Ranking Member Raskin Demands White House Disclose Trump’s Crypto Dinner Guest List

Source: House.gov
Type: congressional-record

Source Text

May 29, 2025 Press Release

220 Mostly Foreign $TRUMP Memecoin Buyers Paid Millions to Dine With Trump, Generated Astronomical Profits For the President, His Family

Washington, D.C. (May 29, 2025)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to President Donald Trump demanding he release the guest list of invitees to his gala dinner honoring top buyers of the $TRUMP memecoin who purchased access to the President. Analyses indicate that a majority of the buyers are likely foreign nationals who would have been barred from donating to Trump’s campaign.   

“I write today to demand that you release the names of all the attendees at this dinner and provide information about the source of the money they each used to buy $TRUMP coins, so that we can prevent illegal foreign government emoluments from being pocketed without congressional consent. Publication of this list will also let the American people know who is putting tens of millions of dollars into our President’s pocket so we can start to figure out what—beyond virtually worthless memecoins—they are getting in exchange for all this money,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin.

Shortly before his inauguration, President Trump launched his TRUMP cryptocurrency memecoin—a type of “[joke cryptocurrency](https://www.wired.com/story/the-trump-memecoins-money-grab-economics/ "https://www.wired.com/story/the-trump-memecoins-money-grab-economics/ (opens in a new window)")” that has no underlying value. The coin surged in the lead-up to the inauguration to a peak of 14.5 billion in market value, before collapsingand losing 90% of its value. After Trump’s memecoin plummeted, his website announced that the top 220 holders of the token would be invited to an “intimate private dinner” with the President at his golf club outside Washington, D.C. After the announcement, $TRUMP surgedmore than 50 percent.

The Trump Organization controls 80% of the entire share of $TRUMP coins and stands to profit from not just millions of dollars in trading fees but hundreds of millions in direct profit.

The identities of coin buyers are not public or easily traceable. Analyses of the $TRUMP leaderboard indicate that a majority of the attendees—roughly 73 percent—appear to be foreign nationals who purchased the coin through offshore cryptocurrency exchanges that prohibit U.S. customers. Moreover, many of Trump’s dinner guests—45 of the 220 invitees—hold crypto assets with blatantly racist and antisemitic names.

Among the top 25 “VIP” guests who are offered additional private access to the president, including a “VIP White House tour,” 23 out of 25 are likely foreign individuals or entities. A majority of those on the invite list had never purchased a $TRUMP token prior to the announcement about a dinner, suggesting that the buyers were primarily drawn by the promise of access to Trump. 

One of the dinner’s known attendees is Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year for fraud. After Mr. Sun purchased 75 million dollars in [World Liberty Financial](https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1881169556506546485 "https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1881169556506546485 (opens in a new window)"), another of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures, these charges were suddenly dropped by the SEC. To attend this dinner, Mr. Sun reportedly [purchased](https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/justin-sun-trump-crypto-dinner-7efd5367 "https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/justin-sun-trump-crypto-dinner-7efd5367 (opens in a new window)") roughly 23 million worth of the $TRUMP coin, making him the top buyer on the leaderboard.

“Foreign nationals—who are not allowed to donate a dollar to your presidential campaign under federal election laws—are now purchasing access to you by buying millions of dollars of your personal memecoin. Moreover, given the opaque nature of the cryptocurrency buying process, there are few ways to ensure that the money used to purchase your memecoins are not from foreign governments or illegal proceeds in connection with terrorism, drug and human trafficking, money laundering, or other illegal activities.  […] We deserve to know who is paying for access to you, and what steps you took to ensure that the funds you receive are legitimate and legal, rather than the proceeds from illegal activities,” concluded Ranking Member Raskin.

Ranking Member Raskin demanded Trump release the guest list for the dinner and provide information on the steps Trump undertook to determine whether funds used to buy his memecoin have ties to foreign governments, foreign terrorist organizations, drug cartels, or other criminal enterprises or activities.

