Former NBA Star Booed Upon Arrival At Trump’s Crypto Dinner | EUROtoday

Former NBA star Lamar Odom was booed and heckled Thursday night time when he arrived for an ethically doubtful dinner President Donald Trump hosted for the highest traders in his $TRUMP meme coin.

“Lamar, you’re better than this,” somebody shouted outdoors the dinner venue at Trump’s luxurious golf membership in Northern Virginia as Odom moved by a crowd of booing protesters. “Lamar, what are you doing? Shame on you, Lamar.”

Odom, who performed within the NBA from 1999 to 2014 and received championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010, was among the many 220 individuals deemed a prime holder of Trump’s meme coin ― a kind of cryptocurrency based mostly on an web joke or public determine ― from April 23 to May 12, incomes him an invitation to the occasion billed as “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World.”

Odom has been selling his efforts to get into the occasion on social media and utilizing his attendance as a platform to spice up his personal meme coin.

“Thanks to President Trump for supporting the meme philosophy,” Odom posted on social media after the occasion.

Odom can be well-known for his televised marriage ceremony and marriage to Khloé Kardashian, which resulted in divorce in 2016. In 2015, he was hospitalized in a comatose state after he was discovered unconscious in a Nevada brothel and later sought remedy for dependancy.

Others in attendance on the dinner included Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, who runs the crypto platform Tron and earned the highest spot on the $TRUMP leaderboard by spending greater than $40 million on the meme coin.

“I’m very excited to meet him and discuss about crypto’s future,” Sun informed The New York Times.

Korean cryptocurrency govt Sangrok Oh, one other attendee, additionally informed the Times he seen the dinner as a “fundraiser” for Trump, who he believes will “always be good to his sponsors.”

Media wasn’t allowed contained in the occasion, and Trump arrived and left with out talking to the press, however attendees shared with reporters that Trump solely spoke for about 15-20 minutes and made minimal contact with the group regardless of billing the dinner as an “intimate” occasion.

“He helicoptered in, he helicoptered out. We didn’t really get to shake hands with him or anything, but it was a really interesting group of crypto people all in the same room,”a 32-year-old attendee from Texas, who declined to state his title, informed NBC News. “It’s about what I expected. I got the chance to be pretty close to the president when he was giving his speech.”

Another attendee named Christoph Heuermann posted on Instagram that Trump didn’t “interact with the crowd other than enjoying being celebrated” and claimed that even the highest holders of the coin ― whom Trump promised “an ultra-exclusive private VIP Reception with the President” ― didn’t get to “speak or even shake hands with the president.”

“It was still well worth it to experience the president live and watch his mightily secured arrival and departure,” Heuermann wrote.