Trump’s meme coin led to gains for him, big losses for investors

When Donald Trump unveiled a meme coin a few days before his second inauguration, the ethical mess was obvious. The Campaign Legal Center’s Adav Noti explained at the time, “It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.”

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But when the president and his partners launched a contest of sorts a few months later, it took the story to a new level. Those interested in investing in Trump’s meme coin — and by extension giving the president money — were told they would have a chance to win special access to Trump and the White House.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said of the scheme, “This isn’t Trump just being Trump. The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done. Not close.”

The gambit proved predictably lucrative in what MS NOW’s Chris Hayes described as “the most brazen act of corruption by a president in our lifetimes, probably in a century, possibly ever.”

A year later, as the public gets a better sense of the billions of dollars the president added to his wealth over 2025, the finances surrounding the meme coin stand out, in large part because it’s emblematic of a larger problem. The New York Times reported: