Trump promotes new meme coin before taking office on pro-crypto agenda

President-elect Donald Trump has launched a new cryptocurrency token that is soaring in value – and potentially boosting his net worth – just before his inauguration. It’s the latest norm-defying promotion by Trump, who has also helped sell branded bibles, gold sneakers and diamond-encrusted watches.

“It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community,” Trump said in a social post late Friday promoting the new tokens. They are marketed with a picture of Trump holding a fist up superimposed over the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT,” a reference to Trump’s response to an assassination attempt at a political rally in July.

In promoting the meme coin, Trump told supporters to “Have Fun!” The website selling the tokens says they are meant as expressions of support and not an investment opportunity.

That hasn’t stopped people from trying to make money. The Trump meme coins started selling for $10 each before soaring to as high as about $70 as of Sunday morning. It fell sharply later Sunday after Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, posted about a meme coin for her. The Melania coin was trading for around $5 Sunday afternoon.

Meme coins are a strange and highly volatile corner of the crypto industry that often start as a joke with no real value but can surge in price if enough people are willing to buy them. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency whose mascot is a super-cute dog that muses things like “much wow,” is perhaps the most well known. Meme coins can be used by scammers looking to make a quick fortune at the expense of unwary investors.

Some crypto enthusiasts hailed the Trump meme coin’s release, saying it’s symbolic of the incoming president’s support for an industry that felt unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. Trump has promised to usher in crypto-friendly regulations and picked crypto cheerleaders for key government positions.

Critics said the Trump meme coin could be a dangerous way for special interests and foreign governments to try and buy influence with the president.

“Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks,” Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump White House communications director, said on X.

The sale of Trump meme coin was organized by CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization. The coin’s website said 200 million Trump meme coins are currently available, with plans to issue 1 billion over the next three years. CIC Digital and another company collectively own 80% of the Trump meme coins and will receive “trading revenue derived from trading activities,” according to the token’s website.

The Trump family business recently released an ethics agreement that prohibits Trump from “day-to-day” decision making at the Trump Organization when he’s president and limits financial information about the business shared with him.

Trump and his family previously helped launch a new venture to trade cryptocurrencies last year. The president-elect has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.

Trump's social media company, Truth Social, has also defied traditional notions of value. Despite struggling to raise revenue, the company is currently valued at more than $8 billion as Trump's supporters help boost the stock price and his net worth along with it.

FILE - Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian federal prosecutors said Thursday they have arrested several individuals as part of a corruption probe linked to the European Parliament amid reports in local media that Chinese company Huawei bribed EU lawmakers.

Some 100 federal police officers carried out 21 searches in Brussels as well as in Flanders, Wallonia and Portugal, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

The suspects were arrested for questioning in “connection with their alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries,” prosecutors said. “The offences were allegedly committed by a criminal organization.”

According to an investigation by Le Soir newspaper and other media, lobbyists working for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei are suspected of bribing current or former MEPs to promote the company’s commercial policy in Europe.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The federal prosecutor's office, which did not name Huawei, said that corruption is believed to have been practiced “regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, and taking various forms, such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches."

Police seized several documents and objects during the searches.

This is the second corruption case targeting the EU Parliament in less than three years. In December 2022, the legislature was left reeling after a corruption scandal in which Qatari officials accused of bribing EU officials to play down labor rights concerns ahead of the soccer World Cup.

The scandal scarred the reputation of the EU’s only institution comprised of officials elected directly in the 27 member countries. It undermined the assembly’s claim to the moral high ground in its own investigations, such as into allegations of corruption in member country Hungary.

The impact of the scandal is still being felt, with the parliament due to rule soon on whether to lift the immunity of two more lawmakers who were implicated

According to Follow The Money, an investigative journalism platform, one of the main suspects in the latest probe is 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, a Belgian-Italian lobbyist who joined Huawei in 2019. Before becoming Huawei’s EU Public Affairs Director, Ottati was an assistant to two Italian MEPs who were both members of a European Parliament group dealing with China policy, Follow the Money reported.

FILE - People wait in line to visit the European Parliament during Europe Day celebrations in Brussels on May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)