Former national security advisor John Bolton revealed that Trump wanted regulations in place against Bitcoin. Trump has been vocal before on twitter about his disapproval of Bitcoin, wanting regulators to stop or slow down crypto’s disruption of the financial sector.
Bolton’s New Book
Bolton’s expose is detailed in his new book ‘The Room Where It Happened’, a book that some reports have alleged; Trump tried to stop from being released. In the book, Bolton gives an account of how Trump told Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin”, in an exchange that was about trade tariffs between the U.S and China in May 2018. Bitcoin has not been the only project on the receiving end of Trump’s tantrums, he also went off on Facebook Libra last year regarding it as having “little standing or dependability”.
Back in July 2019, Secretary Mnuchin backed the president’s position in the media after his less than flattering tweets; saying that the white house was “looking at all of the crypto assets”. His statement later said that the view from the white house was that BTC and other crypto-currencies were used for money laundering more often than cash. As a follow-up, Mnuchin announced the formulation of some significant new requirements back in February this year. The new requirements would be enforced with the input of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which meant more oversight by the federal government to prevent money laundering.
Odd Pro-crypto Appointments
Despite his anti-crypto antics, President Trump has made some appointments since the alleged conversation by Bolton that have been seen as pro-Bitcoin. The U.S president appointed Mick Mulvaney as the White House chief of staff in October 2018, who happens to be a crypto enthusiast. Mick is known for once being quoted as saying that Bitcoin was not “manipulatable by any government”. More recently, Trump extended the term of ‘crypto mum’ Hester Peirce, at the SEC in a move that was seen as weirdly pro-crypto as well.
Image Courtesy of NavyTimes
