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Bitcoin Republicans

Trump Says He'd Oppose CBDCs, Pardon Ulbricht, and Create a 'Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile' 234

Speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a number of cryptocurrency-related pledges:
  • Trump promised that if elected, he'd commute the sentence of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served. "It's enough."
  • Trump promised to change the top personnel at America's Securities and Exchange Commission. "On Day One, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC chairman," Trump told the crowd, drawing a long round of applause. ("I didn't know he was that unpopular," Trump joked — then repeated his promise to appoint "a new SEC chairman who believes America should build the future, not block the future, which is what they're doing.")
  • Trump also promised that "As president, I will immediately shut down Operation Chokepoint 2.0." (For context, Operation Chokepoint was an Obama-era program — ended during Trump's presidency — to scrutinize bank lending to "high-risk" merchants, mostly predatory "payday" lenders. Concerns were raised that bank regulators were pressuring banks to cut off certain businesses, and while there is no official "Choke Point 2.0," the phrase has been used colloquially to describe the possibility of bank regulators pressuring specific industries like cryptocurrency.)
  • Trump also announced he'd oppose a central bank digital currency — although his wording was a little idiosyncratic. "Next I will immediately order the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to cease and desist all steps necessary — because, you know, there's a thing going on in your industry. They want to move the creation of a central bank digital currency. It's over, forget it." [Audience boos CBDC's ] "CBDC — there will never be a CBDC while I'm president of the United States." (In fact a 2023 statement from America's Federal Reserve about CBDC's stresses that "no decisions have been made at this time" and that the Federal Reserve would only proceed with a CBDC after passage of an authorizing law.)
  • Trump also told the audience that "We will create a framework to enable the safe and responsible expansion of staple — stablecoins," then teased the crypto-friendly audience by asking playfully "Do you know what a stablecoin is? Does anybody know — please raise your hand." Trump promised the move would "allow us to extend the dominance of the U.S. dollar to new frontiers all around the world," and that "there will be billions and billions of people brought into the crypto economy and storing their savings in bitcoin."
  • Toward the end Trump said that if elected, he would direct the government not to sell any of its currently-held bitcoin, keeping it instead as the core of a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile."

    "As you know, most of the bitcoin currently held by the U.S. government was obtained through law enforcement action — you know that, they took it from you. 'Let's take that guy's life, let's take his family, his house, his bitcoin — we'll turn it into bitcoin.' It's been taken away from you because that's where we're going now. That's where this country is going. It's a facist regime."

In a speech which lasted for over an hour, the 78-year-old former president also criticized his political opponents, touching on topics like inflation, immigration, and his promise to "drill, baby, drill."

But Trump closed by thanking the 3,000 attendees, telling them to "have a good time with your bitcoin, and your crypto and everything else that you're playing with. And we're going to make that one of the greatest industries on earth."

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Trump Says He'd Oppose CBDCs, Pardon Ulbricht, and Create a 'Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile'

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  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @04:49PM (#64660384)
    Because all anyone cares about right now is Kamala Harris' potential VP and JD Vance's couch / love of dolphins / dolphin couches.

    Trump literally came out and said he's not a Christian and that if he's elected you wouldn't be able to vote anymore and that didn't even move the needle. It feels like he's losing his touch and I wonder just how freaking crazy the next thing he says is going to be.
    • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @04:54PM (#64660394)

      It feels like he's losing his touch and I wonder just how freaking crazy the next thing he says is going to be.

      He is an old man with a failing memory prone to outrageous lies. The next thing he'll probably say is he invented the question mark.

      You have to understand, when you're a grifter you have to keep the marks interested. The moment you're forgotten the cards come tumbling down. Checkmate.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

      JD Vance's couch / love of dolphins / dolphin couches.

      Obviously, supporting Trump's "drill, baby, drill" position ... :-)

      More seriously on that note, does Trump, and his followers, know the U.S. has been the largest oil producing country in the World since 2018? From US leads global oil production for sixth straight year- EIA [reuters.com]:

      The United States produced more crude oil than any nation at any time, according to our International Energy Statistics, for the past six years in a row," the EIA ( Energy Information Administration) added. The EIA says it is unlikely that the record will be broken by another country in the near term.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Pretty much. Letz hope he says something so abysmally stupid that it takes a while to filter down, but does and at that time it will be too late.

      • by Linux Torvalds ( 647197 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:19PM (#64660454)

        He just told a bunch of rubes that if they vote for him this time, they'll never have to vote again. [reuters.com]

        Did the rubes rush the stage and haul him out to a makeshift gibbet in the parking lot, as they should have? No. Did somebody shoot him? No. How about throwing a shoe or two? No. Well, did anyone even speak up? No, of course not.

