Justin Sun is the Chinese billionaire who attended Trump’s crypto-dinner.
He clapped enthusiastically as Trump arrived for the black-tie event at the Trump golf club. He shouted “Yeah! Super cool!” when asked by the president if the participants had seen Marine One out in the open. Fight! “Fight!” echoed a Trump catchphrase.
He said he had been “awarded”, by the president, a Trump Golden Tourbillon Watch, retail price $100,000. He breathlessly recorded the whole thing on X. Sun’s video of the watch-presentation did not include Trump. Sun also invested $75 million in another Trump family crypto project, World Liberty Financial, after his election victory. Sun, the founder of Tron cryptocurrency, is right to claim that he’s Trump’s biggest supporter. In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission, under Biden, charged Sun with market manipulation and fraud. But in February, after Sun announced his investment in World Liberty, the SEC asked a court to pause the lawsuit.
Critics say Trump’s foray into crypto oversteps ethical boundaries by allowing the president to profit off his office and allowing crypto enthusiasts, like Sun, to buy access to Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that it was “absurd for anyone to insinuate” such a thing. Tron declined to grant an interview request with Sun. Representatives for the SEC, World Liberty Financial and the Trump coin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While Sun’s emergence at the center of Trump’s crypto project may be surprising to some, Zennon Kapron, director of GL Insight, a Singapore-based fintech consultancy, said the two men have uncanny similarities.
“In some ways, Justin and Trump could be considered kindred spirits: they both like telling stories, making big splashes, drawing attention to themselves,” Kapron said. “The fact that we’re starting to see overlap between their orbits is not surprising.”
Here’s what you need to know about Sun, his orbit and how it overlaps with Trump.
