dinner – Our Story Insight

Trump’s dinner with top CEO’s consisted of praising a ‘booming’ economy while addressing tariff concerns

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 06:10:44 +0000

Last week, some of the nation’s top CEOs talked and laughed with President Trump while enjoying dinner at the White House, chewing over a US economy that the president claims is headed for growth not seen since the days of the Gipper back in the 1980s.

But privately, many left that night wondering if the president really knows the score.

Tax cuts, deregulation and drill-baby-drill can do wonders to jolt growth, they all agreed.

Tariffs, not so much.

The president’s proposed solutions, they believe, are destined to fall flat.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom, of course, but the US economy is a far cry from the Reagan years of massive growth and low inflation, nor is there much evidence it’s heading in that direction.

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The president also appears unaware that the country’s biggest economic problem is that of affordability.

This is not just when it comes to homes, but persistently high inflation that is stoking voter anxiety according to every poll available.

At the Wednesday dinner, Trump predicted GDP growth of 6%, nearly double what it’s growing now.

More people working helps address the affordability problem, he argued.

Higher tax revenues combined with tariffs will help pay down the budget deficit and lower costs even more.

No one at the table — among them JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and BlackRock’s Larry Fink — spoke up at dinner with an opposing view, I am told.

But privately, the attendees were far less sanguine.

Those I spoke to believe based on all the data available, 6% GDP is a pipe dream.

Tariffs will depress growth because less of our products will be sold overseas by countries that retaliate.

Plus, inflation appears to be growing, not subsiding, again thanks to tariff costs.

The affordability crisis is real and whatever Trump is doing isn’t working thus far or the GOP wouldn’t have lost all those races two weeks ago.

Or as one told me: “Trump has some smart economic advisers, but a lot of yes men who simply tell him what he wants to hear,” adding: “I hope he’s right about 6% economic growth because he will need it.”

Fears aren’t a ‘con job’

Then there’s the “solutions” to affordability issues Trump has come up with.

He’s been floating ways to make home ownership more affordable like a 50-year mortgage, even as he beats up Fed chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.

The CEOs offered up their own solutions — mainly how to get average people buying more stocks.

That could cover their retirement costs and make owning a home easier since stock returns, historically, have outpaced most other investments.

I am told that Trump’s advisers know things aren’t so great, but to warn Trump that what he’s doing isn’t working is the fastest way to lose your job.

And Trump, of course, wouldn’t be the first president to govern in a bubble.

Joe Biden convinced himself that the border was secure, inflation was low and he was sentient enough to run for a second term.

I can see how it’s difficult for anyone close to Trump to lend credence to the notion of a “crisis” of affordability because it appears to support the left’s agenda.

But Trump has called it a Dem “con job” and recently told my Fox colleague Laura Ingraham that the public’s economic anxiety is “fake.”

That won’t make it go away.

It also robs us of a chance for a serious debate on how to fix this economy.

Charlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet

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Tax increase on MAGA

That debate, unfortunately, didn’t happen the other night with Trump, though several of the CEOs later told me the 50-year mortgage will raise home prices, not lower them, because people can borrow more and spread mortgage payments out further.

It’s also a slight of hand, of course, since borrowers will be paying the bank more interest over a longer period of time and accumulating less equity.

Ditto for Trump’s obsession with cutting rates to lower the cost of home ownership.

What he doesn’t seem to recognize is that inflation at 3% is still well above the “target” rate and that’s on top of the massive increases that Biden’s policies led to.

Gas prices are going down, eggs cost less, but other stuff is costing more.

The culprit seems to be his tariffs, lower than first pitched during “Liberation Day” but still adding to price pressures.

Pushing Powell to lower rates in the face of persistent inflation will only make matters worse; inflation is a tax increase on the working class where it is felt the strongest since they can’t speculate their way around it.

It is a tax increase on MAGA.

Again, Trump believes he will soon produce results that will make voters true believers: factory jobs will return, lower gas prices will stifle inflation, a 50-year mortgage will re-invigorate the American Dream.

The GOP will cruise to majorities in the upcoming congressional midterms based on a Reaganesque economic boom.

Like the CEO I interviewed, I hope he’s right.

The evidence is starting to suggest that he’s not.

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Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in Rose Garden

admin — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 05:47:00 +0000

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to the Rose Garden of the White House to hold a signing ceremony for the Take it Down Act, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

U.S. President Trump will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for an inaugural event in the White House’s renovated Rose Garden on Thursday.

Invitees include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to a list confirmed by a White House official.