        They applauded him.

        That's who we're dealing with.

        • I think of the coming election as a referendum on the American people.

          • Sad and true. How the hell did we get here?! Don't get me wrong, I have thought people like George W and Hillary would be terrible for the country... but Trump is a whole different level. The gift of experience?

            • by ItsJustAPseudonym ( 1259172 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @07:18PM (#64660654)
              We got here because of reality TV. The audience for reality TV will eat up any kind of shit, as long as it's salacious, and think it's the best shit ever. The U.S. population has gotten a shorter and shorter memory and shittier critical thinking skills. Then, Trump himself got on reality TV, where he got to pretend to be a business wizard and shit on people each week ("You're Fired!"). Next, this guy who "punches down" at the weak discovered he liked politics, and amassed a throng of followers who like to watch him punch down at the weak. He can't fix squat, but he can sure break things.

              "The emperor has no clothes", metaphorically, but there's no accountability for him, as long as he entertains the crowd.
              • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @10:05PM (#64660904)

                He did politics in the distant past. Didn't even make a blip in the polls. But it's a very long term set of activities by Trump - sticking his nose into politics, self aggrandizing himself in the media, and holding a grudge. For politics, he did the full page ad calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, who were under age, and ultimately turned out to be completely innocent; and he never once offered an apology or admitted he was wrong (only the weak admit their own failings or try to fix them). He has a major grudge against NFL for not allowing him to buy a team, so he turns around and supports the lame XFL.

                Remember back with Bill Clinton was running and in office, and his gadfly Newt kept accusing him of having no character? Where is Trump's character? Why is the party in favor of family values enamored of the man who has no values? Why is the party who champions the cause of law and order backing a guy who has been found guilty, has been under legal scrutiny from even before 2000, who is well known for making shady business deals, who bad mouths law enforcement as crooked and engaging in a witchhunt, and who publicly states he wants to pardon any and all rioters from Jan 6th?

            • Bush was the worst president of the century so far. Hopefully Trump won't have a chance to outdo him, but he hasn't done so far.
            • We got here because this Country votes for who is the most popular ( or the lesser of two evils ) at the time vs the best candidate and most qualified for the job.

              The sad thing is, the most qualified and brilliant people who would make this Country something to be proud of again are smart enough to stay as far away from politics as they possibly can.

              Thus, the job tends to attract those with the biggest ego's and those looking to boost their own wealth and power beyond their current limits.

              • Ok, agree you are right that politics attracts the wrong kind of people: how do you fix it?!

                Personally I actually considered running for state legislature for about 20 seconds this year after being egged on by a friend. There really was just no benefit to doing it and a whole lot of pain. Ironically, with almost no work I stood about a 40% chance of winning, and putting in $100k gave me pretty good odds. I'm just not the right person to represent my area.

          • by haruchai ( 17472 )

            that referendum has been lost twice already, when Trump won the 1st time & again when he came within only about 40k votes across 3 swing states of defeating Biden but stay tuned for the hat trick

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Incredible. If voters are _this_ abysmally stupid, then democracy is doomed. Lets hope these bizarre wastes of oxygen are a small minority only.

        • by clovis ( 4684 )

          Speaking of rubes cheering, how does Trump plan to fire Gary Gensler on day one?
          I'm pretty sure the President lacks the authority to fire SEC board members, and Gensler's term lasts until 2026.

          • Trump lies. Before his first term, I used to ask that question a lot: "how is he going to do that?" The answer is, he didn't. The lesson is that if you're talking to a real estate developer, or corporate salesperson, if it's not in the contract, it's not going to happen.
            • Because if he did everything on day 1 that he promises to do, we'd need a month long first day. It's just silly rhetoric, repeated for the listening audience, sort of like his wedding vows to remain faithful.

        • by Junta ( 36770 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @08:04PM (#64660748)

          Here's the thing, they think that would be a *good* thing to not have to vote, as they think "their guy" is the right choice and it's just so exhausting to have to vote.

          They don't like democracy because the majority can outvote them, and have frequently done so, so they welcome an authoritarian that they at least think agrees with them, for now.

        • Most of the audience are not paying attention and parsing what is being said. They just clap when there's an appropriate pause. They're giddy just to be in the same room as their personal lord and savior.

      • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @09:54PM (#64660888)

        Trump doesn't realize that's he's not actually campaigning effectively. Same as 2016 and 2020, he's preaching to the choir. All those rallies are attended by fans, not by undecided voters. He makes no effort whatsoever to attract undecided voters, or to attempt to sway some disaffected democrats, he campaigns solely to his fans and his donor base, nobody else.

