Trump, Tiptoeing the Edge of the Constitution: The Night Before Taking Office, He Capitalized on a MEME Coin Craze
Original Article by: Zack Guzmán, Founder and Host of Coinage_media
Article Translation by: Ashley, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: The author points out that the Trump family cleverly circumvented the Constitution's Emoluments Clause controversy when launching the $TRUMP and $MELANIA tokens. By strategically entering the NFT and cryptocurrency space early on, they leveraged Web3 to maximize their interests within legal boundaries.
The following is the original content (slightly reorganized for better readability):
The Trump family rapidly rolled out the $TRUMP and $MELANIA tokens just before the inauguration ceremony for a very crucial reason. Whether you love or hate Trump, the fact is, delaying even one more day could have exposed him to the risk of constitutional violations and potential impeachment once again.
According to the Constitution, the President must not abuse their power for personal gain. In particular, the Emoluments Clause explicitly prohibits the President from receiving benefits or profits from foreign governments. This is precisely why these tokens are so noteworthy.
Over the past few years, the Trump couple has been testing the market waters through various NFT releases. They have used separate companies and seemingly different teams. These companies have paid Melania and Trump respective fees, thus maintaining the "independence" of direct token purchases.
According to Trump's public tax filings, he earned approximately $7.2 million through involvement in NFT-related transactions. This income is linked to his partnership with CIC Digital in the $TRUMP project. Melania, on the other hand, earned over $330,000 through an agreement related to NFT sales.
Despite all this appearing convoluted, one thing is certain: launching these tokens before Trump formally became President made things easier. Failing to do so would have made it easier to allege that Trump benefited from the presidency and violated the Emoluments Clause.
While our founding fathers hoped to prevent the President from unduly profiting from power, I don't think Jefferson or Madison ever discussed meme coins. What do you think?
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