner, including "the future of crypto."

The top 25 $TRUMP holders were promised an "exclusive reception" with Trump before the dinner and "a special VIP White House tour."

After receiving public criticism for literally selling access to the White House, a revised website now says "Special VIP Tour" without specifying the location. But there has been no indication that plans for a White House tour for top $TRUMP holders have been scrapped.

Immediately after the announcement, the value of the $TRUMP coin spiked from just over $9 to over $14. As of Sunday afternoon, $TRUMP is trading at around $15. (This still represents an 80% decline from its peak value of $75.)

Trump directly profits from this activity in several ways. First, companies controlled by Trump and the Trump Organization collect fees on every trade of $TRUMP. He has reportedly made hundreds of millions of dollars on trades of $TRUMP since launch and, according to an analysis by WIRED, made another $1.6 million in fees in 24 hours after the recent content announcement. Secondly, about 80% of all coins, 800 million in total, are owned by companies controlled by Trump and the Trump organization. Increasing the value of these coins by $6 each made Trump $4.8 billion richer, at least on paper.

Trump put in place a vesting schedule that prohibits him from immediately selling his coins. This is designed to allay fears that $TRUMP is a "pump and dump" scheme where Trump will quickly sell his coins for a quick profit. The first 360 million $TRUMP coins vested on April 17, just a few days before the contest announcement. On April 24, however, the $TRUMP X account announced that the vesting date for those coins would be delayed 90 days to July 16. If Trump dumped hundreds of millions of coins into the market, it would be a substantial payoff, but would likely permanently tank the coin's value. Trump appears to be playing a longer game by linking the coin to access, increasing trading volume, and potentially increasing the coin's long-term price.

The contest leaders are listed publicly on the $TRUMP website. While the identities of the top $TRUMP holders will be revealed to Trump, the public is only shown usernames. The $TRUMP website promises the real identity of attendees will "never be publicly shown."

There are few limitations on who can participate in the contest to enrich Trump in exchange for access. Foreign entities are explicitly permitted, except for "individuals or entities… that are the subject of economic or trade sanctions administered or enforced by any governmental authority or otherwise designated on any list of prohibited or restricted parties." This includes citizens of or entities registered in "Cuba, the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, or Yemen."

Crypto expert Molly White noted that the user currently in second place, "MeCo," purchased most of his Trump tokens through a version of the Binance exchange unavailable to U.S. users. Another user, "EV.", moved into fourth position by purchasing about $3 million through the same Binance exchange.

For the purposes of the dinner and VIP tour, $TRUMP holdings are "time weighted" using a formula that is not publicly disclosed. (Coins that have been held for longer periods of time are given more weight.) This makes it impossible to determine exactly how much $TRUMP someone would need to buy right now to get into the top 25 or top 220 holders.

The person currently in 25th place, "elon," purchased 100,000 Trump coins for about $1.33 million on April 23. Due to time weighting, the price of getting into the top 25 will likely only increase, barring an abrupt decline in $TRUMP's price. The person currently in 220th place, "ray," purchased 763 tokens for about $10,000.

Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to begin an "urgent inquiry" into the Trump contest. The Senators said that the contest "may implicate several federal ethics laws and constitutional prohibitions, including the federal bribery statute and emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution." They also said that the contest "raises the troubling prospect that foreign actors are using the meme coin as a vector to buy influence with President Trump and his associates without needing to disclose their identities publicly."

Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said Trump is "selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him," calling the contest "an impeachable offense."

Buying a "membership" to the "Executive Branch"

The $TRUMP contest is not the only effort launched by the Trump family to monetize access to the presidency. Politico reports that on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr., Trump donor Omeed Malik, and others launched "an invite-only club that costs more than half a million to join." David Sacks, Trump's crypto czar, is also involved.

The club, called the "Executive Branch," will "cater to the business and tech moguls who are looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration." The "prohibitive pricing is meant to ensure the C-suite crowd can mingle with Trump advisers and cabinet members without the prying eyes of the press and wanna-be insiders."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attended Saturday's launch party.