Nicholas Pinto, a 25-year-old social media influencer, spent over $360,000 on President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency to attend a “unforgettable Gala DINNER” with the commander-in-chief. The food, however, was forgettable. “Trash,” Pinto texted Fortune at the banquet. “Walmart steak, man.”
The menu featured a “Trump organic field green salad” and a “entrée duet” of filet mignon and pan-seared halibut. “Everyone at my table was saying the food was some of the worst that they ever had,” Pinto said after the meal.
But the main attraction of the evening wasn’t steak or halibut. It was Trump himself. The top 220 memecoin holders were promised an exclusive evening with the 47th president, in what critics have described as one of the most blatant pay-for-access schemes in presidential history.
According to crypto analytics firm Inca Digital, investors purchased $148 million worth of cryptocurrency to attend the dinner.
“The President is working to secure good deals for the American people, not for himself,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement.
Was the price worth it? “I was hoping for either Big Macs or pizza,” Pinto said, referencing the president’s well-known fondness for McDonald’s. “That would have been better than the food that we were served.”
The ‘Unforgettable’ gala
In January, two days before his inauguration, Trump announced the launch of his own memecoin, a cryptocurrency whose price is based on the virality of a joke or person rather than its utility.
Pinto, a Trump supporter who was staying at the Trump National Doral hotel in Miami at the time, began buying the tokens. “I saw it listed, and it was skyrocketing,” he stated.
He was already flush with cash. Pinto made $100,000 in one year as a 13-year-old by starting a scooter wheel company, and he went on to become a social media influencer. He currently has 2.6 million Instagram followers.
While Trump’s memecoin initially rose in price to a market capitalization of nearly $8.8 billion, it has since dropped to around $2.8 billion. To help boost interest in the cryptocurrency, the team behind it announced in late April that the top 220 memecoin holders would be invited to an exclusive dinner with the president at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia.
Pinto wanted to go, so he bought enough cryptocurrency to rank 72 on the leaderboard, which displayed each invitee’s $TRUMP holdings along with a pseudonym. Pinto’s nickname was “rich.”
Pinto was so excited for the dinner that he spray-painted the $TRUMP ticker on his “G-Wagon,” a luxury SUV from Mercedes-Benz that costs around $150,000.
But on the day of the memecoin extravaganza, he decided—in a nod to the crypto industry’s favorite symbol of wealth—to drive down from his home in New Jersey in his 2023 “Lambo,” or Lamborghini. Wearing a black tie and a suit, he wondered who else was coming.
Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto billionaire who was allegedly under investigation by the Justice Department during former President Joe Biden’s administration, confirmed his attendance.
Other attendees included the CEO of a Singaporean crypto startup and an Australian cryptocurrency investor. “I really would love to meet Elon Musk,” Pinto said, referring to Tesla’s CEO. “I don’t know if that’s gonna happen, but that’s definitely my top person.”
When Pinto arrived at the dinner Thursday evening, he was greeted by a crowd of critics. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) appeared at a protest organized by the nonprofit Public Citizen. “Trump’s cryptocurrency businesses constitute one of the most corrupt innovations in American political history,” Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, previously told Fortune.
Inside the Trump National Golf Club, the mood was mixed. “Most of the ppl here are sketchy ngl [not gonna lie],” Pinto text Fortune.
Trump did appear and deliver a speech, but Pinto called it “pretty much like bullshit.” Most guests had no access to the commander-in-chief, he added. Even Caitlin Sinclair, the dinner’s host and an anchor on the conservative news network OANN, was unable to spend much time with Trump. “She said, ‘Oh, Trump didn’t even give me a picture,'” Pinto recalls.
As the gala came to an end around 10 p.m., Pinto, who had not met Elon Musk, was driven back to a nearby hotel by his father. He then prepared for an after-party hosted by the Singaporean cryptocurrency company at the Ciel Capitol Hill, a rooftop club in Washington, D.C.
But first, he and his father needed to get something to eat. Pinto was still hungry after his disappointing meal. “The only good part,” he told Fortune, “[was] bread and butter.”
