Former President Donald Trump has gone full Bitcoin bull. In a stunning reversal, one of Bitcoin’s key adversaries, who once dismissed Bitcoin as a scam, is now leading the charge for the Bitcoin industry in American politics.
Just three years ago, in June 2021, Trump said he thinks Bitcoin seems like a scam.
To the surprise of the Bitcoin community, he now has made an about-face. Trump Bitcoin pivot kicked off with a bang when he announced his campaign would accept bitcoin donations.
But that was just the beginning. A few weeks later, he met with Bitcoin mining industry’s executives, courted bitcoin whales at a $12 million fundraiser, and even committed to speak at Bitcoin 2024, the industry’s leading event.
So, what’s behind this dramatic U-turn? Is it a genuine conversion or just political campaigning? From a meme-technical analysis, it’s a match made in heaven, Orange man pumping orange coin.
Some Twitter users like Nolan are hoping for the Orange Coin + Orange Man marriage:
“The magic will be when he starts spreading Bitcoin memes. Imagine ‘Don’t Trust, Verify’ in his hands with election integrity? Devastating to Fiat.”
For the most part, commenters online see it as Trump’s way of tapping into the tech-savvy, libertarian-leaning Bitcoin crowd — a demographic that has become more powerful and influential.
Others speculate it’s about more than votes; it’s about cold, hard cash. Or better, cold hard orange coin.
With Bitcoin’s market cap hovering around $1 trillion, and about 10-50 million bitcoin holders in the U.S., that’s a lot of potential campaign contributions he could capture.
Seemingly, Trump’s Bitcoin bromance isn’t just about filling campaign coffers.
He’s positioning himself as a champion for the industry, vowing to support Bitcoin mining both domestically and globally. His talking points could be straight out of the Bitcoin Maxi’s meme warfare handbook:
“I will ensure that the future of Bitcoin and crypto will remain in the USA. I will support the right to self-custody. I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin. I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.”
Meanwhile the Republican Party Platform has included similar language:
“Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and unAmerican crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a CBDC. We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin, and ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets, and transact free from government surveillance and control.”
But will Trump treat s***coins equally as Bitcoin? The conservative strategy would be to position himself on the side of Bitcoin only and not favor scam altcoin projects. The fact that Trump has sold NFTs and his son Barron launched a DJT meme coin isn’t a sign of hope in that regard.
“Trump doesn’t care about bitcoin, he just wants the votes.” argues Joe Burnett of Unchained Capital. He explains: “Hold dollars, and you look up to politicians. Hold bitcoin, and politicians look up to you.“
In his view, holding dollars implies dependence on politicians, whereas holding bitcoin positions individuals as influential and leaders in financial autonomy.
Throughout his political career, Trump has portrayed himself as an outsider challenging the establishment. Bitcoin would fit perfectly into that image.
Trump has also tried to claim he successfully fought inflation. If he would embrace Bitcoin, he could go one level further and explain how deflation and sound money can heal the economy.
But ultimately he’s far away from being a Libertarian president like Argentina’s Javier Milei. Trump’s Bitcoin embrace is not something Bitcoiners are looking forward to.
Twitter user Fadi Barbàra, Blockchain Researcher at University of Turin thinks Bitcoin should stay above politics. Fadi stated:
“Glad to see someone who feels the same way: I don’t think Bitcoin becoming political is good for the project. Bitcoin should stay above politics. If a country wants to use BTC as currency, that’s great, but let’s not turn politicians into heroes or idols.”
Paul Puey, former Nvidia employee and founder of Edge Wallet even calls Trump the antithesis of Bitcoin:
“Trump is the antithesis of Bitcoin. He says what we want to hear to get our vote but believes in NONE of our ideals, and will execute on none of the promises post election. Just like he did in his previous term.”
Marty Bent of Ten31 warns:
“Don’t get too pumped about Trump speaking at this year’s @TheBitcoinConf, there are forces in motion that could severely impact the bitcoin industry if people don’t begin to make noise.“
David Noriega sees it all as a huge waste of time:
“I frankly see it as a waste of time. Trump is an opportunist and he will forget about bitcoin as soon as he is elected. There is just no way the US government will ever seriously consider Bitcoin as it undermines its control of the monetary system to its core.”
Whether Trump’s recent turnaround is a genuine change of heart or a calculated political move, it’s clear that Bitcoin is becoming increasingly important. While the idea that Trump could become a Bitcoin maximalist is genuinely beautiful, the likelihood of it happening is probably low.