LETTER FROM RASKIN TO TRUMP

Dear President Trump:

In a week when the GOP-controlled House voted 215-214 to pass your “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and to strip 14 million Americans of their Medicaid benefits, you fêted the 220 top buyers of your cryptocurrency memecoin, TRUMP, at a private dinner with an average price tag of more than 1 million per guest. That’s an expensive ticket, which raises the question of what your guests are collecting in return.

Your TRUMP coin, which you launched immediately before your inauguration, has no underlying value. These 220 buyers nonetheless collectively spent hundreds of millions of dollars—394 million by one account—on them, generating astronomical profits and millions of dollars in fees for you and your family. These mostly foreign and mostly anonymous buyers include Justin Sun, who was being sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until he invested $75 million in your family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, at which point the investigation was suddenly and mysteriously dropped.

I write today to demand that you release the names of all the attendees at this dinner and provide information about the source of the money they each used to buy $TRUMP coins, so that we can prevent illegal foreign government emoluments from being pocketed without congressional consent. Publication of this list will also let the American people know who is putting tens of millions of dollars into our President’s pocket so we can start to figure out what—beyond virtually worthless memecoins—they are getting in exchange for all this money.

Shortly before taking office, you launched the TRUMP memecoin, described as “a type of joke cryptocurrency that typically has no purpose beyond financial speculation [and] whose value tends to whipsaw dramatically.” The TRUMP coin quickly surged and reached a peak of 14.5 billion in market value by January 19th, the day before the inauguration, before collapsing and losing 90% of its value. Entities affiliated with The Trump Organization control 80% of the entire supply of TRUMP coins—1 billion coins in total— and stand to reap the lion’s share of any profits from the venture. As of early February, your companies reportedly have already made hundreds of millions of dollars—as much as $320 million according to some reports—on trading fees alone.

In late April 2025, as the price of your memecoin plunged from its peak of 75 to about 7.50, the official website for TRUMP announced that the top 220 holders of the token would be invited to an “intimate private dinner” with you at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, D.C. After the announcement, TRUMP surged more than 50%. 8 The magazine Bitcoin World commented that “access to a high-profiled political figure and event acted as a powerful catalyst.” As the 80% owners of the memecoin, you and your family stand to profit from not just millions of dollars in trading fees but hundreds of millions in direct profits.

Profiting off the memecoin is just the latest in a bewildering gamut of schemes in which you and your family have profited after your return to office and what you call “the Swamp.” According to published reports, your companies have raked in 2 billion in April alone. 10 In recent weeks, your two older sons have pursued “a blitz of family moneymaking ventures capitalizing on their father’s name and power,” finalizing deals on a 1 billion, 80story luxury hotel in Dubai, a high-end residential tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and a $3 billion golf course and villa complex in Qatar. Although the White House claims that your assets are in a “blind trust” managed by your children, there is no question these ventures have benefited and enriched you directly, on a scale never seen before with any other American president. The deals you have made in the Middle East so blatantly mix public policy with private moneymaking that even former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has stated that it “looks like corruption.”

Even more troubling, the identities of the top $TRUMP coin buyers are not public or readily ascertainable. Instead, they remain concealed behind pseudonyms and alphanumeric crypto wallet addresses. Anyone with money and power—including foreign actors, foreign governments, or even criminals and terrorist organizations—can purchase the memecoin, benefiting you and your family and potentially using their purchase to curry favor.

A close analysis of the top buyers on the “leaderboard” on the website of TRUMP shows that a majority of the attendees appear to be foreign nationals who purchased the token through offshore cryptocurrency exchanges that prohibit U.S. customers from participating. Analysis reveals that 161 of the 220 top buyers, or 73% of the invitees, are likely foreign nationals. Among the top 25 “VIP” guests who were offered additional private access to you, including a “VIP White House tour”—and who each spent between 1.25 million and 16 million on TRUMP tokens—23 out of 25 are likely foreign individuals or entities. A majority of those on the guest list had never purchased a $TRUMP token prior to the announcement of the dinner, suggesting that the buyers were primarily drawn by the promise of direct access to you rather than intrinsic interest in the memecoin itself.

