U.S House speaker downplays ‘conflict of interest’ from Trump’s crypto dinner

• U.S House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed calls to probe President Trump over the crypto dinner
• Democrats believe the dinner was an example of ‘brazen corruption’ in the executive branch

U.S House Speaker Mike Johnson denied knowledge of President Donald Trump’s crypto dinner, but praised his support of the sector. In an interview with CNN, Johnson said, 

“President Trump is very active, engaged and one of the greatest dealmakers. He’s encouraging new technologies, crypto and the advancement of A.I.”

When pressed about whether he wished to know the list of those present at the dinner, Johnson quipped, 

“I do not know about that dinner. But I know President Trump has the most transparent administration in history. He has nothing to hide. And he’s out there trying to advance American interests.”

Trump’s crypto conflict of interest

The controversial dinner brought together over 220 top holders of the President’s memecoin – Official TRUMP.

The list included early buyers of the memecoin, but the private dinner required holders to be among the top 220 based on average holdings between 23 April and 12 May. 

TRON Founder Justin Sun topped the list. He is also an early investor in another Trump family-backed DeFi project – World Liberty Financials (WLFI). 

Sun was previously being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, this was paused under Trump’s administration in February, alongside other crypto enforcement actions by the agency. 

Worth noting that the WLFI has expansive crypto interest from lending to the fastest rising stablecoin (USD1), raising concerns over Trump’s conflict of interest. 

Democrats have called for a probe into the attendees of the dinner, claiming that America isn’t for sale. 

Most of Trump’s critics have viewed his crypto interest as “pay-to-play” policymaking. In an interview with MSNBC, Congressman Joe Neguse called the dinner “blatant and brazen corruption” in the executive branch. 

In fact, Trump’s crypto interests almost stalled the Senate stablecoin bill after Democrats blocked its progress during the first cloture vote on 8 May. 

At press time, the market was pricing an 87% chance that the stablecoin bill will be enacted in 2025. Some market watchers believe that the passage of the bill will make it easier for the crypto market structure bill to progress smoothly. However, this remains to be seen amid Democrats’ opposition against Trump’s crypto involvement.