Politics

Top Trump Dinner Bidders Stash Cash On Exchanges That Shut Out Americans

Screenshot / White House / Rumble

The race for seats at the president’s next meme coin dinner seems to be drawing a largely foreign crowd.

At least 52 of the top 100 largest $TRUMP holders vying for seats at President Donald Trump’s Nov. 22 gala outside Washington, D.C. have moved money through crypto exchanges that ban U.S. customers, according to a Wednesday CBS News analysis. The outlet traced which cryptocurrency exchanges the holders used through records from crypto tracking firm Arkham to find that holders tied to platforms banning Americans, such as Binance, Bybit and MEXC, account for nearly $6.8 million of the leaderboard’s more than $15 million in value.

The analysis found that at least 44 of the top holders had previously moved funds through Binance before acquiring $TRUMP, CBS reported.

The findings feed concerns from critics who argue foreigners could be buying access to the sitting president.

The White House and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

“Foreign actors used to need a back door to try to influence a president,” Zach Everson, a researcher for the progressive group Public Citizen, told CBS News. “Trump is holding the front door open and inviting them in for a steak dinner.”

“As was the case with Trump’s previous meme coin gala, it appears that the majority of $TRUMP investors are purchasing his meme coin through overseas exchanges,” former Clinton and Obama White House ethics lawyer Virginia Canter told the outlet. “Foreign actors are literally buying a seat at the president’s own table.”

China-based Binance pleaded guilty to U.S. charges over its failure to maintain its anti-money laundering program and agreed to stop serving American customers in 2023, according to the Justice Department.

“More than half of the top 100 holders of $TRUMP meme coin competing for seats at President Trump’s Nov. 22 meme coin gala show signs they are controlled by non-domestic cryptocurrency traders,” according to CBS News, who shared the figure in a Wednesday X post.

Seats at the dinner will go to the token’s 185 largest holders, Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company behind the meme coin, says on its website. Of the top 100 tracked on the public leaderboard, the top 29 will be rewarded with prime seating and a private reception with the president.

$TRUMP is “not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office,” the coin’s website states.