US lawmakers ask if Trump dangling memecoin event attendance: Report

Three US senators have reportedly asked one of the people behind US President Donald Trump’s memecoin whether the president intends to “dangle access” to himself at a luncheon event, given he is already planning to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner the same day. 

According to a Thursday Politico report, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff sent a letter to Bill Zanker, the individual behind the launch of the memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP). The lawmakers questioned whether Trump had been leveraging his appearance at a luncheon event scheduled for April 25, which the memecoin project announced in March.

“[O]rganizers are promoting a conference by dangling access to President Trump to potential attendees (and in doing so, are encouraging purchases of his meme coin that will generate transaction fees for the President and his family) on a day he may not actually be able to attend,” said the letter to Zanker, according to Politico.

While the memecoin event at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago property is scheduled for April 25, so, too, is the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, DC, which the president said on March 2 that he planned to attend for the first time after boycotting it in his first term. Even before taking office, Trump attended many crypto-themed events, from the Bitcoin 2024 conference to the first dinner for TRUMP memecoin holders in May 2025.

Bessent ramps up pressure on Congress to pass CLARITY Act

According to the terms and conditions from the project behind the memecoin, Trump “may not be able to attend” the April 25 event, and it could be cancelled for any reason. Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment on the president’s schedule and travel costs, but did not receive an immediate response.

US crypto market structure discussions are still underway

Amid the concerns from senators over potential conflicts of interest and “selling access” to the presidency, lawmakers and industry leaders have yet to publicly announce a compromise to allow a digital asset market structure bill to advance in Congress and be signed into law.

In July 2025, the House of Representatives passed the CLARITY Act, a bill to establish a market structure framework for cryptocurrencies in the US. Once passed to the Senate, the chamber’s agriculture committee advanced the legislation in January, but its banking committee indefinitely postponed a markup amid concerns over tokenized equities, stablecoin yield, and ethics.

As of Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee had not scheduled a markup on the bill, necessary to address securities laws before a potential floor vote. The White House released a statement on Wednesday claiming that a ban on stablecoin yield in the bill “would do very little to protect bank lending” in response to concerns from the banking and crypto industries.

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