WASHINGTON — Some Senate Republicans are raising concerns about an exclusive dinner and White House tour President Donald Trump is offering top investors in his $TRUMP meme token.
“This is my president that we’re talking about, but I am willing to say that this gives me pause,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming, who has been spearheading a legislative push on cryptocurrency regulation in the Senate.
The official website for Trump’s meme coin announced last week that the top 220 holders of the coin are invited to an “intimate private dinner” with the president at his golf club outside of Washington, D.C., later this month. The top 25 investors will also receive an invitation to a “VIP White House Tour” the following day, according to the website. The $TRUMP meme coin surged more than 50% after the dinner news broke, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion.
The offer of access to the president for those who invest in an organization that funds Trump’s personal fortune has sparked scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who often bucks her party, expressed uneasiness about the event, though she noted she didn’t have all of the details.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to charge people to come into the Capitol and take a tour.” Murkowski told NBC News on Thursday.
While using untraceable crypto currency to pay for access to the president raised questions for some senators, there are no laws barring Trump and the organization from proceeding as planned.
“He’s got to remember that he’s living there, but it’s the people’s house, right?” Murkowski added.
Lummis, a staunch ally of the president, said Wednesday in an interview that she thinks Congress needs to regulate standards around the use of digital assets like meme coins. Meme coins, often referred to as meme tokens, are a subset of digital assets that use blockchain technology and derive their value largely from internet culture rather than from an underlying utility or asset.
“This is the Wild West, and so when I hear things like this, my reaction is, we need to legislate so there are rules.” Lummis said.
The Wyoming senator said she’s open to working with her colleagues across the aisle on legislation to standardize rules around all digital assets for elected officials, including the president.
“Even what may appear to be ‘cringey’ with regard to meme coins, it’s legal, and what we need to do is have a regulatory framework that makes this more clear, so we don’t have this Wild West scenario,” Lummis said.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he wasn’t familiar with the intricacies surrounding crypto regulation and the president’s events, but said the concept of the dinner, “in abstract, is hard to understand” when asked Thursday if he was comfortable with the president’s events.
Still, Tillis said he would like to see more details.
“With all the target-rich environment for news, I just haven’t looked at it.” Tillis quipped.
The White House did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Lummis’ calls for new legislation come as the Senate is set to take up the GENIUS Act before they leave for the Memorial Day recess. The bipartisan legislation would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, and is one of the most significant crypto bills the Senate has taken up. The Senate Banking Committee voted last month, 18-6, to send the stablecoin legislation to the full Senate.
While a few Senate Republicans questioned the ethics around Trump’s dinner for his top investors, most of the caucus, like Sen. John Hoeven, of North Dakota, said they ultimately trust the president to work within the law. Several GOP senators said they hadn’t heard about the president’s plan.
Trump’s move generated intense criticism from Senate Democrats. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Adam Schiff, of California, requested an ethics probe into the dinner.
“This latest action raises grave ethics and legal concerns, including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities, to include foreign nationals and corporate actors with vested interests in federal action, while personally enriching the President and his family,” the senators wrote in their letter.
A spokesperson for Schiff told NBC News they have not yet received a response.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., took the pushback a step further and signaled support for impeaching Trump over the meme coin dinner. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said that the meme coin sale is a “violation of the Constitution.”
“Before you can even get to the point of discussing impeachment, can we even get the United States Congress to step forward in saying this is wrong and we should investigate?” Booker added.
Warren acknowledged it’s difficult for Democrats to determine what to prioritize in terms of Trump’s activities during his second term.
“Even so, the meme coin sales pitch coming from the White House is a standout,” Warren told NBC News. “If Republicans are saying they haven’t heard about it, it’s because they don’t want that. It’s been everywhere.”
Other Democrats are also feeling fatigued, like Sen. John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, who told NBC News he’s “got 99 problems but this s— ain’t one,” when asked about Trump’s dinner.