Trump stirs up a public opinion storm with cryptocurrency marketing. On April 23 local time, the official website of the meme coin $TRUMP, operated by his affiliated company, announced that the top 220 holders of the coin could be invited to an "intimate private dinner" on May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington, with the top 25 also receiving a VIP tour of the White House. Following the announcement, the token's price surged nearly 60% in one day, with its market value briefly surpassing $2.6 billion, showcasing a dramatic "rebound after a price halving."

This dinner, packaged as a "dialogue on the future of cryptocurrency," is essentially a naked transaction of power and capital. Token holders must compete for rankings by continuously increasing their holdings between April 23 and May 12, with the official website even setting up a real-time leaderboard updated every hour to stimulate investors to frantically "climb the ranks." Although the White House has not confirmed that Trump will attend in person, and the project team emphasized that "expenses are self-catered," the deep binding of political identity and financial speculation has already sparked an uproar. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy condemned it as "the most blatant corruption in history," while the anti-corruption organization "Accountable.US" bluntly stated that this is "auctioning off political access using presidential power."

Notably, 80% of the $TRUMP token's shares are held by Trump family-affiliated companies, and this marketing effort has been accused of aiming to rescue the coin's price, which has plummeted by 88%. This closed loop of "traffic monetization - price increase - benefit transfer" exposes the loopholes in cryptocurrency regulation and escalates the controversy of Trump "weaponizing politics." When presidential authority is reduced to a gimmick for financial speculation, this dinner is not only a celebration for the crypto world but also a blow to the bottom line of democratic institutions.