As Trump Suggests Crypto as a Fix to U.S. Debt, Harris Camp Highlights His Remarks

Former President Donald Trump defended the benefits of the US government getting on board with crypto on Friday (text below).

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team criticized Trump’s comments about Bitcoin, particularly the part where he called the token a potential savior for the country’s debt.

While Harris’ candidacy for the White House is still in its early stages, a policy view on cryptocurrencies has yet to be put forth.

Former President Donald Trump heaped praise on the crypto industry’s “very, very smart people” in an interview published Friday and suggested that U.S. adoption of Bitcoin {{BTC}} could help reduce the $35 trillion U.S. national debt.

“Who knows? Maybe we’ll pay off our $35 trillion, give them a little crypto check, right?” Trump suggested in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “We’ll give them a little bitcoin, and we’ll wipe out our $35 trillion.”

While Vice President Kamala Harris, his expected Democratic opponent in the presidential race, has yet to make a policy statement on her own views on cryptocurrency, she appeared to slam Trump’s views by posting his comments on one of her campaign accounts called “quick response” campaign X.

While many of Trump’s statements implied that his primary interest was the U.S.’ competitive position with China, he also referenced President Joe Biden’s administration and its cryptocurrency stance.

“Biden is trying to shut this down — Biden doesn’t have the intelligence to shut this down,” Trump said. “Can you imagine this guy telling you to shut something down like this? He has no idea what it is. But if we don’t embrace it, it will be embraced by others.”

So far, the former president has received overwhelming support from prominent crypto advocates, and there are signs that some in the industry are also considering backing Harris, but they’re eager to hear what she thinks.

Below is a transcript of Trump’s responses to Bartiromo’s questions about cryptocurrencies:

Donald Trump: “Crypto is a very interesting thing. It’s very high-level in some ways, very high-level intellectually. But if we don’t do it, China will. China will still do it. But if we don’t do it, China will do it. China is already doing it, and if we don’t do it, other countries will. So we need to be at the forefront. And there are very, very smart people in crypto who love our country and they think it’s good. Who knows? Maybe we’ll pay out our $35 trillion, give them a little crypto check, right? We’ll give them a little bitcoin and we’ll make our $35 trillion disappear.” …

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“It’s already evident. It’s moving forward. It’s very loosely regulated. That’s one of the reasons it’s moving forward. But it’s a different form of currency, and it’s going to benefit the country in the end. But if we shut it down, you know, Biden is trying to shut it down — Biden doesn’t have the smarts to shut it down. Can you imagine this guy telling you to shut something down like that? He doesn’t know what it is. But if we don’t adopt it, it’s going to be adopted by others. You know, it’s already very big. If you look at the market, have you read that it’s bigger than any company in the world? It’s bigger than most countries. It’s very big. If we’re not going to be the leader — we have people who are. I know some of them. They’re very smart. And if we don’t adopt it, other countries will adopt it. Other countries are, but we can be the leader. We can be the leader.”

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