Economists wage outcry on Trump’s ‘open corruption’

US President Donald Trump-associated crypto assets and equities have all tanked by more than 24% in the last 30 days. The declines come as watchdogs, lawmakers, and scholars level serious allegations that Trump is using his presidency to orchestrate profitable crypto deals alongside Tron founder Justin Sun.

The $Trump token is changing hands at $9.6, a 4.5% drop. MELANIA, a separate memecoin associated with the First Lady, is down 17.56% from its weekly peak and trades at $0.2597, despite a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $13 million.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), another Trump-affiliated venture, dropped 0.05% down to $18.66 in early US Tuesday trading.

Economists wage outcry on Trump’s ‘open corruption’

In a private dinner held on May 22 at Trump’s Virginia golf course, attended by 25 of the top buyers of the $Trump memecoin, Sun received a $100,000 Trump-branded watch for being the top purchaser, having invested $20 million in the token. A White House tour followed the next day.

The initiative reportedly generated an estimated $148 million in memecoin sales, much of it from anonymous and foreign wallets. Trump’s team has not denied that these events were tied directly to financial incentives for both the president and his inner circle.

“Self-enrichment is exactly what the founders feared most in a leader,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor. “Trump’s profiting from his presidential memecoin is a textbook example of what the framers wanted to avoid.”

Justin Sun, the founder of TRON who is under regulatory watch for the collapse of stablecoin Terra, is more closer than anyone to Trump’s crypto ventures. His involvement began well before the May dinner. Sun reportedly invested $75 million into another Trump-led project, World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto platform the Trump family launched last fall. Trump and his sons reportedly own a 60% stake.

Following Trump’s return to office in January, Sun’s firms were among those that saw investigations halted or paused by regulatory bodies. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February paused three cases involving Sun’s crypto entities.

According to multiple reports, those decisions came as the administration quietly reversed several Biden-era crypto regulations.

On Monday, after news broke out that Tron had plans to go pubic and form a MSTR type company with Eric Trump, the president’s sun went on X to refute the claims, saying:

“I’m the biggest fan of Tron and love Justin Sun. He is a great friend and an icon in the crypto space. That said, the news below is inaccurate. I don’t have public involvement in this company.”

Ethics watchdogs and lawmakers demand accountability

Ethics experts, legal scholars, and congressional leaders have condemned the president’s crypto dealings as blatant corruption. Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and co-author of How Democracies Die, said, “I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere.”

Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University, called Trump’s actions “explicit.”

“Policy decisions are being made regarding parts of the financial industry that are being done not to benefit the nation, but his own financial interests,” Zelizer explained.

Rosenzweig added, “Not only do Trump’s extravagant crypto ventures benefit him personally… they also benefit his tech bro backers who will take full advantage of the end of regulatory enforcement.”

The State Democracy Defenders Fund estimates the Trump family’s crypto ventures were worth approximately $2.9 billion as of March. Reuters reported that WLF alone raised over $500 million, with 75% of token sale proceeds flowing to Trump and his family.

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