Trump Launches Meme Coin Grift Targeting MAGA Supporters

Donald Trump's list of grifts is seemingly endless, but his new stake in the cryptocurrency market might bring one of his biggest cash hauls yet.

Convicted felon and former U.S. president Donald Trump has entered the cryptocurrency market with his own meme coin, $TRUMP. While this move is likely to bring him a massive cash haul, experts are concerned about his MAGA supporters losing money in the venture.

Trump's entry into the crypto market is not surprising, given his history of grifts and ventures designed to capitalize on his brand and notoriety. However, this latest move highlights the lack of regulation in the crypto space, which has allowed some high-profile figures to engage in "rug pulls" on their fans.

A "rug pull" occurs when creators of a digital coin, which has a limited supply, sell most or all of their personal stake after their fans substantially increase the value. This tanks the value of the coin and harms fans' investments.

One recent example is Haliey Welch, who rose to fame as the "Hawk Tuah" girl. After gaining overnight fame thanks to a bawdy viral video, Welch launched a podcast and later her own meme coin, $HAWK.

The value of Welch's coin soared after its December launch, but it plummeted a mere two hours later, leading Welch's fans to believe they were part of a "pump and dump" or "rug pull" scheme. Welch has since been embroiled in legal battles over the matter.

Welch's team claims that what happened wasn't a "rug pull" and instead blames single parties for buying a majority of the coins and quickly selling them for a profit.

However, the exploitation of buyers who are investing in crypto based on fandom alone is a major concern that ties back to Trump's meme coin ventures.

Crypto expert and fraud investigator Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla, expressed his disdain for Trump's latest marketing gimmick on X.

Findeisen noted that "most" of the people destined to lose money on the $TRUMP coin will be his MAGA supporters, while 80% of the tokens will be vested to insiders during Trump's presidency.

"[This] should be a crime but crime is legal now [I guess?],” he wrote.

Jessica Tillipman, an anti-corruption and government ethics professor at George Washington University, told Daily Kos that this "black box" of potential profit Trump stands to gain from crypto sits atop a list of many other grifts in Trump's back pocket.

And as Tillipman points out, there are no actual laws stopping a president from profiting off of the people he was elected to serve. Past presidents have acted in good faith without the pressure of legal ramifications—but Trump has never met a norm he wasn't happy to trample on.

"We've always relied on this system of norms," she explained. "I think people were pretty surprised to see how few restrictions there were on what a president could do, because we hadn't seen this before."

While restrictions are in place for presidential infractions such as outright bribery, crypto offers a gray area allowing foreign investors to potentially dump large funds into the coins as a workaround, Tillipman speculates.

Trump's appointed artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks has been notably silent on the $TRUMP launch. Daily Kos reached out to the tech investor and former Paypal CEO for comment but did not immediately hear back.

No one knows how much Trump will net from his (or his wife Melania's) meme coins. Some finance experts have speculated the windfall could reach the billions, as the value of the individual coins shoots up to $40 or more for the 200 million coins in rotation. A total of 1 billion coins will be "unlocked" over the course of three years, according to Quartz.

While a Trump-affiliated company owns 80% of the coins, no one knows exactly how many of the coins are owned directly by the president. And even as Trump pushes his branding, his crypto trading platform, World Liberty Financial, is making multimillion-dollar moves as well.

All in all, Trump is virtually guaranteed to profit from crypto—regardless of how his personal coin venture turns out.

Bibles, cologne, shoes, and now meme coins are fueling Trump's never-ending grift—and the newly inaugurated president stands to make untold millions off the very people who elected him in hopes that he would save them a buck or two on eggs and gas.