On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down Trump v. United States and declared that a president enjoys broad immunity for official acts. The majority opinion ran to forty-three pages. The dissent called it a moment the Court “makes a mockery of the principle that no man is above the law.” The majority did not bother to answer that charge. It simply concluded and adjourned.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro sat down for an interview last Friday and said what the occasion requires: the ruling is “one of its worst decisions,” and it has “enabled” what he described as the corruption of the current administration. He did not speak in generalities. He pointed at the meme coin.
The coin in question is $TRUMP, a cryptocurrency bearing the president’s name and likeness, launched on January 17, 2025 — three days before the second inauguration. By the time the market found its early peak, the president’s associated entities held positions worth, by some estimates, north of three hundred million dollars. Foreign nationals bought in. Governments bought in. The price moved when the president spoke and when he was silent. On May 22, 2025, the White House announced a dinner for the top one hundred holders. Tickets were not sold. You bought coin. The coin appreciated the morning the dinner was announced.
None of that is alleged. It is the public record of prices and timestamps.
What Shapiro is pointing at is simpler than a legal argument. He is pointing at sequence. First the Court says a president’s official acts are immune. Then a president licenses his name to a financial instrument. Then foreign money flows toward that instrument. Then access to the president is denominated in that instrument. The sequence does not require a conspiracy. It requires only that the man holding the office understand what the Court has made possible.
The emoluments clause of the Constitution forbids a president from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title” from a foreign state without congressional consent. The clause is thirty-one words long. It has been litigated, dismissed on standing grounds, and left unresolved by the same institution that resolved presidential immunity in forty-three pages. Standing, it turned out, was a narrower door than immunity was a wide one.
Shapiro is a governor. He cannot subpoena the Court. He cannot reverse its rulings. What he can do — what he did — is say the name of the thing in public, attach a date to it, and let the record sit. History is not always the last judge, but it keeps better notes than the networks do.
The dinner for the top coin holders was held at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on May 22nd. The menu has not been released.