Trump Loyalist On CNN Rips Memecoin Sweepstakes Gala — Trump ‘Probably Shouldn’t Have Done’
CNN analyst and ex-Trump aide David Urban ripped President Donald Trump over his crypto investors’ gala, saying he didn’t “like it.”
Thursday night, Trump held a gala dinner for the top 220 purchasers of Trump’s “$TRUMP” meme coin, a scheme that critics from across the political spectrum have nuked as a corrupt enrichment scam. The “winners” were not publicly disclosed and the event was closed to the press.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, Urban — normally a reliable defender of Trump — criticized the dinner. As rips go, it was relatively mild, as Urban said he didn’t “like” it and called the gala “a distraction” rather than some of the harsher bribery-themed critiques that have been leveled:
ERICA HILL: So, David, full disclosure, you are on the Coinbase global advisory board. I know you’re pro-crypto. Let’s look though at beyond the crypto right. Should the president be embracing people like Justin Sun?
As Jeff just reported, he was afraid to come to the country. Fast forward to today. He’s getting a private tour of the White House. This is a Chinese billionaire who has invested tens of millions of into Trump coins, and until recently, again was facing civil fraud charges.
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Erica, I don’t like it, right? I don’t like it at all. I don’t like when members of Congress benefit off their trades. I don’t think, you know, political figures, whether you’re president of the United States, or a House member or Senate staffer should be, you know, benefiting off the markets. And so, I don’t like it at all. I think it’s a major distraction from real legislation that’s being taken, you know, taken up in the Senate and moving forward.
So, no, I think it’s a distraction. And it was, you know, something the president probably shouldn’t have done.
HILL: We also heard, you know, from this reporting from “The Times” that a number of the attendees told the times they attended, and I’m quoting here with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations.
You look at that. I mean, having been an advisor, who does President Trump listen to in a moment like this? Is there anyone around him who could say, hey, this is a really bad look?
URBAN: Yeah, I’m not quite sure, Erica. You know, I noted some of the — some of the members on the Senate and the House who are who are working towards, you know, real reform on crypto legislation, the Genius Act and other things. They said — they noted it was a distraction as well.
So, I’m not quite sure who he listened to on this one. If he was listening to me, I would have said, stay away, because it’s really damaged some real work that was being done in the industry and for the industry.
Watch above via CNN’s OutFront.
