Former President Donald Trump says he could use crypto to pay off the US government’s $35 trillion national debt.
The Republican nominee for president brought up the idea in a recent interview on Fox Business, though he didn’t elaborate on how.
“Who knows, maybe we’ll pay off our $35 trillion [debt], hand ’em a little crypto check, right? We’ll hand ’em a little Bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion.”
Trump also says the US “might as well be at the forefront” of the crypto sector, which he says is “intellectually very high level.”
While speaking at the Bitcoin2024 Conference last weekend, the former president said that if he’s elected again, he would stop the government from selling off its seized BTC on the open market and would instead strategically hold the asset as an investment.
In a bid to raise campaign funds and differentiate himself from President Joe Biden, Trump has attempted to stake out a position as a crypto-friendly candidate this year, though he previously described digital assets as “a disaster waiting to happen.”
In May 2018, while serving in the Oval Office, he also reportedly directed then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin [for fraud].”
Generated Image: Midjourney