In a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Donald Trump Jr. defended the Trump family’s growing involvement in crypto. He cited financial restraints and political retaliation as core motivators for the pivot. He explained the family’s shift into crypto as a response to being “debanked” after Donald Trump entered politics.
Donald Trump Jr. Reveals Reason for Entering Crypto
“We got into crypto not because it was like, hey, this is the next cool thing. We got into it out of necessity,” Trump Jr. said. He added, “There was a time… I could call any single banker in New York City, they’d pick up the phone… Then we got into politics, and all of a sudden they wouldn’t take your call. You couldn’t get financing. We were debanked.”
In the interview , Trump Jr. discussed the Trump family’s backing of various crypto projects, including American Bitcoin, World Liberty Finance, and the USD1 stablecoin. He framed these efforts as both a form of innovation and a reaction to what he branded as unfair treatment by the traditional banking system.
“We were actually just the top of this sort of pyramid scheme that we didn’t realize we were a part of… Now we were all of a sudden in the shoes of the regular guy that wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the markets,” Trump Jr. added.
TRUMP Memecoin Concerns in Spotlight
On the other hand, amid growing scrutiny over a TRUMP memecoin associated with Donald Trump, Trump Jr. distanced himself from the project. “I wasn’t involved in the meme coin. I’m more focused on obviously the stablecoin, the bitcoin mining, you know, some of those things,” he stated.
Pressed on concerns that the memecoin could enable foreign adversaries to influence U.S. politics financially, Trump Jr. responded by pointing to the decentralized nature of crypto. He suggested this structure makes it difficult to track where involvement or funding is coming from.
He said, “You don’t know who’s actually doing any of these things… It’s hard to influence if you don’t actually know where the stuff’s coming from.” Trump Jr. also argued that crypto adoption could boost the U.S. dollar instead of undermining it.
“Some of the biggest buyers of U.S. treasuries in the world” are stablecoin issuers, Trump Jr. said. He explained, “I think these stablecoins are actually going to be the savior of dollar hegemony in the world, not a detractor from it.” He concluded that the Trump family is now “playing by all the rules” after voluntarily shutting down “hundreds of millions of dollars of business” during the first Trump administration.
