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Welcome to logout: Donald Trump is once again selling access to the highest bidder.
What happened? On Thursday, The Washington Sun’s Jeff Stein reported that Trump will host a 2025 “crypto dinner” again later this year, hosting some of the top investors in the Trump meme coin at his Virginia golf club.
The first 185 holders of $TRUMP will receive an invitation to the event, which the website describes as “the most unique dinner in the world.” The first 29 $TRUMP holders will also be eligible for a “Special VIP Reception.”
What is $Trump? As my colleague Adam Clark Estes explained last year, meme coins like $TRUMP are “almost fictional.” The coin is a crypto token, or “a digital asset built on the cryptocurrency blockchain, but it is not a fully functional cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.”
In other words, there’s not much to gain from buying it — the coin’s value has plummeted since Trump took office early last year — but it will give you a chance to have dinner with the president.
What’s the background? This will be the third major event Trump has hosted for $TRUMP buyers, following a dinner at the Virginia Club in May 2025 and a “Cryptocurrency and Business Conference” at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, where Trump delivered the keynote address.
But that’s just one of many ways Trump and his family have found ways to get rich through cryptocurrencies: There’s also another meme coin, $MELANIA, and his lucrative cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, which last year received a $500 million investment from members of the United Arab Emirates royal family.
Technically, as Stein points out, Trump himself does not own the company that mints Dollar Trump, although he still profits handsomely from trading fees and other revenue, as much as $636 million last year. World Liberty Financial, which he owns with his sons and others, made him even more: $799 million in 2025 alone, according to financial disclosure forms filed earlier this year.
That’s it, time to log off…
Don’t miss my colleague Rachel Miller’s story about “junk journaling,” describing the hobby as “a great way to cope with digital discomfort and existential fears.” (Required!) You can read it using the gift link here .
Also: This is a big day for the sled dog puppies at Denali National Park, of whom I am a huge fan.