        The only reason he won in 2016 is because Hillary screwed up. He lost in 2020 because people were tired of his nonsense. What has changed in 2024 other than his onset of dementia and an extra 40 lbs?

    • by haruchai ( 17472 )

      the MAGAnuts are so far gone at this point Trump could offer to fuck their wives AND their daughters for a fee & they would sign up

    • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @09:46PM (#64660868)

      These aren't Trump's ideas. Just like his earlier campaigns and administration, he listens to the whispers in his ears from advisors. He's a useful fool for people with motives. Probably these talking points popped up on his teleprompter and he adlibbed. No one can honestly think that Trump understands this stuff?

  • Holy based. If all Ross Ulbricht did was run the Silk Road he shouldn't even be in prison.

  • by Eunomion ( 8640039 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:04PM (#64660414)
    Stop pretending him saying something is news. He doesn't speak English.
  • by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:06PM (#64660416)

    "As you know, most of the bitcoin currently held by the U.S. government was obtained through law enforcement action â" you know that, they took it from you. 'Let's take that guy's life, let's take his family, his house, his bitcoin â" we'll turn it into bitcoin.' It's been taken away from you because that's where we're going now. That's where this country is going. It's a facist regime.

    Does Trump still support civil asset forfeiture?

    • >That's where this country is going. It's a facist regime.

      I assume if he believes that his real issue is that he's not the one running it.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:11PM (#64660432)

      I don't think Trump knows what he supports. But he will give you the lie you ant to hear.

    • "As you know, most of the bitcoin currently held by the U.S. government was obtained through law enforcement action â" you know that, they took it from you. 'Let's take that guy's life, let's take his family, his house, his bitcoin â" we'll turn it into bitcoin.' It's been taken away from you because that's where we're going now. That's where this country is going. It's a facist regime.

      Does Trump still support civil asset forfeiture?

      Dunno, but he sure as hell supports the wasting of taxpayer money on a pump and dump scam.

    • > Does Trump still support civil asset forfeiture?

      It's a good issue for him because the Black Community hates Officer Harris for her abuse of civil asset forfeiture. 65% was against the Black Community on her watch which is more than 3x racist vs. crime stats.

      A recent Jimmy Dore show had an expert on about this.

  • What the...? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:10PM (#64660428) Homepage
    Reading this, my first thought is, the guy's wacky, but on second thought, no, he was just telling the audience what they wanted to hear.
  • insanity (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gouryella ( 4368021 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:34PM (#64660484)

    Listening to him speak att the Bitcoin conference counts in as one of the more bizzare things I've ever done.
    For 50 minutes he ranted on about his opponentes. The bulletpoints in the main post arent really boiled down bulletpoints of what he said; rather, they are more or less the total extent on what he actually really said about bitcoin during those 50 minutes at the Bitcoin conference.
    My brain hurts.
    How can the people that vote for him even stand listening to him going on like this? It is painfully obvious he has no idea at all about what he is talking about. Does all his rally's sound like this?
    What a nightmareish outlook it is if he gets reelected.
    The level of clownery I witnessed, at the bitcoin conference stage, from this man today - is insane.

    • Re:insanity (Score:5, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:48PM (#64660504)

      He's never been coherent, and it's gotten worse in his old age. Here are just a few of his unhinged missives.

      His knowledge of how magents work [imgur.com].

      His whining about Democrats not wanting people to have water [imgur.com].

      His brilliance on electric vehicles and sharks [tumblr.com]. (No, really)

      His praise for Hannibal Lecter [tumblr.com]. (Again, really)

      And finally, his strategic thinking on how to help Ukraine defeat Russia [snopes.com] after saying Putin was a genius [politico.com] for invading.

      • Re:insanity (Score:4, Interesting)

        by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @06:29PM (#64660584)

        He's never been coherent, and it's gotten worse in his old age.

        Nikki Haley was likely right back in January, even though she's recently disavowed it - the first party to ditch their old man will win in November [businessinsider.com].

        I suspected Trump was possibly dealing with early dementia towards the end of his time as president (what goes around comes around, I guess). His inability to stay focused on any given topic is nothing new, though.

        I realize there are a lot of mentally fit 80-year-olds, but I'm beginning to think we need an upper age cutoff to go along with the existing 35-year-old minimum.

