President Trump marked his 20th wedding anniversary with Melania on Wednesday with a Truth Social post that just so happened to double as a means of promoting her new crypto venture.
“Happy Anniversary!” Trump wrote in the post, which also contained a photo of him smiling with his arm around the first lady’s waist. Instead of uploading the image himself, however, the picture was actually part of another user’s post from Sunday evening which Trump had “Quote Truthed” on his own account.
It’s not clear why Trump chose to include a three-day-old post from one of his supporters in his anniversary message. But it might have something to do with the fact that the user had written in response to Melania’s announcement that her meme coin project was live and ready to buy—meaning any Truth Social user clicking on the image in Trump’s anniversary post would see the announcement too.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now,” the post on Melania’s Truth Social account read on Sunday, the day before her husband’s second inauguration.
Her meme coin—which belongs to a class of essentially useless crypto tokens that can become extremely valuable if enough of them are sold—is trading for around $4 each and has a market cap of over $550 million as of Wednesday morning, according to CoinGecko.
The president launched his own meme coin late Friday, telling his followers to “Have Fun!” Those tokens are trading for around $39 a pop and has a market cap of close to $8 billion.
The projects are just the latest ways in which Trump has sought to monetize his popularity despite the objections of ethicists and even crypto industry insiders.
He’s previously made $7.2 million from a licensing deal for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and reported earning around $300,000 from a Bible that he endorsed.
Trump married Melania Knauss on Jan. 22, 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. Guests at the ceremony included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, singer Billy Joel, and Trump’s future opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton.
