Donald Trump bought a round of burgers in a New York bar – and paid with a Bitcoin wallet. The payment was made via Lightning and according to Trump, it was „simple, fast, and wonderful.“ The bar owner is obviously proud – but doesn’t want Bitcoin to be politicized.

When Donald Trump traveled to Long Island for a campaign event last week on the U.S. National Cheeseburger Day, he made a stop in Manhattan. He visited PubKey, a traditional Bitcoin bar.

At PubKey, fitting for the holiday, he bought a round of cheeseburgers. The bill, a hefty $998.77, he paid with Bitcoin, what else! Thus, Donald Trump became the first former President of the United States to pay for something with Bitcoin!

Thomas Pacchia, the owner of PubKey, is of course immensely proud. A big moment for Bitcoin, one of the most important transactions since the legendary pizza purchase by Laszlo, which the community even made a holiday, Pizza Day.

Specifically, the payment occurred as follows: Trump stands at the bar, with his assistant to his right, and Thomas Pacchia to his left. His assistant hands him a smartphone and explains that he needs to scan a QR code that Thomas Pacchia displays on a tablet. Trump takes the smartphone and tries. But it doesn’t work! So his assistant respectfully takes the smartphone from his hand. He presses something and tries to scan the QR code. But it still doesn’t work. A bit helplessly, he hands the smartphone to Pacchia. He holds it exactly over the QR code. Then the two wait to see what happens, while Donald Trump stands bored between them.

Then Trump’s escort beams: „It went fantastic, it went through!“ Trump grins briefly, the crowd behind him cheers. In total, it took 40 seconds. „The first transaction by a President,“ says Thomas Pacchia proudly to the camera, „on the Bitcoin protocol.“ Everyone claps, someone shouts „Make Bitcoin Great Again.“ Trump grins again and says rather unimpressed, „Hello everyone, I’m going over there now to meet those people.“

As later learned, it was a payment via Lightning. It would be easy to scoff at how long it took and count it as a success in 2024 when a Bitcoin transaction succeeds. However, initially, only the QR code caused problems, which is a bit more complicated with Lightning than with on-chain transactions, so some devices have issues reading it depending on the brightness setting. It’s no different than paying contactless at card terminals.

Once the wallet read the QR code, the payment went through just as quickly as by card or cash. That’s quite impressive for a sum of a grand. Trump himself later commented that the transaction was „very simple“ as well as „fast and wonderful.“

However, Trump – or his assistant – reportedly used the Strike wallet. This is a custodial Lightning app that manages Bitcoins and payment channels for users. It helps to function fairly reliably even with higher sums. Calling it „using Bitcoin“ is somewhat of a stretch.

As spontaneous as it may seem, the action was not. The meeting was set up by David Bailey, head of the Bitcoin Magazine, and Thomas Pacchia was informed six days prior. In the days before the event, the Secret Service, which protects U.S. Presidents and presidential candidates, practically took over the bar to ensure everything remained secure.

Pacchia is immensely proud to have received a transaction that has the potential to become historic. However, he does not want it to become overly politicized. He has therefore invited all candidates, including Trump and Kamala Harris, as well as President Biden, Chuck Schumer, JD Vance, and others. „This isn’t a Trump bar. This isn’t a Democrat bar. We are apolitical in the same way Bitcoin is apolitical.“