WASHINGTON: Donald Trump, once a cryptocurrency skeptic, vowed Saturday to be a “pro-bitcoin president” if elected in November, as the Republican nominee sought backing from an industry irked by US regulations.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto and bitcoin is wrong, and it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said to cheers at a conference in Tennessee.
The ex-president likened cryptocurrencies to the growth of the “steel industry of 100 years ago,” and said “Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty and independence from government coercion and control.”
Trump said if he was in the White House, he would not allow the US government to sell its bitcoin holdings.
“This will serve in effect as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” Trump said.
The proposal was more limited than one offered the day before by longshot third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said he would seek to build a stockpile of 4 million bitcoin.
“If we don’t embrace crypto and bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will, they’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate,” Trump said Saturday.
“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA.”
Acknowledging the price of electricity as a key factor in where cryptocurrency mining operations are located, Trump vowed to make US energy the cheapest “of any nation on Earth” by increasing fossil fuel production and through nuclear energy.
“We’ll be doing it in an environmentally friendly way, but we will be creating so much electricity that you’ll be saying, ‘please, please, Mr. President, we don’t want any more electricity.’“
He said on his first day in office, he would fire Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a frequent target of cryptocurrency industry outrage over his cautiously slow approach to implementing regulations.
The crowd roared with approval at the proposal, prompting Trump to joke: “I didn’t know he was that unpopular.”
“Let me say it again. On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler!” he said, with the crowd erupting again.
He also targeted Vice President Kamala Harris, who is set to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket following the 81-year-old president’s shock exit from the campaign.
“We have to fight and we have to win, and I pledge to the bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over, it will end, it’ll be done,” Trump told the crowd.
“You’re going to be very happy with me.”
Trump courts crypto vote with ‘pro-bitcoin president’ vow
https://arab.news/43hh4
Trump courts crypto vote with ‘pro-bitcoin president’ vow
- Says the "Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto and bitcoin is wrong, and it’s very bad for our country”
- Adds that the US needs to "embrace crypto and bitcoin technology" before China amd other countries do
Heavy shelling, explosions spark fear along Pakistan-Afghanistan border
- Residents fear for their safety amid border clashes
- 1,500 Afghan families displaced due to heavy shelling and explosions
- Pakistan denies targeting civilians, says its strikes focus on militants
LAL PUR, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan: People living along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan said they were considering fleeing their homes because of heavy shelling and explosions as fighting between troops from both sides entered a seventh day on Wednesday.
The South Asian allies-turned-foes have engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani airstrikes on major Afghan cities last week, increasing volatility in a region also on edge over US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Taliban government, are aimed at ending Afghan support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
SHELLING STARTS AS VILLAGERS ARE BREAKING RAMADAN FAST
Residents of towns and villages in Pakistan’s northwest said fighting between border forces starts in the evenings, placing their homes in the line of fire, often at sunset when families are breaking their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
“There is complete silence in the day, but the moment we sit for iftar dinner, the two sides start shelling,” Farid Khan Shinwari from Landi Kotal, a town near the Torkham border crossing, told Reuters.
“We open our fast in extremely difficult situations, as you never know when a shell can hit your house.”
Residents in the town and nearby villages said there had been heavy shelling and some explosions heard in the past few days, prompting many to flee their homes.
On the other side of the border, Afghans shared similar stories of skirmishes and families fleeing their homes.
Hundreds had been displaced to an open dirt field under makeshift tents, while others had no shelter at all. Officials say around 1,500 families have fled their homes.
Fighting along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border has ebbed and flowed over the week-long conflict, with both sides saying they have inflicted heavy losses on the other country and gained ground in the fighting.
Reuters has been unable to verify these accounts.
TURKEY HAS OFFERED TO MEDIATE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Ankara would help reinstate a ceasefire, the Turkish Presidency said on Tuesday, as other countries that had offered to mediate have since been hit by the conflict in the Gulf.
On Wednesday, both countries reported exchanges of heavy fire, with Afghanistan’s defense ministry saying Taliban forces shot down a Pakistani drone and captured seven border posts.
A spokesperson for the ministry said 110 civilians, including 65 women and children, had been killed since the fighting began and another 123 were wounded. The United Nations mission for Afghanistan has listed 42 deaths so far.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed both figures, saying: “Pakistan exercises great care in only targeting terrorists and support infrastructure. No civilian structures have been targeted.”
On Saturday, Pakistan struck “ammunition and critical equipment” at the Bagram air base north of Kabul, Tarar said, a key American command center through the 20-year Afghan war.
