People aren't allowed to change their minds?

I've been against crypto in the past, and now I'm for it. Overtime I've gained a better understanding of FIAT and crypto, and it's affected my opinion. I'm guessing with Trump it's more to do with wanting to please the tech industry, but that's how politics work.

Crypto is a very easy way to funnel bribes to the sitting president, who has immunity for actions taken in regards to "official actions".

> Hey, I bought $1,000,000,000 $TRUMP coin, can you ease up on $RegulationImpactingMe?

> Regulations are official actions, so sure I can take a look-see.

> Crypto is a very easy way to funnel bribes

Interesting... are you able to expand on this? My understanding is that the $TRUMP coin runs on Solana, which similar to Bitcoin runs on a public ledger and therefore offers limited anonymization (basically none).

It doesn't matter if it's anonymous. What's important is buying $TRUMP is a tax-free method with plausible deniability to increase Donald Trump's net worth.

Anyone is free to make an "investment," there is no disclosure requirement, and an accusation of bribery (even if one could be made legally against a sitting president, which SCOTUS tells us it cannot) would require a provable quid-pro-quo.

trading crypto isnt tax free if it isnt in tax deferred or tax exempt entity

and when transferred in a way that would otherwise require a disclosure to a politician or campaign, the crypto asset and transaction would also require a disclosure

if there are other benefits that the crypto world is superior at, then thanks for describing a use case and value proposition relevant on a geopolitical scale to the largest nations on the planet. a lot of people here cant imagine any because they arent the target audience

I don't think the idea is to buy crypto locally, and then donate the crypto to Trump. The purchase is the donation. You just wake up one day and decide to purchase some shitcoin. The seller happens to be Trump. He walks away with your USD, and you can keep what you bought or just throw it away.

Thank you, you expressed this more clearly than I did.

I mean, isn't this the same as donating to Trump?

> I mean, isn't this the same as donating to Trump?

Not in a legal sense. In the US, donations to politicians and campaigns are tightly regulated. Foreign entities aren't allowed to donate. Donations have to be reported, are subject to limitations, etc.

In crypto, none of that applies. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can invest essentially unlimited funds into a memecoin. It's not technically a donation because you're buying something, and it's not technically going to Trump, because you're buying from some pseudonymous entity on the blockchain. Nevertheless, the money goes to Trump. It's an ideal venue for laundering bribes.

Good point, though lobbying groups are often endorsing and donating to candidates and are backed by sentiment in other regimes like AIPAC. I guess $TRUMP is just creating another backdoor around foreign donation regulations.

In the US, lobbyists representing foreign interests must register as such. Failure to register is a crime: that's what Michael Flynn was convicted of, before Trump pardoned him.

In contrast, any foreign party can purchase $TRUMP.

> trading crypto isnt tax free if it isnt in tax deferred or tax exempt entity

Sure, good luck enforcing that. Although crypto isn't anonymous, it is pseudonymous. In any case, you aren't subject to the same taxes as a traditional gift about $20000 and you aren't subject to the same regulation as campaign contributions.

> and when transferred in a way that would otherwise require a disclosure to a politician or campaign, the crypto asset and transaction would also require a disclosure

That's the beauty of the grift. "Investing in $TRUMP" isn't a transfer to a politician or a campaign: it's a purchase of a memecoin on a public blockchain. It's a way to give money to Trump without meeting the legal definition of "giving money to Trump."

> if there are other benefits that the crypto world is superior at, then thanks for describing a use case and value proposition relevant on a geopolitical scale to the largest nations on the planet. a lot of people here cant imagine any because they arent the target audience

I don't know what you're trying to say here. I think I just explained a pretty use case for crypto as a means to buy political favor. Other benefits of crypto include: (a) purchasing illegal goods, (b) defrauding naive consumers.

the hotels were functioning that way through the entire administration last time

and the $DJT stock is already doing this as well

What you’re pointing out is just not a unique aspect of crypto or that interesting in the Trump portfolio of “things vulnerable to being used as kickbacks in a currently legal way”

> the hotels were functioning that way through the entire administration last time

Sure, but it's a matter of scale. It's difficult to rent a billion dollars worth of hotel rooms.

> and the $DJT stock is already doing this as well

Yep, that's another scam.

> What you’re pointing out is just not a unique aspect of crypto

Yes and no. Crypto offers a uniquely unregulated and perhaps unregulatable means for malfeasance. NASDAQ tickers are tame in comparison.

Fwiw, the moral of the story is not "all crypto is evil" but rather "crypto should be regulated like any other instrument in order to prevent fraud" and perhaps as a corollary "sitting presidents shouldn't be issuing their own meme coin."

Absolutely. How dare he be so innovative in his bribes. He should have gone the respected route and started a foundation.

A foundation? Kamala got a $20 million "book deal". Obama took the Clinton method to ridiculous extremes getting paid $400k for 30 minute chats of minimal content, repeatedly.

Was that book deal paid by anonymous foreign actors in untraceable crypto currency? No?

> People aren't allowed to change their minds?

Sure they are, but they should explain why they changed their minds. In the case of meme coins like $TRUMP, it's hard to defend crypto as an investment or as a currency, which leaves the obvious reason: it's a scam.

In the case of Trump, I'm sure he was all for crypto as soon as he realized that he personally could make money from it. Same goes for his NFT grift.

not sure why people still try to understand Trump after all these years him being a public figure. he does absolutely NOTHING and EVER which does not help his bottom line and benefit him personally. he’ll fucking steal money from a children’s charity which is about as low as humans go - the lowest scum of the earth to make a penny. hence him “changing his mind” (he was a democrat and was sucking clinton’s dicks for decades) has nothing to do with me and you changing our minds based on something we learned - for him there is a single thought - how can I profit from it.

Don't attempt to anthropomorphize Donald Trump. He's more like a lawn mower with daddy issues.

he’ll leave office as world’s first trillionaire so pretty expensive lawn mower

Ah yes, the Robert Mugabe school of economics, a surefire way to create a nation of billionaires.