Crypto-investors anonymously shelled out a total $148 million to purchase access to Donald Trump, but all they got was a low-quality steak.
Guests at Trump’s supposedly “intimate” gala for the 220 top buyers of the $TRUMP memecoin gathered at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia Thursday night, hoping for a little facetime with the president. But they were left entirely unsatisfied.
Nicholas Pinto, a 25-year-old social media influencer who spent a whopping $360,000 on the president’s memecoin, told Fortune that he was distinctly underwhelmed by the affair.
Trump, rather than cozy up to his guests, gave an address to the room that was “pretty much like bullshit,” Pinto said. Most guests struggled to get any face time with the president, according to Pinto. The event’s host Caitlin Sinclair, an anchor at OANN, said that she didn’t even get a picture with the commander-in-chief, Pinto recalled.
Christoph Heuermann, who shared a series of photographs from the event on his Instagram page, wrote that Trump gave a brief 20-minute speech “and didn’t interact with the crowd other than enjoying being celebrated.”
Only the 25 biggest investors were given access to a small VIP reception with Trump. The rest were left with only their halibut or filet mignon.
During the banquet, Pinto texted Fortune to say that the food was “trash.”
“Walmart steak, man,” he wrote.
Guests reportedly included the coin’s top buyer Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire who founded the crypto platform Tron, and former Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that a list of attendees would not be made public because the president was attending the event off-the-clock—which doesn’t even begin to resolve the conflicts of interest issues at play for the president of the United States.
On average, each person had spent roughly $1.8 million on the president’s meme coin, in what many critics have called a blatant pay-for-access scheme.
Read more about the dinner:
Days after the president signed a bill focused on curbing revenge porn, Nancy Mace’s former political adviser has accused the South Carolina lawmaker of displaying nude photos taken by her ex-fiancé to extort two properties out of him.
In an April deposition tied to a Charleston County civil case, veteran strategist Wesley Donehue said that Mace intended “to use all the information that she found as leverage to gain 100 percent ownership” of homes the former couple had in Washington and South Carolina’s Isle of Palms.
During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, Mace showcased what she described as her “naked silhouette” from a video taken by Patrick Bryant without her consent. Mace said that in 2023, she discovered a trove of hidden-camera nude images of women that she claimed were taken by Byrant, also without those women’s consent. Mace displayed some of the images of the other women in the hearing, though she said she had gotten permission from them to do so.
Citing the example of her ex-lover, Mace encouraged the committee to pass two pieces of legislation she introduced in February centered on further prohibiting “video voyeurism” and expanding a “civil right of action for victims.”
In a statement, Bryant denied Mace’s “false and outrageous claims,” specifying that he had not raped or harmed anyone and that he had “never hidden cameras.”
“My mistake was loving and trusting someone who later weaponized our relationship,” Bryant wrote.
“Nancy Mace made these claims only while standing in Congress, purportedly shielded by legal immunity,” the Charleston-area businessman continued. “If she believed them to be true and there was evidence to support her accusations, she would say them outside the chamber—away from her public role and protections and pursue them through proper legal channels. She has not done so, because she cannot.”
And Donehue—per an 81-page deposition—appeared squarely against Mace’s record of events.
“I don’t believe a word that comes out of Nancy Mace’s mouth about anything,” said Donehue, who claimed to have known Mace for years. Donehue further painted Mace as an individual keen to play the “victim card” in order to get what she wants. “And that has nothing to do with this specific incident. I just believe that Nancy Mace will say and do anything for personal and political gain.”
From Donehue’s perspective, the photos on Bryant’s phone became an issue when Mace discovered he had dating apps downloaded, prompting concerns that the entrepreneur was cheating on her.
