The Trend of Elected Officials Issuing Memecoins for Fun and Profit May Come to a Screeching Halt

The trend of elected officials issuing memecoins for fun and profit may come to a screeching halt, thanks to a growing Argentine scandal whose roots might extend all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A growing Argentine scandal involving memecoins and presidential endorsements may have Donald Trump in its sights.

On February 17, the website selling Donald and Melania Trump’s Solana-based memecoins announced a ‘President Trump Day Celebration,’ conflating the current president with the Presidents Day national holiday.

The notice promised a free airdrop of three $TRUMP tokens to anyone who’d purchased an “official Trump product”—specifically, his sneakers, watches, colognes, or non-fungible token (NFT) collections—prior to February 15. Eligible claimants have until March 1 to receive their free tokens, which will be delivered via the blockchain platform Crossmint.

The notice helpfully warns visitors to “Be Careful of SCAMS,” for which we don’t have any joke to make because it’s just too damn easy.

If the intention of this airdrop was to spark renewed interest in $TRUMP, it didn’t work, as the token’s fiat value fell from $18 to $16 on Monday and has yet to bounce back.

It probably didn’t help that the team behind Melania’s memecoin appears to have also been involved in the ill-fated launch and abrupt rug pull of a token promoted by Argentina’s crypto-friendly President Javier Milei (whom Trump has called “my favorite president”).

If you missed last weekend’s drama, on February 14, Milei tweeted a promo for a new Solana-based project called Viva la Libertad, based on the ‘Long live Freedom’ slogan that Milei uses to conclude his speeches. Naturally, the project had a memecoin (LIBRA), and Milei’s tweet offered directions on how to buy the token. The proceeds from token sales would allegedly encourage “economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.”

Predictably, it appears to have been a scam from the start, as insiders were quick to dump over $100 million worth of LIBRA as its market cap briefly topped $4 billion. Belatedly realizing that the rug was being pulled, non-insiders rushed to dump their own tokens, further cratering LIBRA’s price and causing major losses for anyone not in on the scam from the start.

That latter category includes Milei, at least, according to Milei. Five hours after his original tweet, Milei deleted it and then tweeted a mea culpa (of sorts), insisting that he “was not informed of the fine details of the project and after learning, I decided not to continue spreading it.”

Milei’s critics were quick to reject this explanation, noting that this wasn’t Milei’s first connection to a crypto scam. In 2022, the then-member of Congress was sued by a group of investors who’d been taken by an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme called CoinX that Milei had promoted via his Instagram account the previous year.

This time around, Milei appears even less apologetic, telling local media that few Argentines had been victimized by the rug pull, since the majority of buyers were Chinese and American (it’s unclear how he knows this). Milei further claimed those who bought LIBRA “knew what they were getting into. As volatility traders, they understood the risks involved.”

But Milei subsequently retweeted his original tweet, which caused LIBRA to briefly spike anew, only to delete that retweet as several other suspected insider wallets dumped their bags at a profit. Worse, Milei’s ‘live’ TV interview that was intended to clear the air appears to have been prerecorded and heavily edited to approve all questions and expunge any incriminating answers.

While Milei is clearly hoping the whole brouhaha goes away soon, Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office has opened a probe into the affair. On Monday, Judge Maria Servini of the Federal Court No. 1 in Buenos Aires was selected to handle claims of fraud by those who lost money via this debacle.

Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?

While Milei does damage control at home, LIBRA’s founders—in particular Hayden Davis of deployer/market-maker Kelsier Ventures—have been bragging about their exploits. And this could create blowback for the $TRUMP/$MELANIA tokens.

In text messages sent last December, Davis reportedly claimed to be able to “control” Milei due to payments he was making to the president’s sister, Karina. “I send $$ to his sister and he signs whatever I say and does what I want.” Davis also reportedly bragged about his ability to get Milei to promote projects via social media.

In an X post on February 15, Milei’s presidential channel confirmed that Milei had a meeting last October with representatives of KIP Protocol, the team behind the ‘Libertad’ project, while Milei said he met Davis on January 30 at local government offices. However, the post said Davis “had