Trump's Meme Coin Is a Fitting Capper to His Career of Exploiting Loopholes to Amass Wealth and Power

At some point between his November election win and Monday's inauguration, Donald Trump appears to have drawn inspiration from an unlikely source: “Hawk Tuah Girl” Haliey Welch.

Donald Trump has announced the launch of his own meme coin, $TRUMP, during a weekend of crypto events in Washington, D.C.

The coin, which is available for purchase on the Trump website, began trading at around $6.50 and quickly rose to a high of $74.59 on Sunday. However, its value plummeted to around $40 on Monday, where it remains at the time of this writing. According to CoinMarketCap, the coin has a market capitalization of $8.6 billion.

Trump announced the coin during the Crypto Ball in Washington, D.C., which was hosted by his newly appointed crypto czar, the billionaire and podcaster David Sacks.

“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE!” Trump wrote on Telegram. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW. Go to http://gettrumpmemes.com — Have Fun!”

The fun began at the low, low price of nearly $6.50 and rose to a high of $74.59 on Sunday. A day later, its value had plummeted to around $40, where it remains at the time of this writing. The coin’s market cap, according to CoinMarketCap, is currently $8.6 billion.

Trump wasn’t the only member of the first family to launch a meme coin over the weekend, though. First Lady Melania Trump announced hers on Sunday, and its trajectory has been similarly volatile. (The pastor who delivered the benediction after Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday has also reportedly launched a meme coin, though it hasn’t exactly reached the same heights.)

On brand as always

Lest anyone suggest the meme coin was a last-second effort to capitalize on his electoral victory as a private citizen before taking office, Trump has continued to promote it as recently as his second night back in the White House.

Based on the value Trump’s coin accrued, some supporters must have been excited about it–beyond the opportunity for speculative investment. Others on the right have voiced concerns.

Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who endorsed Trump, posed the following question on Telegram: “What’s the difference between the Hawk Tuah coin and the Trump coin besides nothing?”

Meanwhile, Michael A. Gayed, a market analyst with a popular Substack, wrote on Telegram that the meme coin “made me lose a lot of respect for our coming president.”

And in an interview with The Atlantic, prominent crypto investor Nic Carter complained that Trump’s meme coin “exposed the worst parts of the crypto industry to the public eye in a way that really didn’t need to happen, right when we were on the cusp of legitimacy.”

While their grievances are merited, Trump’s supporters in this space would be naïve to expect Trump would advocate for only the most above-board aspects of crypto, whatever those may be. It would also be ahistorical to expect he’d restrict that support to mere advocacy.

Trump is notorious for leveraging his brand to enrich himself in ways that could charitably be called questionable, from both a moral and legal standpoint.

Immediately after winning the presidency in 2016, he paid $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging deceptive practices within his Trump University.

Earlier, during his run on The Apprentice, he made millions endorsing multi-level marketing outfit ACN, and featuring it on the show. (A show, it should be noted, about making savvy business moves.) Trump and his children would later be sued for fraud over their involvement. Though the ACN fraud case was dismissed just last year, a judge threw it out on jurisdictional grounds, rather than the substance of the allegations.

Trump’s interest in MLMs didn’t end with ACN, either; he also lent his name to one called Ideal Health in the aughts, turning it into The Trump Network.

During his first term, in 2019, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million in damages for funneling millions raised from charitable donations into his 2016 presidential campaign. Because Trump had demonstrably “abuse[d] charities for personal gain,” New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered The Trump Foundation to cease operations.

Years later, while running for office again, Trump used campaign donations to cover his vast legal expenses.

What reason would anyone have to expect Trump to usher in a new era of deregulated freedom for crypto, and not explore it himself?

To answer Portnoy’s earlier question, one difference between the Hawk Tuah coin and Trump’s is that Haliey Welch built her brand from spark-plug folksiness and relatability, which may be why some fans felt betrayed that she would lend her celebrity to a scammy-sounding tech play.

Trump, however, has spent much of his career exploiting loopholes