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Price of Dinner With Trump Gets Even Cheaper After Election Rout

Memecoin investors once shelled out hundreds of thousands to win spots at a gala meal hosted by the president.

US President Donald Trump makes a toast during a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 24, 2026.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Buyers of a Trump memecoin can now secure an invite to a gala dinner with the president for just $700 after the cryptocurrency’s value has plunged to an all-time low.

In 2025, President Donald Trump was criticized after offering the top 220 buyers of his $TRUMP memecoin the chance to attend an exclusive event at his golf resort just outside Washington, D.C.. The event was accused of being a pay-for-access scheme designed to give wealthy investors a chance to cozy up to the president. A second $TRUMP coin dinner was held at Mar-a-Lago in April.

The president has now reopened the competition, offering the top 185 holders of his $TRUMP a seat at a “gala dinner” at the same golf club on Nov. 22. “There will be no private meetings with the president. No gifts will be accepted,” the competition’s website makes sure to state.

Demonstrators hold up mock crypto currency during the "America is Not for Sale" Rally Against Trump's Crypto Dealings at the Trump National Golf Club on May 22.

There were protests outside Trump’s private members’ club in Virginia when he held the cryptodinner in May 2025.

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Public Citizen

However, while the president’s pivot to crypto ventures has made him and his family incredibly wealthy over the past couple of years, investors in the memecoins have seen their holdings hemorrhage in value.

As noted by The Washington Sun, investors now need to spend only around $700 buying $TRUMP to make it onto the top 185 leaderboard for the Nov. 22 dinner. Last year, it would have cost around $59,000 to gain entry to the event with Trump.

The GOP’s disastrous midterm results have also devastated the value of $TRUMP, which has fallen about 30 percent to $1.13 since Democrats swept control of the House and Senate.

value of $TRUMP

The value of $TRUMP fell sharply after the GOP’s midterm massacre.

Screengrab/coingecko

Elsewhere, a memecoin named after first lady Melania Trump has also lost almost all its value, plummeting from $8 in January 2025 to less than $1 by March 2025. MELANIA has lost even more value since the midterms and is now down roughly 99.6 percent from its peak, according to The Washington Sun.

Zach Everson, the research director at the watchdog group Public Citizen, estimates that buyers of Trump’s crypto offerings have lost about $4.7 billion.

“This is all now worthless. It’s the lame-duck period of Trump’s crypto investments: His political influence is waning and so is interest in his crypto offerings,” Everson told the Sun. “Not that there should have been any doubt, but these price drops clearly show how much the market for Trump’s crypto products relies on his political power.”

Nick Pinto was one of those who attended last year’s gala with the president after spending an estimated $300,000 on $TRUMP to break into the top 220 investors.

However, he quickly complained that he had been ripped off after eating the “worst food I’ve ever had at a Trump golf course” and that Trump had barely spent any time with the investors at the event.

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Pinto said he has invested about $450,000 in the Trump memecoin and is still planning to attend the dinner later this month, despite its value falling off a cliff.

“I just realized it’s at an all-time low,” he told The Washington Sun. About the dinner, he added: “The minimum Trump coin gala dinner holding requirement is what I usually spend when I go out to dinner lol.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the $TRUMP Coin Club and the White House for comment.

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