The meeting is expected to be held over dinner after a separate White House event on artificial intelligence hosted by first lady Melania Trump.

The gathering underscores what has been a close but complicated relationship between Trump and the Big Tech sector in his second administration.

Many of the aforementioned executives have sought friendlier ties with Trump, often appearing at events alongside the president to announce moves that align with the administration’s goals on emerging technologies and American reshoring.

Invitees to the event also include other tech leaders, such as OpenAI president Greg Brockman; Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar; and co-founder of Scale AI and head of a superintelligence team at Meta, Alexandr Wang.

CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Oracle‘s Safra Catz, and Micron Technology‘s David Limp have also been invited.

Unsurprisingly, David Sacks, a venture capitalist serving as the White House’s crypto and AI czar, is expected to be at the event. Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4, is also expected to attend despite Trump withdrawing his nomination to run NASA in June.

Notably, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who previously served as a special government employee in the first few months of the latest Trump administration and later had a public falling out with the president, was not on the invitation list.

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At Trump’s $148 million meme coin dinner, ‘the food sucked,’ attendee says

admin — Sun, 25 May 2025 14:15:14 +0000

Crypto investor Nicholas Pinto attends President Donald Trump’s gala dinner for people who spent the most money on Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, in a contest, at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, May 22, 2025.

Nicholas Pinto

The price of President Donald Trump’s meme coin plunged 16% as of Friday morning, just hours after he hosted a black-tie gala at his Virginia golf club for its biggest buyers — an elite crowd that spent a combined $148 million on the token for the chance to be there.

It was billed as “the most exclusive invitation in the world.”

Among the 220 attendees were crypto influencers, industry executives such as Sandy Carter of Unstoppable Domains, and former NBA star Lamar Odom, who used the occasion to praise Trump as “the greatest president” and promote his own token, $ODOM.

The top 25 wallets were promised a private reception and guided tour. Others, such as 25-year-old Nicholas Pinto — whose dad drove him to the event in his Lamborghini — left underwhelmed and still hungry.

“The food sucked,” Pinto said. “Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once.”

Trump made only a brief appearance, Pinto said. “He didn’t talk to any of the 220 guests — maybe the top 25,” he said.

All in, the president was there for 23 minutes, Pinto said. Trump delivered a brief address rehashing old crypto talking points then left on a helicopter before taking any questions or pictures with his meme coin contest winners, he said.

Phones weren’t locked in RFID pouches, and security was lax, according to Pinto.

“Once Trump left, they didn’t really worry about anything else,” Pinto added.

Contest winners who spent the most on $TRUMP meme coins added their signatures to a poster-sized printout of the leaderboard at a gala dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, May 22, 2025.

Nicholas Pinto

The crowd’s opulence was on full display.

“Richard Mille watches weren’t even rare,” Pinto said. “I saw at least 16 people wearing them. I never see that unless I’m at a high-end restaurant in Miami or Dubai.”

But the vibe was more muted than expected, he said: “Lots of people didn’t even hold the coin anymore. They were checking their phones during dinner to see if the price moved.”

CNBC has reached out to Trump representatives for comment on the dinner and attendees.

Protests

For lawmakers and regulators, the dinner set off alarm bells.

The #1 token holder was Chinese-born crypto mogul Justin Sun, who is currently facing Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges that were recently paused, with the agency citing “the public interest.”

Sun holds over $22 million in the $TRUMP token and another $75 million in World Liberty Financial’s native token.

“As the top holder of $TRUMP and proud supporter of President Trump, it was an honor to attend the Trump Gala Dinner,” Sun posted on Friday. “Thank you @POTUS for your unwavering support of our industry!”

Outside the gates of Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, about a hundred protesters gathered, according to NBC News. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., joined them, backing a new End Crypto Corruption Act with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Signs read “Crypto Corruption” and “Trump is a traitor.”

Crypto on Capitol Hill

“The Trump family activity in the memecoin space makes my work in Congress more complicated,” Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., told CNBC on Friday.

Hill, who’s leading negotiations on a bipartisan stablecoin regulation bill known as the GENIUS Act, called the gala “a distraction from the good work we need to do.”

Now, the GENIUS Act is at risk.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recently added a controversial rider to the bill that would cap credit card late fees — what’s seen as a poison pill that could alienate banking allies and stall final approval.

President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner for meme coin contest winners at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, May 22, 2025.

