Donald Trump’s position on cryptocurrencies seemed relatively clear. For years, the Republican called them a “disaster waiting to happen,” adding that as far as he was concerned, Bitcoin seemed “like a scam.” When it came to crypto, the former president said he was “not a fan,” adding, “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Then he changed his mind.
Ahead of an appearance at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, the presumptive GOP nominee declared online that he’s now “VERY POSITIVE AND OPEN MINDED” on the issue. My MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones noted a couple of weeks ago that Trump vowed to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving multiple life sentences for running “Silk Road,” a website that operated as a black market for drugs and other illicit items. Ulbricht is also a major promoter of cryptocurrencies.
A week earlier, the former president’s 2024 campaign announced that it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.
It was against this backdrop that Trump published this item to his social media platform around midnight.
“VOTE FOR TRUMP! Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC [central bank digital currency]. Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!”
So much for the “disaster waiting to happen.” It’s difficult to speculate as to what, exactly, led Trump to change his mind, though it seems unlikely that the former president did his homework and brushed up on the policy details. The more likely explanation is that some like-minded allies guided him to a position they preferred. The Hill, for example, noted that Trump’s overnight online item “came a day after he met with leaders of several Bitcoin mining companies at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday.” What do you suppose the chances are that Bitcoin mining company representatives stopped by Trump’s glorified country club, told him what to think, at which point the former president started tweeting about “our last line of defense against a CBDC”?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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