Were the Trumps avoiding constitutional violations by launching TRUMP and MELANIA at this time?

The Trumps launched the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins on Solana days to the January 20th inauguration. The TRUMP memecoin surged by more than 10,000%, exploding to a market cap of over $15B, hours after it was unveiled at the ‘invites-only’ black tie ‘crypto ball’ in DC on January 18th.

Zack Guzman, founder and host at Coinage, said both memecoins were strategically launched so fast before the inauguration to avoid constitutional violations that could have led to what would be Trump’s second historic impeachment. He termed it as a ‘diabolical’ move that only president-elect Trump was totally capable of.

The MELANIA memecoins, which went live a few hours ago, are intended for collecting and entertainment only. From the token’s total supply, 15% was set aside for public distribution, 20% for the community, 10% for liquidity, 35% for team vesting, and 20% for the treasury. The ongoing MELANIA token airdrop will distribute 10M tokens.

Trump evades abuse of office charges with pre-inaugration memecoin launch

There is a very important reason why the Trumps are launching $TRUMP and now $MELANIA so fast before the inauguration

And whether you love Trump or hate Trump, the fact is that waiting another day could've opened him up to Constitutional violations & impeachment (again) 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fYw2ZsjTK7

— Zack Guzmán (@zGuz) January 19, 2025

Guzman elaborated that it was unconstitutional for a sitting president to enrich himself through abuse of office. He pointed out that waiting another day could have opened up Trump to constitutional violations and most likely another impeachment. Specifically, the Emoluments Clause which prevents the president from receiving profits or gains from foreign governments is what made these coins interesting, said Guzman.

As complicated as the launch of both memecoins was sure to become, Guzman believes one thing is certain, their launch just before Trump officially took office made the situation much less complicated. Claiming Trump was profiting from the presidency and violating the Emoluments Clause would have been easier if both launches had come after his inauguration. 

Former founder and CEO of Messari Ryan Selkis, however, said he was not going to criticize the president for getting bad advice. He asked Trump to especially fire whoever recommended going forward with the MELANIA memecoin launch today. The TRUMP memecoin dropped 60% after the MELANIA was launched. 

“They don’t know what they’re doing…They cost you a lot of $ and goodwill…They don’t have your interests in mind.”

~ Ryan Selkis

According to Guzman, Trump reported earning about $7.2M as part of the deal tied to NFT involvement in his public tax filing. Melania separately earned over $300K for an agreement tied to the sale of NFTs.

Consecutive memecoin releases open up the Trumps to greed allegations

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research believes Trump was becoming greedy as he doubled down with the MELANIA after TRUMP’s success. The market, however, thought it was a form of dilution and feared that Trump had tons of coins – IVANKA, BARON, FIRSTFAMILY, DORAL, MARALAGO – in the pipeline waiting for release, said Bianco. 

José Maria Macedo, the co-founder of Delphi Labs, claimed that the consecutive launch of both meme coins was because the insiders who helped launch TRUMP did not realize how much it would pump and, therefore, decided to launch the MELANIA immediately after because they either did not buy enough or they sold too early. According to Bianco, they could have rushed to run it back with the launch of MELANIA to ensure that they filled their bags this time. In their greed, they ‘nuked’ $30 billion of value, transformed the ‘optics’ into pure grift, and probably committed several crimes. 

Guzman pointed out that both Trumps had been testing the waters with various NFT drops over the last couple of years using separate companies and seemingly distinct teams. He added both companies had paid out fees to Trump and Melania, keeping the direct purchases of coins ‘at an arms-length’. 

Guzman also claimed that Trump’s inner circle was using the latest memecoin launches to ‘personally’ make millions from the crypto industry ‘in short order’. According to Guzman, Trump was now showing the crypto community that the only people who mattered were his inner circle since both launches came unannounced to ‘outsiders’. 

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