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Former NBA star and Kardashian ex Lamar Odom was booed and jeered by protesters as he walked into President Donald Trump’s meme coin gala dinner.
The one-time Los Angeles Lakers starter Odom, who is the ex-husband of Khloe Kardashian and often appeared in the family’s reality TV series, was one of the 220 highest bidders of the $TRUMP meme coin, earning him a place at the president’s glitzy black-tie gala in Virginia Thursday night.
Trump schmoozed with Odom and the other top purchasers of the coin at his golf course amid accusations from Democrats that he is “cashing in” on his cryptocurrency coins from a position of power in the White House.
Odom posted a video walking into the gala on his X account Thursday, touting his own meme coin to the backdrop of booing and chants of “shame, shame, shame.”
“I’m just about to pass through security and officially walk into the Trump Gala,” he captioned the video. “Honestly… I’m fired up. $ODOM isn’t just a token, it’s taking the stage at a presidential gala tonight!”
A protester was seen in the footage holding a banner that said: “No Kings.”
Odom, who is no stranger to controversy, did not betray any concern over the protests, flashed a smile as he entered the exclusive dinner.
In the past he has made headlines for nearly dying from on overdose at Nevada’s infamous Bunny Ranch brothel that left him in a coma while married to Kardashian and she has talked about being ‘humiliated’ by his alleged cheating while they were married from 2009-2016.
Many of the investors in the meme coin are foreign, raising particular concerns among lawmakers that they may be seeking favors from the American president in exchange for lining his and his family’s pockets that may not be in the nation’s interest.
Around 80 percent of the meme coin’s supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and its affiliates. All but six of the top 25 investors outside of the Trump family used foreign exchanges that are closed to U.S. residents, Bloomberg has reported. At least 56 percent of the 220 holders used other similar offshore exchanges.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon was among the protesters outside the gala and called Trump’s crypto venture “the Mount Everest of corruption,” according to The New York Times.
“This is the crypto corruption club,” Merkley was shouting at the entrance.
Meanwhile, Democrats have also called for “urgent answers” over $2 billion-dollar crypto investment deal between an Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm MGX and World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture which the Trump family holds a 60 percent stake. In a further “conflict of interest,” World Liberty Financial’s co-founder is Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
Democrats Merkley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote to the Office of Government Ethics Acting Director Jamieson Greer to voice their concerns about the deal earlier this month.
They said that the deal could earn “the Trump and Witkoff families hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“The opportunities for grift – in which the Trump Administration offers favors to the UAE or to Binance in exchange for their massive payouts – are mind-boggling,” the senators said.
Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, previously slammed the $TRUMP memecoin as “corruption in broad daylight.”
“Trump is cashing in on his presidency and making millions from his own crypto coins. It’s corruption in broad daylight,” Kelly said in a post on X. The senator is co-sponsoring a bill that would make it illegal for the president, senior executive branch officials and members of Congress from issuing, endorsing, or sponsoring crypto assets while in office to avoid a conflict of interest.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “absurd” to suggest that the president “ is profiting off of the presidency.”
“This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly,” she said.
English (US) ·