Donald Trump Is the Latest Republican to Use CBDCs as a Dog Whistle

Trump joins many other leading Republicans in coming out against a CBDC. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who came second to Trump in Iowa, was the first major candidate to speak out in opposition. Vivek Ramaswamy, a Bitcoin advocate, has said “hell no” to one. Tom Emmer, the House Whip, introduced a bill in Congress to ban a U.S. CBDC. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas did something similar in the upper chamber. North Carolina’s House of Representatives passed a bill to outlaw a so-called “digital dollar” there.

Trump’s opposition to a CBDC may be prompted by Ramaswamy’s endorsement of his candidacy following the latter’s poor showing in Iowa. But, Trump’s opposition to a CBDC is a little curious, given everything else happening in the U.S. and the world at the moment. The Federal Reserve currently has no actual plans for a CBDC. The most any U.S. official has said in support is to say the United States should be investigating and testing the idea. Trump is dismissing a government policy that isn’t currently a government policy and doesn’t look like becoming a policy any time soon.

In fact, he nodded to this strange reality in the speech, acknowledging that many in the audience might not know much about CBDCs, one of the more arcane and slow-moving innovation areas of the digital currency landscape.

“I didn’t know you knew so much,” Trump said as the crowd cheered. “New Hampshire – very smart people. Very current. You know what they are doing.” “They” being the federal government.