In a wide-ranging appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” marking his first 100 days as the 47th president, Donald Trump carved out several minutes for the subject of crypto assets.
Asked by moderator Kristen Welker about the sudden price appreciation of a “Trump-branded cryptocurrency whose top holders will be invited to dinner,” the president first professed ignorance of the market move—“I don’t even know […] what did it surge to?”
‘Crypto Is Hot’
He then pivoted to a full-throated endorsement of the technology driving it. “I’m in favor of crypto. […] I think crypto is important because if we don’t do it, China is going to, and it’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot,” he said, underscoring a geopolitical rationale that framed digital assets as a front in the broader US–China tensions.
Trump portrayed the resilience of cryptocurrencies as evidence of their value proposition, noting that “when the market went down, [crypto] stayed much stronger than other aspects of the market.” He repeatedly returned to the theme of popular demand, emphasizing that “millions of people want it,” and contended that critics within the Biden administration had softened their stance once they “wanted to get their votes.”
He highlighted that former president Joe Biden “went after it violently and then […] changed his tune entirely,” while “his head of the SEC, everybody changed their tune” during the 2024 campaign season.
Pressed on whether he is personally profiting from the token that bears his name, Trump rejected the suggestion: “I’m not profiting from anything. […] All I’m doing is—you know this—I started this long before the election.” He added that he had “not even looked” at how the instrument has performed.
The president argued that any incidental increase in his net worth would be no different from the way conventional equities respond to White House policy, remarking, “If I own stock in something and I do a good job and the stock market goes up, I guess I’m profiting.” By way of contrast, he cited former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as someone who “uses inside information” to trade—an assertion he has levied since the 2022 mid-term cycle.
Trump’s remarks place digital assets squarely inside his broader America-first economic agenda. Just as tariffs are described as an “incentive for people to come into the United States and build,” cryptocurrency, in his view, is a field Washington must dominate lest Beijing set the rules.
Trump likewise offered no details on how dinner invitations for large token holders would be administered or vetted for conflicts of interest, a matter likely to draw ethics scrutiny as the project matures. “I want crypto,” Trump concluded. “Because a lot of people—millions of people—want it.”
At press time, the TRUMP coin traded at $11.20.