Nicholas Pinto

On Thursday night as the meme coin contest dinner was underway, a bloc of Senate Democrats announced they’d be pushing for a new provision that would ban presidents and senior officials from profiting off crypto ventures while in office — a direct challenge to the Trump-linked stablecoin USD1 that launched in the spring.

In Washington, there’s growing concern that political infighting over Trump’s crypto ventures could derail the stablecoin bill altogether. That poses an even bigger risk.

According to The Wall Street Journal, major banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are in early talks to issue a unified digital dollar to compete with Tether, the foreign-controlled stablecoin that now commands over 60% of global market share.

Those plans hinge on legal clarity.

If the GENIUS Act stalls, the U.S. could lose its window to regain ground in the global race for digital payments.

The White House has tried to draw a line between Trump the president and Trump the private businessman.

“The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when pressed on attendee transparency.

The administration declined to release a guest list. But blockchain data — and a patchwork of guest photos — tell part of the story.

A Bloomberg News analysis found that all but six of the top 25 wallets used foreign exchanges, ostensibly off-limits to U.S. users. More than half of the top 220 wallets were linked to similar offshore platforms.

One Nasdaq-listed penny stock, Freight Technologies, disclosed in an SEC filing that it spent $2 million on Trump’s token to push U.S.-Mexico trade policy. It didn’t make the cut for the dinner — finishing 250th.

Since its January debut, the $TRUMP coin has generated more than $324 million in trading fees. Roughly 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project’s website.

WLFI, the Trump’s parallel token, has sold $550 million in two token sales.

Still, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks remained bullish on “significant bipartisan support” for stablecoin legislation.

“We already have over $200 billion in stablecoins — it’s just unregulated,” Sacks told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Wednesday. “If we provide the legal clarity and legal framework for this, I think we could create trillions of dollars of demand for our Treasurys practically overnight, very quickly.”

“We have every expectation now that it’s going to pass,” added Sacks, though he didn’t answer a question about concerns from Democrats that there aren’t sufficient safeguards in place to keep the president and his family from profiting from legislation.

While Sacks sold $200 million in crypto-related holdings before taking his White House job, according to a disclosure filing, Trump and his family have been leaning into building a crypto empire.

The Trumps are financial backers of World Liberty Financial, which is behind the USD1 stablecoin that is backed by Treasurys and dollar deposits.

Abu Dhabi’s MGX investment fund recently pledged $2 billion in USD1 to Binance, the world’s largest digital assets exchange. It’s the company’s largest-ever investment made in crypto.

Justin Sun Trump dinner

admin — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:50:31 +0000

Justin Sun, founder of blockchain platform Tron, poses for a photograph in Hong Kong, May 8, 2020.

Calvin Sit | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese-born crypto mogul Justin Sun says he’s the top holder of the $TRUMP meme token and will be having dinner with President Donald Trump.

The dinner competition — a sweepstakes offering gala access to the sitting U.S. president — was open to anyone in the world willing to spend millions of dollars on a digital coin tied to Trump.

On May 22, the top 220 $TRUMP holders are invited to a dinner with the president at his Virginia golf club outside of Washington, D.C.

Late Monday night, Sun posted on X that he had secured the top spot in the $TRUMP token leaderboard, which earned him an invite to a dinner with the president, as well as a VIP reception for the top 25 holders.

“Honored to support @POTUS and grateful for the invitation from @GetTrumpMemes to attend President Trump’s Gala Dinner as his TOP fan!” he wrote. “As the top holder of $TRUMP, I’m excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry.”

Sun now holds $18.6 million worth of the Trump-themed meme token, on top of the $75 million he previously poured into World Liberty Financial — a separate crypto venture that routes 75% of the platform’s revenue directly to Trump-owned entities.

Altogether, Sun’s stake in the Trump family’s crypto empire now tops $93 million.

Born in China, Sun is the crypto entrepreneur behind the Tron blockchain and is in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve civil fraud charges.

His case was paused in February, shortly after investing tens of millions of dollars into World Liberty’s WLFI token.

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The $TRUMP coin rose in value by about 2% on Tuesday to $13.27, according to Coinmarketcap.com. That values the circulating supply at $2.65 billion, making it the 39th most valuable cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most valuable at $2.1 trillion.

Like with other meme coins, there’s no underlying product.

The project’s website says the coins “are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

The SEC issued guidance in February saying that most meme coins are not considered securities under U.S. federal law.

Watchdog group Accountable.US referred to the moment as seeing “corruption unfold in real time” and renewed warnings that the $TRUMP token competition is opening backdoor access to foreign and corporate actors with little oversight and major stakes in Trump-linked assets.

