Donald Trump Wanted Treasury Secretary to “Go After Bitcoin”
Donald Trump Told Treasury Secretary to “Go After Bitcoin”
U.S President Donald Trump wanted to move his apparent dislike of Bitcoin beyond Twitter and on to the regulatory level, according to former national security advisor John Bolton.
A June 18 article in Forbes about Bolton’s new book “The Room Where It Happened” states that Bolton heard Trump tell Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin”. The conversation between Trump and Mnuchin was covering trade sanctions and tariffs against China in May 2018.
It’s not the first time Trump expressed a distaste towards the cryptocurrency. He went on a Twitter tirade in July 2019, calling Bitcoin (BTC) “not money” and “based on thin air”. He continued by bashing Facebook’s Libra token as having “little standing or dependability”.
Supporting Trump
The Treasury Secretary supported Donald Trump’s stance in the media following the July 2019 tweets, saying the White House was “looking at all of the crypto assets” and then claiming that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used for money laundering more often than cash is.
In February this year, Mnuchin said at a hearing that he is going to announce some “significant new requirements” for cryptocurrencies within the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, alluding to more oversight by the federal government to prevent money laundering.
Mercurial
But the mercurial Donald Trump has also taken some decisions that may have been beneficial for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after the conversation alleged by Bolton happened. The U.S. President appointed Mick Mulvaney as the White House chief of staff in October 2018. Mulvaney is pro-Bitcoin and has described BTC as a currency that’s “not manipulatable by any government”.
