What we know about Trump's secretive private dinner for top holders of his memecoin

Brent D. Griffiths

Thu, May 22, 2025, 3:29 AM 5 min read

• President Donald Trump is set to gather with the top holders of his meme coin.

• They've spent millions to secure face time with the president.

• It's just one way that Trump is continuing to blur the lines of his business interests.

President Donald Trump will host a dinner on Thursday not to raise cash but to thank the attendees for giving his family some of their money.

The official backers of Trump's meme coin, $TRUMP, are hosting a gala at the president's DC-area private golf club. The top 220 holders of the digital token were invited to join the president.

The White House has defended Trump's appearance amid criticism from congressional Democrats and government ethics organizations.

"The President is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. "President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media."

This is what we know about Trump's meme coin dinner

Trump's family and other coin backers have raked in over $320 million in trading fees so far, according to a Reuters report that cited research by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm. Of those fees, at least $1.35 million were collected after the meme coin's official website announced the Trump dinner.

The Trump Organization, Trump's private company, and related entities hold 80% of the meme coin's supply. Officially, the meme coin project says Trump is appearing as a guest at the dinner.

Justin Sun, found of TRON, a blockchain platform, said that he was one of the top holders of Trump's meme coin. According to the coin's website, a wallet with the username "Sun" was listed as the top holder.

On X, Sun joked about bringing bananas to his meeting with Trump. Last year, Sun paid $6.2 million for an edition of the viral art piece of a duct-taped banana, officially titled "Comedian." As is the tradition, Sun ate the banana.

Sun is also a major investor in World Liberty Financial, a digital asset firm, backed by the Trump family.

In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun for market manipulation. After Trump retook office, the SEC paused enforcement of the case.

A top official for MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto company, told The New York Times that the company holds over $19 million worth of Trump coins because the dinner was too good of an opportunity to pass up.