Trump and his family own the cryptocurrency lending platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is currently promoting the stablecoin USD1. The senator said that the president could gain personal benefits from legislation recognizing such stablecoins as USD1 as financial instruments.
"The passage of the GENIUS Act without our anti-corruption amendment will serve as confirmation that Congress allows the sale of political tokens and is subject to whoever pays the most," Merkley wrote on social media.
In May, the investment company MGX from Abu Dhabi expressed its readiness to buy USD1 for $2 billion and then invest these tokens in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. This would allow the Trump family to make huge profits from transaction fees, Democratic senators fear.
Merkley and Warren are also unhappy with the dinner with Trump for the 220 largest holders of the meme coin TRUMP. Merkley was planning to attend a protest organized by the human rights group Public Citizen in conjunction with the political organization Our Revolution. Warren, Merkley, and representatives of Public Citizen called on Trump to publish the guest list for the gala dinner, as the identities of most of them remain secret. One of the candidates for dinner with Trump was Tron founder Justin Sun.
"At this private secret dinner, users who put money in Donald Trump's pocket gain access to him. They were able to pay to get an audience with the President of the United States and ask him for privileges in the field of national security. This is where the real corruption lies," said Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy.
In April, another Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff, called for Trump's impeachment, accusing him of creating favorable conditions for the development of his own cryptocurrency projects. Ossoff called this an abuse of power for personal financial gain.