Even more disturbing, many of the dinner invitees hold crypto assets with racist and antisemitic names. According to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 45 of the 220 invitees to your dinner hold crypto coins named for Pepe the Frog, an alt-right symbol. “Nine of the wallets … held assets whose names are outright racist or antisemitic. For example, one token is called ‘FUCK THE JEWS,’ while another is simply the n-word. Four others are variations on the word ‘swastika,’ such as ‘Swasticoin’ and ‘Swastika Coin.’” It is particularly striking and clarifying that, even as your Administration attacks and punishes higher education institutions for purportedly tolerating antisemitism, you invite these individuals into your orbit and have nothing to say about their antisemitic propaganda and games.

One of the buyers attending Thursday’s dinner is Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur sued by the SEC last year for illegally distributing billions of crypto assets, artificially inflating trading volume, and concealing payments to celebrity endorsers to promote his cryptocurrencies. But after Mr. Sun purchased 75 million dollars in World Liberty Financial, another of your cryptocurrency ventures, these serious charges were suddenly dropped by the SEC. To attend this dinner, Mr. Sun reportedly purchased roughly 23 million worth of the $TRUMP coin, making him the top buyer on the leaderboard. Other known attendees include a Singaporean company MemeCore, who placed second on the leaderboard of top buyers, and foreign founders of crypto companies in “Taiwan, the Cayman Islands, Australia, and South Korea.” Several attendees who are executives at foreign crypto firms openly admit that they purchased enough memecoins to attend the dinner in the hopes of catching your ear and influencing your Administration’s crypto policy. One South Korean executive called the dinner “a kind of a fund-raiser” and predicted that you “will be good” to your “sponsors.”

Foreign nationals—who are not allowed to donate a dollar to your presidential campaign under federal election laws—are now purchasing access to you by buying millions of dollars of your personal memecoin. Moreover, given the opaque nature of the cryptocurrency buying process, there are few ways to ensure that the money used to purchase your memecoins are not from foreign governments or illegal proceeds in connection with terrorism, drug and human trafficking, money laundering, or other illegal activities.

Since you took office, your White House has repeatedly promised a presidency that is the “most transparent & accessible” in American history. But so far, you have failed to deliver, refusing to divulge even the names of the largely foreign attendees at your worldfamous crypto dinner. The American people deserve better and, given our constitutional strictures against foreign government money going to our president, this is a matter of great urgency and importance. We deserve to know who is paying for access to our president, and what steps you took to ensure that the funds you receive are legitimate and legal, rather than the proceeds from foreign states or monarchs or illegal activities.

Accordingly, I call on you to provide the following information immediately, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 4, 2025:

1. The guest list of the 220 invitees at the May 22, 2025, dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, including the full name, nationality, business affiliation, and how much each spent on $TRUMP memecoins.
2. A detailed explanation of the steps you, your companies, or the White House undertook to determine the source of the funds used to purchase your memecoin, whether these funds have ties to foreign governments, foreign monarchs, terrorist organizations, drug cartels, or other criminal enterprises or activities.
3. For each invitee, please provide all information you have collected on the source of funds used to purchase the TRUMP memecoins. If the invitee used funds from a third party or is not the beneficial owner of the TRUMP memecoins, please identify the third party or beneficial owner.

I look forward to your prompt attention to these oversight requests. I am sure you can understand the urgency of the matter.

Events Citing This Source

Event	Date	Category
$TRUMP Memecoin Dinner Presidential Access	May 22, 2025	Fraud & Financial Crime

People Mentioned

Person	Role

Institutions Mentioned

Institution	Description

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