Donald Trump speaks during a Fox News town hall at the Greenville Convention Center on February 20, 2024, ahead of South Carolina's February 24 primary election. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images
Just last month, after characterizing central bank digital currencies as “tyranny,” Donald Trump said at a town hall that he at least recognizes Bitcoin's growing popularity.
FOX News host Laura Ingraham asked the 77-year-old Republican front-runner about cryptocurrencies ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary on February 24th. He also brought up the issue of minting) and hinted at China's promotion of the introduction of virtual currency. Digital currency to strengthen government control.
“But wouldn't the next step be to adopt Bitcoin? Obviously it's decentralized, so governments can't touch it,” Ingraham asked. .
President Trump responded, “I like the dollar, but a lot of people are using the dollar, and frankly, the dollar has taken on a life of its own.'' “You know, there probably needs to be some regulation, but a lot of people are accepting the regulation, and more and more people are willing to pay with Bitcoin.”
President Trump vowed on January 19 that he would never tolerate a digital dollar if re-elected, calling it a “dangerous threat to freedom,” but his relationship with Web3 technology has always been a little more complicated than that. . He has millions of dollars in his digital wallet and is said to have made millions more from selling NFT licenses.
But rejecting the digital dollar remains a talking point for Republicans. In September, the House Financial Services Committee advanced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act after the measure was reintroduced by Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota.
“This is not only alarming, it's completely un-American,” Emmer said at the time. “We have already seen examples of governments using the financial system as a weapon against their citizens.”
Even supporters of CBDC, both domestically and internationally, have expressed privacy concerns. The Bank of England recently announced a framework to begin designing a digital pound, with proposals calling for a way in which all wallets would be private and all user data would be anonymised, while the bank would manage the ledger. is outlined.
