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If Meme Coins Have ‘No Use,’ Why is Trump Charging for Them?
Following the recent declaration by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that meme coins have “no use,” and ahead of the first-ever White House crypto summit on Friday, March 7th, Public Citizen called for the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to investigate whether Donald Trump’s meme coin venture constitutes gift solicitation, which would be illegal.
“If Trump’s meme coins have ‘no use’ and are marketed as a way to simply ‘celebrate’ his leadership, then Trump requiring payment for his memes may constitute illegal solicitation of gifts,” said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate at Public Citizen. “As the White House cozies up to the crypto industry — which spent over a hundred million dollars to influence the 2024 elections — and Trump personally profits from a crypto venture, the conflicts of interest and potentially illegal abuses of power on display should concern every American.”
Public Citizen is closely tracking the crypto industry’s election spending and influence on elected officials, including Trump.
Additional resources include:
- Our comprehensive report on unprecedented crypto spending in the 2024 election
- Our reaction to Trump’s executive order on crypto and a national asset stockpile
- Our first complaint re Trump’s meme coin venture
For additional information on Trump’s meme coin or reactions to Friday’s summit, please contact Emily Leach, eleach@citizen.org to speak with an expert.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
'An American President Is Not a King': Judge Reinstates Labor Regulator Illegally Fired by Trump
"The president seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme."
Mar 06, 2025
A federal judge on Thursday reinstated Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, and suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to fire her was an example of the Republican testing how much he can exceed his constitutional powers.
Wilcox filed a federal lawsuit in February, after Trump ousted her and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell—who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve in the District of Columbia—declared Wilcox's dismissal "unlawful and void."
"The Constitution and case law are clear in allowing Congress to limit the president's removal power and in allowing the courts to enjoin the executive branch from unlawful action," Howell wrote in a 36-page opinion. She also sounded the alarm about arguments made by lawyers for the defendants, Trump and Marvin Kaplan, chair of the NLRB.
"A president who touts an image of himself as a 'king' or a 'dictator,' perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution."
"Defendants' hyperbolic characterization that legislative and judicial checks on executive authority, as invoked by plaintiff, present 'extraordinary intrusion[s] on the executive branch,' ...is both incorrect and troubling," the judge wrote. "Under our constitutional system, such checks, by design, guard against executive overreach and the risk such overreach would pose of autocracy."
She stressed that "an American president is not a king—not even an 'elected' one—and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances, as are present here."
"A president who touts an image of himself as a 'king' or a 'dictator,' perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution," Howell asserted. "In our constitutional order, the president is tasked to be a conscientious custodian of the law, albeit an energetic one, to take care of effectuating his enumerated duties, including the laws enacted by the Congress and as interpreted by the judiciary."
The judge cited a widely criticized February 19 social media post from the White House, which features an image of Trump in a crown, with text that states, "Long live the king."
"The president seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme," Howell warned. "The courts are now again forced to determine how much encroachment on the legislature our Constitution can bear and face a slippery slope toward endorsing a presidency that is untouchable by the law."
The president's attempt to fire Wilcox halted federal labor law enforcement in the United States. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler celebrated Howell's ruling in a Thursday statement, saying that "more than a month after Trump effectively shut down the NLRB by illegally firing Gwynne Wilcox, denying it the quorum it needs to hold union-busters accountable, the court ordered Wilcox immediately returned to her seat, allowing the NLRB to get back to its essential work."
"The court also sent an important message that a president cannot undermine an independent agency by simply removing a member of the board because he disagrees with her decisions," she said. "Working people around the country count on equal justice and fair decision-making from an independent NLRB—and today, because of Wilcox's commitment to the mission of the NLRB and her refusal to stand by as Trump illegally removed her from the board, the NLRB can get back to work."
Wilcox isn't the only federal worker who has challenged the president's power to fire her. As Politicodetailed:
On Thursday, a federal workplace watchdog fired by Trump—Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger—dropped his legal bid to reclaim his post after a federal appeals court permitted his termination. Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which oversees the grievance process for many federal employees, is also resisting Trump’s effort to remove her and was reinstated last month by a federal judge.
The Supreme Court likely will soon weigh in on Congress' ability to insulate executive branch officials from being fired by the president without cause. With Dellinger's decision to drop his legal fight, Harris' case appears likeliest to reach the high court in the near-term. It’s possible Wilcox's case will get folded into that ongoing fight.
The nation's highest court has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees, though they have at times ruled against the president—including on Wednesday, when five justices refused to overturn a lower court order about foreign aid.
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Social Security Administration Workers Can No Longer Read the News at Work
"Local news blocked," one employee said. "So if there was a local shooting or something, I wouldn't be able to see."
Mar 06, 2025
The Trump administration's sweeping attacks on journalism and federal workers continued Thursday with an announcement that Social Security Administration employees can no longer access "general news" websites on government devices.
The Washington Postnoted the email in an update to its Thursday reporting that earlier this week, acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek told top staff that members of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire Elon Musk, are leading efforts to shrink the agency—which critics slam as a push toward privatization.
"DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA," Dudek said, according to notes from the meeting. "I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions."
The newspaper reported that "on Thursday morning—three hours after the publication of this story—an all-staff email went out to SSA employees informing them that they would be prevented 'effective today' from accessing certain websites on their government devices, including 'online shopping,' ' general news,' and 'sports.'"
