Illustration: George Wylesol for Bloomberg Businessweek
Donald and Melania Trump’s Terrible, Tacky, Seemingly Legal Memecoin Adventure
No one wants to claim credit for helping the first couple launch cryptocurrencies that plummeted more than 90% from their peak.
A few days before Donald Trump returned to the White House, George Santos was walking up the steps of the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium nearby. It was Jan. 17, the kickoff to inauguration weekend, and the disgraced former US representative was headed into the $2,500-per-ticket Crypto Ball.
Santos strutted past a line of men in tuxedos and entered the neoclassical building. Inside, House Speaker Mike Johnson posed for photos with crypto influencers and lobbyists, and Donald Trump Jr. shot a TikTok. There was Brock Pierce, the former Mighty Ducks child actor who co-founded what’s now a $180 billion crypto company, and Trump political adviser Alina Habba, playing with a claw machine. Future Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an appearance, as did Zak Folkman, a former dating coach who’s now one of the Trump family’s crypto business partners.