"The Mount Everest Of Corruption," Part Two

...Continued from previous post:
      This is like the Mount Everest of corruption - Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley on Donald Trump's  gala dinner for the top buyers of his $TRUMP meme coin.
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      So this time around we said, "Hey, we're going to play by the rules but we're not going to go so far as to stymie our business." - Donald Trump Jr. on how the Trump family decided this time not to let ethical concerns over Trump's presidency keep them from making maximum financial profit.

       Last Wednesday, May 21, Pete Hegseth, (pictured here showing off some of his white supremacist tattoos prior to his appointment by Donald Trump to the office of  Secretary of Defense),

​...officially and on behalf of Donald Trump accepted from Qatar the gift of a super luxury jet purportedly for  Trump's use while he's President, then to be turned over to him after he leaves the office (see post from 5/25/2025, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/the-mount-everest-of-corruption-part-one).
​        Trump's jet now sits on an airfield in San Antonio, Texas awaiting a massive 1 billion dollar tax-payer-funded renovation that will take years to finish. 
        This deal stinks to high heaven of political graft and corruption, and the stink of the deal was still fresh when the night after Donald Trump got his new jet he threw a gala dinner at his Virginia Trump National Golf Club  for the 220 customers who spent the most last month on his $TRUMP meme coins. 

       Now, I don't pretend to altogether understand  what a meme coin is (though I've certainly tired). I know it's some kind of digital cryptocurrency, which I also don't pretend to altogether understand (though I've certainly tried). Donald Trump, however, obviously altogether understands that sort of thing, as since he was elected to his second term four months ago his family has raked in billions doing all kinds of crypto deals: there were real estate deals with Qatar and Serbia, a bank deal with the United Arab Emirates, a Saudi-funded tournament at his Miami golf club. 
      Among these lucrative money-making ventures was his $TRUMP meme coin, which he launched a few days before his inauguration.​

      As I understand it, this $TRUMP meme coin doesn't physically exist. You can't hold it in your your hand. As I understand it, meme coins are imaginary things that people make up, then they make up a picture for it, post the picture of their pretend coin online and people pay real money for this pretend coin. The more people who buy the pretend coin, the more valuable it becomes. People then buy and sell their pretend coins. Apparently it's possible to make a lot of actual money trading on non-existent meme coins. Or lose a lot of actual money. Which is what happened with the $TRUMP meme coin.
       When it was initially launched, the $TRUMP meme coin soared in value, then as soon as its value peaked the savviest investors fast as lightening sold their coins and made a terrific profit. The value of the coin then plummeted to almost nothing and everyone else who'd bought the coins lost their money. Donald Trump, meanwhile, who makes a fee  every time a coin changes hands, made hundreds of millions on his $TRUMP meme coin.
        Then  back in April Trump came up with the idea to boost up the value of his coin. He ran a month-long contest, the prize of which was an invitation to a gala dinner with "Crypto President" Donald Trump. An invitation would be awarded to the top 220 buyers who spent the most on $TRUMP meme coins, as stated on the contest registration form:

      Special access to Donald Trump was to be given to the top 25 spenders, with a VIP tour of the White House thrown in.
      Contestants from all over the world reportedly spent over $394 million among them to snag a seat at the gala dinner table and, more importantly, the chance to  influence the President of the United States and U.S. financial regulations.
      And so last Thursday, May 22, the 220 winners of Donald Trump's meme coin contest arrived at his golf club, where they were met by protesters, whom they had to drive by,  

...then walk by in the drizzle,

...until they reached the entrance of the golf club, where they then got their wrist bands and raffle tickets to win a gold Trump-branded watch. Donald Trump, meanwhile, arrived at his golf club for his gala meme coin money-making dinner in a U.S. military helicopter,

...and he also had them schlep along a podium bearing the seal of the President of the United States. Probably something along the lines of this one:

      And so they came,  millionaire and billionaire cryptocurrency investors and executives from around the world who'd dropped what was likely for them a little pocket change to buy $TRUMP meme coins for the opportunity to pedal influence with Donald Trump and maybe win a free watch at the gala dinner raffle. They came from China, they came from Korea, they came from Taiwan, they came from Japan and from other places, including the U.S. Among the American contest winners was Former pro basketball player Lamar Odom,

...who wrote of the Trump Gala on his social media, " Honestly...I'm fired up."
       As were the other gala dinner winners. The top $TRUMP meme coin spender, Chinese billionaire and cryptocurrency magnate Justin Sun, who bought more than $40 million worth of the pretend coins, told the New York Times that he was very excited to meet Donald Trump and discuss with him crypto's future. 
    And enthusiastic Korean crypto executive and contest winner Sangrok Oh said of Donald Trump, "He'll always be good to his sponsors."
     Taiwanese gala attendee and purveyor of crypto investments Vincent Liu told the Times, "It's great to see the direction that everything's going."
          And that night the winners of the $TRUMP meme coin contest must surely have had a beautiful feeling that everything was going their way, at least while Trump was speaking to them from behind the Presidential podium. 
       "The past administration made your lives miserable," he said, referring to an executive order by Joe Biden calling for cryptocurrency regulations aimed at protecting consumers and promoting financial stability, and which kept some foreign crypto investors out of the American market. In his speech Trump promised to bring change to the American crypto marketplace. "They were going after everybody. It was a disgrace, frankly," he said of Biden's directive to regulate cryptocurrency. "And we're honored to be working on helping everybody here."
           The attendees of this gala bribeathon whooped and applauded Trump's words.  (Though mayhaps they were less enthusiastic when Donald Trump, after finishing his 20-minute speech then dancing for them in that embarrassing  way he likes dance in public to YMCA,   

...he left without staying for the promised Dinner with the President, which, according to those who were left to consume it, was a cheap, overcooked steak accompanying an ensemble comparable to bad airline food).

      Meanwhile outside the protesters kept protesting.

     "It's like the Mount Everest of Corruption," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley.
      More like the Mount Olympus of corruption.

​References:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-qatar-air-force-one-gift-plane-c4e1d73c3dbe18397c10e3d3d267bcd6

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/trump-memecoin-dinner.html

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/peter-schiff-says-president-shouldnt-233050524.html

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-meme-coin-federal-law-2076682
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-johnson-dismisses-concern-over-201310115.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-holds-swanky-dinner-meme-coin-investors-says-biden-administration-persecuted-crypto-innovators

https://www.theverge.com/cryptocurrency/674327/trump-coin-short-sell-hedge-contest-dinner-winner

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/trump-meme-coin-crypto.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-meme-coin-top-220-buyers-spent-140-million-analysis/