The email—a screenshot of which was posted on the Musk-owned social media site X by independent journalist Justin Glawe, author of the newsletter American Doom—states that "these additional restrictions will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems."
An SSA spokesperson said in a statement that "employees should be focused on mission-critical work and serving the American people," but they "may request an exception if they have a business need for job-specific duties."
As Glawe pointed out: "To all the people saying BUT YOU SHOULDN'T READ NEWS AT WORK—they are government employees, so reading news and staying informed is part of their job. They're not working at a car dealership."
While SSA messaging frames the policy as an effort to promote safety and efficiency, and the email did not include a list of blocked websites, Wiredrevealed that some outlets "at the forefront of the reporting" on DOGE have been banned:
Wired has confirmed with two sources inside the SSA that Wired.com is no longer accessible today, though it was accessible previously.
The sources also confirmed that the websites of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and MSNBC were inaccessible. However, the sources were able to access other news websites including Politico and Axios.
"Local news blocked," says one source at SSA, who was granted anonymity over fears of retribution. "So if there was a local shooting or something, I wouldn't be able to see."
It's unclear who has implemented the block list or what criteria were used to populate it, but it appears not to be based on ideological grounds, as Fox News and Breitbart are also blocked.
The policy change comes amid a flurry of reporting on Musk calling Social Security "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time" during a recent podcast interview with Joe Rogan as well as efforts to shrink the agency and shut down multiple offices nationwide.
Over 150 House Democrats wrote in a Tuesday letter to Dudek that "Social Security helps approximately 70 million beneficiaries—including seniors, people with disabilities, children, and their families—put food on the table, pay the rent, heat their homes, cover medical bills, and more... Shuttering field offices and gutting SSA staffing has nothing to do with 'governmental efficiency.'"
Other federal agencies are also under assault by DOGE and its billionaire leader—who is facing new limits from the president. Citing two officials, Politicoreported that during a Thursday Cabinet meeting attended by Musk, "Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy."
While working to gut the federal government, the Trump administration has also taken aim at journalism. Amid a spat with The Associated Press over its refusal to use Trump's preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that the administration will now decide which outlets get to participate in the presidential press pool.
That came a week after the Postreported that the U.S. State Department told embassies and consulates to cancel "all non-mission critical contracts/purchase orders for media subscriptions (publications, periodicals, and newspaper subscriptions) that are not academic or professional journals."
According to the newspaper, a memo "directed procurement teams at embassies and consulates to prioritize the termination of contracts with six news organizations in particular: The Economist, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press, and Reuters."
Similarly, as Rolling Stonedetailed Thursday: "In the first weeks of the Trump administration, DOGE canceled subscriptions to services like Politico Pro, which many agencies rely on to stay abreast of legislation moving through Congress. DOGE also incorrectly identified a contract with a wing of Thomson Reuters as going toward news subscriptions. In fact, the contract—signed by the Defense Department under the first Trump administration—was with Thomson Reuters Special Services and dealt with preventing cyber threats."
The Republican president has a long record of attacking news outlets and individual reporters—from his frequent declarations of "fake news" to
reportedly inquiring about how he could jail journalists if he returned to the White House.
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Sanders Says Senate Should Probe DOGE and Subpoena Musk
"My constituents in Vermont and constituents all over this country want to know what the hell is going on with the federal government right now," the democratic socialist senator said.
Mar 06, 2025
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—on Thursday urged the panel to launch an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency and its de facto chief, Elon Musk, "the richest man in the world, to testify about his plans for running the federal government."
"I think everybody on this committee and the people of America understand who is running the government, and it's not going to be the secretary of labor," Sanders said during Thursday's HELP committee hearing on the confirmation of Keith Sonderling, Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for deputy labor secretary.
"We must find out what is going on in the federal government. And the way we do that is bringing Mr. Musk before this committee."
"With all due respect to President Trump's nominees, the... person who is running the government right now is Elon Musk," Sanders asserted.
"Mr. Musk has taken it upon himself, with the support of President Trump, to virtually dismantle the United States government," the senator said.
Sanders noted various attacks on agencies, including efforts to oust over 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs and get rid of half of the Social Security Administration's employees, "at a time when Social Security is now grossly understaffed."
"Mr. Musk has ordered [the Department of Health and Human Services], the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education to fire employees, hand over confidential and sensitive data, and defy judicial orders," he added.
"My constituents in Vermont and constituents all over this country want to know what the hell is going on with the federal government right now," Sanders said. "And it's not going to be the next deputy secretary of labor who is going to tell them."
"So if we are serious... about our oversight responsibilities, we must find out what is going on in the federal government," he added. "And the way we do that is bringing Mr. Musk before this committee."
Sanders' call for an investigation into DOGE and subpoena for Musk came on the same day that Trump convened an in-person Cabinet meeting during which he clarified that the department secretaries are in charge of their agencies, not Musk. Multiple administration officials toldPolitico that "Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy."
Musk was in the room for the meeting. As Politico reported:
The president's message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk's mandate. According to Trump's new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role—but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy, and the pacing of implementation.
Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump's directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps—a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.
"As the secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go," Trump later explained on his Truth Social platform. "We say the 'scalpel' rather than the 'hatchet.' The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level."
Since its launch, DOGE has been plagued by statistical and accounting mistakes, as well as overzealous and errant firings of thousands of critical government workers, including people in charge of nuclear and air traffic safety and pandemic response.
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