        • I realize there are a lot of mentally fit 80-year-olds

          I've had this discussion before and bring up Warren Buffett. 93 years old and still engaged in his multi-billion dollar company. He's not a figurehead who wanders the halls aimlessly. He's right in there making decisions.

          but I'm beginning to think we need an upper age cutoff to go along with the existing 35-year-old minimum.

          Constitutional amendment is the only way because any attempt by Congress to limit the upper age will be shot by the Supreme Court.

          • His long time partner , Charlie Munger, until he passed away, was also there helping to make decisions into his 90s. So it's not so much an age limit there is needed as some sort of competency test for leaders. Of course that has the potential to be manipulated to get rid of people so that needs to be considered.
    • I'm interested to know whether you consider the national bitcoin stockpile to be part of the clownery, or no?

    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      what he actually really said about bitcoin during those 50 minutes

      it is never what a candidate says it in a rally, it's how he/she says it. all present there were fans, they want to see and cheer the man, not reflect about politics or the status quo. there weren't any undecided voters to convince. this is not about convincing, this is about rallying, showing off support, and gathering more support.

      trump often doesn't even produce articulated sentences, if you transcribe them you get syntactically and gramatically incoherent gibberish with catchphrases randomly thrown inbe

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Sounds about normal. I suspect his speechwriters put in a few points relevant to whatever audience he's talking to and just hope he'll mention a couple of them.

      • He did go way off script in his RNC acceptance speech. It caught the media by surprise, because they almost all reported that this was the new mature Trump who wants unity, because they just looked at his prepared speech, wrote up a story about it, and assumed he would follow the speech. But he ditched that part of the speech from his teleprompter after about half an hour and instead improvized on all his own favorite topics (witchhunt, get revenge, all migrants are insane, etc).

        (As for the migrants being

  • by NoMoreDupes ( 8410441 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:35PM (#64660488)

    Clearly Trump's got absolutely no clue what's he's babbling about, as evidenced by his typical verbal diarrhea. He's just pandering to the typical corrupt financiers that want to tilt everything in their favor, leaving everyone else to HODL the bag when it all crashes.

  • by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @05:45PM (#64660502)

    "strategic national bitcoin stockpile"

    Could there possibly be a more stupid concept? What would a "stockpile" of digital resources of no inherent value do for the people?

    How many years of this bozo's stupidity need be on display for the SuperKendall's of the world to see what is plain to the rest of us?

    And yes, Trump supports civil forfeiture, yours. Why would he care? Did the Nazis oppose civil forfeiture?

    • Consider the possibility that he has a large sum of Bitcoin ( or his family, friends do ) and creating a " national bitcoin stockpile " would be a simple way to ensure the value of said coins went up . . . . . . . .

  • so why not the nation on bitcoin,
  • by mendax ( 114116 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @10:37PM (#64660946)

    Nothing in his spouting of nonsense recounted in this article changes my opinion that Donald Trump is an idiot. Pardon Ross Ulbricht? Commute his sentence? He ran an illegal drug marketplace and tried to hire hitmen to kill people. How much human misery is he responsible for? He deserves a long prison sentence. Maybe not life, but a much longer one than time served. And then he wants to create a strategic crypto currency reserve? Crypto currency is pure vapor ware and buying it up would be nothing more than a boondoggle.

  • by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Saturday July 27, 2024 @10:52PM (#64660976)
    At this point anyone supporting Trump is a seditionist and is an enemy of the United States.

    If you don't reference that that every time you talk about Trump you are either on his side or offering him cover.

    Slashdot has a large contingent of users who are in his camp. If you give a damn about supporting the Constitution and the rule of law then the only moral course of actions is to call out Trump's toadies all the time. There is no middle ground.

  • by TheNameOfNick ( 7286618 ) on Sunday July 28, 2024 @01:45AM (#64661078)

    "What if us criminals stop fighting each other and instead band together to make me president so I can pardon all of us and then we raid the public. I'll give you a bag holder for your shit coins too. The richest bag holder you can imagine: the idiots who pay taxes. I'll make the banks lend you money for your next scam too. Just, you know, vote for me so I don't have to go to jail."

  • by chthon ( 580889 ) on Sunday July 28, 2024 @04:19AM (#64661220) Journal

    The only thing I currently see at conservative (global) and Republicans (local) is bullshitting, bullshitting and more bullshitting.

    Somehow, never before in history has there been such a flood of bullshitting.

  • by swm ( 171547 ) <swmcd@world.std.com> on Sunday July 28, 2024 @09:55AM (#64661496) Homepage
    Everything—everything—that Trump proposed in his speech is about making it easier for Trump—and people like Trump—to get their hands in the cookie jar and make off with the goodies.

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