Donald Trump Calls Crypto ‘Dangerous’ Even as Melania Launches NFT

Former United States President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of cryptocurrency in an interview on Fox Business this week, calling it a “very dangerous thing.”

Curiously, his comments come just days after his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, launched her first NFT, a cryptographic token that represents ownership of digital artwork. Melania's NFT is on the Solana blockchain and can only currently be purchased with SOL cryptocurrency.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked the former President about his wife’s NFT initiative, to which he responded, “She’s gonna do great. She’s got a great imagination.” He was then asked for his broader viewpoint on cryptocurrency.

“I never loved it because I like to have the dollar,” Trump replied. “I was never a big fan, but it’s building up bigger and bigger and nobody’s doing anything about it. I want our currency called the dollar.”

“I don’t want all of these others, and that could be an explosion someday the likes of which we’ve never seen,” Trump continued, referring to the rise of cryptocurrency. “It’ll make the big tech explosion look like baby stuff. I think it’s a very dangerous thing.”

Trump first shared his views on cryptocurrency while president in July 2019, tweeting, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

Earlier this year, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told Decrypt that he believed that Trump did not personally write that tweet. Scaramucci suggested that the tweet was likely crafted for Trump by advisors who believed that he should take a stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The tweet is no longer online following Trump’s ban from the social media platform in January.

However, Trump has renewed his criticism of Bitcoin in 2021. In June, he told Fox Business host Stuart Varney that the leading cryptocurrency “just seems like a scam.”

Melania Trump released her first NFT collectible last week: a piece of digital artwork called “Melania’s Vision” that sells for 1 SOL, or about $182 as of this writing. Further NFT drops are planned, and an unspecified amount will purportedly be donated to “assist children aging out of the foster care system,” per her official announcement.

The former first lady’s NFT was minted on Solana, a public and permissionless blockchain platform that anyone can build on. However, after her announcement, a representative for Solana Labs—the original core team behind the platform—quickly reached out to crypto media to clarify that it was not directly involved in Trump’s project.

“I wanted to inform you, to avoid any confusion, that her choice to use the Solana blockchain was completely organic, and this project is not part of any Solana-led initiative,” the representative told Decrypt in a statement.

MoonPay, which Melania Trump claimed would handle future credit card payments for her NFT project, also pushed back, tweeting that it “has no official role in the effort.”

“While we encourage everyone to be involved in Web 3.0, we would like to clarify that we are not partnered with Melania, nor can users purchase her collection using this payment method,” MoonPay tweeted in reply to several Twitter users.