On May 22, 2025, Trump attended a dinner at his golf club in northern Virginia for the 220 largest holders of his $TRUMP meme coin, the prize in a contest announced on the coin's website; the top 25 were promised a VIP reception. The guests had spent “a combined $148 million on the token for the chance to be there,” CNBC reported. Nansen, counting their purchases, found that “the winners spent $394 million on Trump's official cryptocurrency,” more than $1 million a seat on average, NBC reported. The site first advertised a VIP White House tour and later dropped the reference; some top holders said they toured the White House the next day.
The top holder was Justin Sun, whom CNN described as “a Chinese-born crypto mogul who, until recently, was facing civil fraud charges in the United States.” The Securities and Exchange Commission had asked a court in February 2025 to pause its case against him while the parties considered a resolution, three months after he began buying World Liberty Financial tokens; the case was settled in March 2026 with a $10 million penalty paid by his company, Rainberry. Most other winners were known only by wallet addresses, and the researcher Molly White estimated that a majority appeared to be foreign nationals, NBC reported.
The White House said it was not a presidential event. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner.” She called it “absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.” One attendee told CNBC that Trump stayed for 23 minutes. Republicans were uneasy. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a longtime advocate for digital assets: “This is my President we're talking about, but I am willing to say that this gives me pause.” Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, who was leading negotiations on the stablecoin bill: “The Trump family activity in the memecoin space makes my work in Congress more complicated.”
It happened again in April 2026, at Mar-a-Lago, for 297 top holders, who held about $29 million of the coin between them against $148 million the year before, Reuters reported. Afterward Trump said, “As a president, I have to be able to make sure that all of our industries do well.” For the coin and what Trump reported from it, see Nearly a Million Investors Lost $3.8 Billion on Trump's Meme Coin as He Reported $635 Million in Royalties From It.
Update (October 2, 2026): A third dinner is on the calendar. The coin's official site advertises “An evening with 3 Legends and President Donald J. Trump” at “his exclusive members-only club, Trump National Washington D.C.” on November 22, 2026, for the coin's top holders, ranked by their “time-weighted $TRUMP holdings as of Nov 12, 2026, 1 PM Eastern.” ABC News reported that 185 top investors will attend, “the third such gathering since his return to office.” The top 29 get a VIP reception (“YOU ARE INVITED to a VIP reception with your favorite President”), and the prizes include an 18-karat gold Trump watch and, Politico reported, Trump-branded fragrance. The site says, “There will be no private meetings with The President. No gifts will be accepted.” The White House referred Politico to the host organization, which did not respond. ABC: financial disclosures show Trump generated some $635 million from the coins in 2025, and the coin now hovers around $2. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) called it “the most exclusive dinner in the world with the most corrupt president in American history.”
Update (October 14, 2026): a CBS News analysis found that of the 100 top holders competing for seats, at least 52 moved funds through crypto exchanges that bar U.S. customers, including Binance, Bybit and MEXC; they account for nearly $6.8 million of the more than $15 million on the leaderboard. “All you can know with certainty is that a non-U.S. person or entity sent funds,” one analyst cautioned. A White House official called the dinner “a private event, not a government function, and there is no promise of official government action in exchange for attending.”