When President Trump’s new tariffs began throttling freight visitors, the chief of trucking logistics agency Freight Applied sciences used an unorthodox technique to attempt to get the president’s consideration.
The California-based agency bought $2 million worth of Trump Coin, the signature cryptocurrency backed by Mr. Trump. The president and his household launched Trump Coin days earlier than he took workplace in January. Anybody can purchase the cryptocurrency. An analytics agency says Mr. Trump’s household and different backers have collected greater than $300 million in transaction charges to this point.
Donald Quinby, Freight Applied sciences’ chief monetary officer, advised CBS Information that the acquisition appeared like “actually one of the best platform for us to make a splash, to make some noise.”
“With the Trump meme token, this was simply a chance to actually advocate without spending a dime and honest commerce,” Quinby stated. “I am positive he likes to comply with who’s buying his cash.”
In April, the Trump household introduced an “intimate non-public dinner” with the president at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Virginia to reward the largest consumers of Trump Coin, or $TRUMP. A leaderboard was created so consumers might compete with each other. Patrons finally spent $140 million trying to secure access to the occasion, in accordance to information analytics agency Inca Digital.
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A few of the 220 main consumers of $TRUMP acquired tickets to attend the dinner. Mr. Trump may even host a smaller reception for the token’s prime 25 holders. The company are beneficiaries of a brand new alternative to acquire entry and potential affect in a metropolis with a protracted historical past of mixing cash and politics, consultants stated.
“That is actually unprecedented,” stated Jessica Tillipman, a George Washington College legislation professor. “This seems to be a president that might be probably benefiting privately from one thing that he is doing out in the open.”
The White Home pushed again arduous on the notion that the gala dinner or the president’s function in selling the cryptocurrency crossed any moral traces. Administration officers stated they’d not authorized an preliminary plan suggesting prime consumers of the meme coin product would obtain a White Home tour.
“It is a private dinner that the president is attending on his private time,” a White Home official advised CBS Information in a press release. “The White Home has completely nothing to do with it.”
Trump rewards cryptocurrency consumers
Meme cash are a kind of cryptocurrency whose worth is essentially pushed by social media buzz. They aren’t often used in transactions, and are identified for erratic worth shifts. $TRUMP peaked at round $75 shortly after launch and plummeted to below $8 by April 2025, however soared in value after the dinner with Mr. Trump was introduced.
Among the many attendees of Thursday’s dinner is Justin Sun, a Chinese language-born crypto billionaire and the biggest holder of Trump Coin. Solar has a web worth of $8.5 billion, in accordance to Forbes, and is greatest identified for creating the Tron blockchain. He was additionally the client who paid $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall by artist Maurizio Cattelan. Solar promptly ate the fruit.
Solar was sued for fraud by the Biden administration for allegedly “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market” and paying celebrities to promote a crypto token his firm created “with out disclosing their compensation.” Earlier this yr, the Securities and Trade Fee paused the lawsuit as a part of a broader Trump administration shift towards easing crypto enforcement.
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Solar additionally stated his agency has invested tens of millions in the Trump-linked World Liberty Monetary. However the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency permits Solar, and different international consumers like him, to courtroom entry to energy with little transparency.
“It is nearly like the right form of opaque construction for any kind of international authorities or, you recognize, non-U.S. residents who wished to attempt to search favor, curry favor with this specific administration,” Tillipman stated.
Specialists elevate issues about conflicts of curiosity
Tillipman in contrast the Trump household’s foray into cryptocurrency to Hunter Biden’s art sales throughout his father’s administration.
“The argument was that [purchasers of Hunter Biden’s artwork] might use it to affect” then-President Joe Biden, she stated.
Like cryptocurrency, “a number of these kinds of transactions are by nature opaque as a result of you do not know who’s buying it. You do not know who the client is,” Tillipman stated. She famous that in impact, the Biden administration tried to distance the president from the transactions by saying details about the consumers and transactions would be kept secret by the gallery proprietor.
Nonetheless, she stated “there have been a number of professional issues related to that individual dealing, as there was worry that it might be a again door to President Biden” by means of a member of the family.
“The distinction right here is simply the order of magnitude and the involvement of the president himself,” Tillipman stated. Hunter Biden’s artwork netted him about $1.5 million by the tip of his father’s presidency, in contrast to the possibly much more profitable Trump household crypto business.
Mr. Trump has beforehand vowed on social media to “ensure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.” He and his eldest sons are additionally backing the crypto exchange World Liberty Financial, and cryptocurrency makes up about $2.9 billion of Mr. Trump’s web worth, in accordance to a recent report.
On Monday, the Senate advanced the GENIUS Act, which might regulate stablecoins, a kind of cryptocurrency that’s linked to the worth of an asset just like the U.S. greenback or gold. They have a tendency to have fewer worth fluctuations than meme cash, however enable for a similar opacity in transactions. Some Democrats pushed again in opposition to the invoice, citing Mr. Trump’s crypto holdings and calling for anti-corruption guidelines.
“That is corruption out in the open,” stated Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the highest Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, on Thursday. “The GENIUS Act will supercharge Donald Trump’s means to acquire cash from anyone who’s searching for pardon, who desires tariff aid, who desires a felony prosecution dropped.”
The White Home has dismissed criticisms that Mr. Trump’s assist for the crypto sector represents a battle of curiosity.
“All the president’s property are in a blind belief, which is managed by his kids, and I might argue, one of many many causes that the American individuals reelected this president again to this workplace is as a result of he was a really profitable businessman earlier than giving it up to publicly serve our nation,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a briefing Thursday.
Quinby discovered that purchasing the meme coin did not instantly outcome in entry to the president. Freight Applied sciences did not make it to the leaderboard, however they’re ready to maintain spending. The trucking firm reported in public securities filings that their funding in $TRUMP might finally attain $20 million, if that is what it takes to get Mr. Trump’s consideration. Even when they lose cash in the marketplace, Quinby thinks it was worth the chance.
“We thought the power for us to get on the market and advocate for the honest and free commerce, we thought it was worth it,” Quinby stated.