“This dubious situation perfectly sums up why this $TRUMP coin competition was always going to become a magnet for foreign influence, unprecedented self-dealing and next level swampiness,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US.

The nature of the pseudonymous wallets raises questions about the true identities and motivations of the token’s largest holders.

Documents from blockchain analytics firm Inca Digital that were reviewed by CNBC show where the top 275 $TRUMP token holders send and receive the token. Many are heavily tied to international exchanges like Binance that don’t service U.S. customers, an indication that they’re likely not U.S. citizens.

An analysis by Bloomberg revealed that 19 of the top 25 wallets are almost certainly owned by individuals operating outside the U.S.

The leaderboard — now closed — captured an extraordinary concentration of wealth and influence behind a volatile asset launched just days before the inauguration.

More than $5.2 billion in realized gains have flowed to the top-performing wallets, while a larger number of addresses — over 590,000 — have collectively lost $3.9 billion, according to Inca Digital.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, warned that the Trump family’s growing crypto holdings may serve as a backdoor for foreign and corporate interests seeking access to the president.

“President Trump’s financial entanglements to the $TRUMP coin, as well as the attempted use of the White House to host competitions to prop up the value of $TRUMP, represents an unprecedented, pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the Presidency to the highest bidder,” Blumenthal wrote.

WATCH: Eric Trump on taking American Bitcoin public and the family’s growing crypto empire

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Trump coin dinner to include mostly non-Americans based on top holders

admin — Mon, 19 May 2025 01:44:55 +0000

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

With President Donald Trump’s private dinner for top meme coin holders less than a week away, the leaderboard is awash with crypto wallets that are effectively anonymous.

On May 22, the top 220 $TRUMP holders are invited to a dinner with the president at his Virginia golf club outside of Washington, D.C. The event was announced last month, and the tally closed Monday night.

The nature of the pseudonymous wallets raises questions about the true identities and motivations of the token’s largest holders, who have bought a seat at the table with a U.S. president.

An analysis by Bloomberg revealed that 19 of the top 25 wallets are almost certainly owned by individuals operating outside the U.S.

Justin Sun, who openly shared that he bought $75 million worth of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial token — a digital coin where 75% of proceeds go to Trump-related entities — is believed to be at the top of the $TRUMP meme token leaderboard.

Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards

Sun, who was born in China, is the crypto entrepreneur behind the Tron blockchain and is in talks with the SEC to resolve civil fraud charges.

A wallet called Sun currently holds more than $18 million worth of $TRUMP, with $4.5 million bought after the dinner contest announcement, according to Bloomberg.

Multiple reports point to the wallet being tied to the Tron founder. A representative for Sun didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment or confirm whether Sun is the wallet owner.

MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto network that was vocal in its quest to secure a spot at the Trump dinner, landed in second place with an investment of $18 million. An Australian crypto entrepreneur also reportedly made the cut.

The leaderboard points to the token’s extreme volatility.

Inca Digital told CNBC that while 560,376 wallets have made a combined $5.2 billion in realized gains on the $TRUMP token, an even larger number — 592,962 wallets — have collectively lost $3.9 billion.

The figures underscore the massive wealth transfer within Trump’s crypto ecosystem, where early buyers have seen windfalls while the majority have suffered losses.

Chainalysis and Elliptic, two leading blockchain analytics firms, initially tracked $TRUMP token movements and trading fees. But days after CNBC published a story on the number of crypto wallets that had lost money on the meme coin, the firms said they were too busy with existing clients to continue blockchain analysis of the president’s self-branded meme token.

Freight Technologies, a Houston-based logistics firm that trades on the Nasdaq and has a market cap of just over $2.3 million, bought $2 million worth of the $TRUMP tokens to influence U.S.-Mexico trade policy, according to a release. CEO Javier Selgas described the move as a strategic push to “champion fair and free trade” across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Freight Technologies finished in 250th place, missing the cut for the dinner.

dinner – Our Story Insight

Trump’s dinner with top CEO’s consisted of praising a ‘booming’ economy while addressing tariff concerns

More From Charles Gasparino

Fears aren’t a ‘con job’

Charlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet

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Tax increase on MAGA

Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in Rose Garden

At Trump’s $148 million meme coin dinner, ‘the food sucked,’ attendee says

Protests

Crypto on Capitol Hill

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Justin Sun Trump dinner

Trump coin dinner to include mostly non-Americans based on top holders

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro