Public Citizen Demands Investigation Trump’s Potential Violation of Law Barring Gift Solicitation
Washington, D.C. — In a complaint submitted today to the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics, Public Citizen called for an investigation into whether President Trump violated federal law barring the president from soliciting gifts. The letter cites several social media posts from Trump — on Twitter/X and on his own platform Truth Social — in which he promotes his “Official Trump Meme” and urges people to send money. Both posts were re-posted by Trump, on January 20th and January 21st respectively, after he was inaugurated.
“A president soliciting money from the general public for his personal enrichment would be a reprehensible abuse of the presidency,” said Bartlett Naylor, a financial services advocate at Public Citizen. “The Department of Justice and Office of Government Ethics owe it to the American people to thoroughly investigate whether Donald Trump’s solicitation is in violation of the law, and, if it is, take appropriate action to stop it.”
The website for the Trump meme clearly states that people sending money for a meme are doing so in exchange for nothing other than a digital receipt. Meanwhile, it appears that Trump will pocket the money.
The complaint also raises the concern that, in addition to solicitation, the Constitution forbids accepting money or anything of value from any “king, prince, or foreign state.” Because of the nature of a cryptocurrency exchange, it is difficult to know whether foreign state actors are gifting the president by way of purchasing a Trump meme, which poses substantial national security and foreign policy concerns.
If an investigation finds that Trump’s “Trump Meme” solicitation does violate federal law, the complaint concludes, immediate action must be taken to address it, including termination of the meme sale, return of monies, and any other available remedies.
For more information on the letter, or to speak with an expert, contact eleach@citizen.org.