Updated 8/26 below. This article was originally published on August 25
Former US President Donald Trump is preparing for a fierce race for the White House and has already caused massive shockwaves with his radical plan to wipe out America’s spiralling $35 trillion debt.
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Trump, who surprised many with his controversial embrace of bitcoin this year, has said he opposes the U.S. war on cryptocurrency, dubbed Operation Choke Point 2.0.
Now, as fears of a total collapse of the US dollar grow, Trump has said it is time to “take a stand” against Wall Street, backing his sons’ plans for a financial “revolution.”
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Former US President Donald Trump has backed his sons’ efforts to take on Wall Street.
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“For too long, the average American has been crushed by big banks and financial elites. It’s time we take a stand, together,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account, along with a link to a Telegram messaging app group run by his sons Eric and Don Jr. called “The DeFiant Ones,” a reference to the crypto-based concept of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Update 8/26: The Telegram group run by Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. has been renamed World Liberty Financial, along with a link to an X account with the handle @worldlibertyfi. The account is called WLFI, which has sparked widespread speculation on social media that it could also be the name of a future Donald Trump cryptocurrency.
“Is this the new Trump token?” one anonymous account said. request on X.
At least a fraudulent coin called WLFI was launched on the decentralized exchange Uniswap
Uniswap
“Beware of scams and fake tokens claiming to be associated with ‘Defiant Ones,’ ‘World Liberty,’ or similar names,” the Telegram account run by Don Jr. and Eric Trump said. “Do not use these tokens! For your safety, remember that all official information will only be posted here on this channel by our trusted team. If it’s not from us, it’s not real. To stay informed and safe, be sure to follow our official Twitter account! Stay vigilant and protect your investments!”
The official Telegram channel of World Liberty Financial also announced other upcoming updates.
“We’re gearing up for major announcements and exciting updates,” the post reads. “Join us in transforming decentralized finance forever. You won’t want to miss what’s coming next!”
DeFi, as well as the broader web3, is premised on the idea that internet-based digital services are too centralized around a handful of powerful Wall Street and Silicon Valley firms and could be improved by moving them to protocol-based, crypto-powered alternatives.
Following Trump’s post, a message appeared on the Telegram group, which has 43,000 members, lambasting “the way rogue banks and financial institutions are manipulating the system against ordinary Americans.”
“They are shutting people out, denying them loans, drowning them in paperwork, and killing them with legal and processing fees,” the message, attributed to Donald Trump Jr., read, claiming that the Trump family has been “debanked, deplatformed, and every political game imaginable has been played against us.”
The message recalls comments made by Eric Trump at the The New York Post earlier this month, in which he claimed that “more than half the country currently does not have a bank account.”
The banking and financial sector has become politicized in recent years, particularly with trucker protests in Canada against mandatory Covid vaccinations, which led Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to freeze the protesters’ bank accounts. Meanwhile, British politician Nigel Farage has claimed that his bank account was closed in part because his political views were deemed “at odds” with the bank.
“These banks and the elites who run them want absolute control, but that ends now,” reads the post from the DeFiant Ones group attributed to Don Jr.
“We are making finance great again by giving you the power back. This new DeFi platform will eliminate corrupt, costly, and inefficient middlemen. No more bureaucrats deciding your fate. It’s time to modernize an unfair and outdated system and give everyone the same opportunities that the elites have hoarded. Join us and let’s make finance work for the people again.”
Further details of Trump’s crypto project, such as the launch date, website address, and even its name are not yet known, although it is expected to be a crypto platform similar to a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Binance that could also serve as an alternative to a bank account.
Earlier this month, Trump brothers Eric and Don Jr. denied rumors that they were launching their own cryptocurrency to rival bitcoin, calling their project “the future of finance.”
