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Former President Trump has big plans for the vast federal regulatory infrastructure, like blowing it up (figuratively speaking).
That’s the word from Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman from Florida and ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, who spoke at the crypto venture capital firm’s investor day Wednesday BlockTower.
Donalds revealed he shared a plane flight Tuesday night from Atlanta to Florida with the former president who is vying to become the next president. Donalds said the two discussed how to dismantle what he described as the regulatory “gridlock” that businesses such as the $2 trillion crypto industry face from the president Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in November.
“In short, President Trump is ready to clean house,” Donalds told an intimate group of crypto investors gathered at the Perez Art Museum in Miami. “And it’s not just a household, and you don’t know what you’re going to do. There’s actually a systematic process for recruiting qualified people, who have worked in our industries over time in the States -United.”
Donalds lambasted Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, one of the main figures behind the agency’s crackdown on digital assets and often described as the crypto industry’s nemesis. Trump has pledged to fire Gensler on day one if elected.
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“This man thinks he’s smarter than everyone in the room collectively,” Donalds said. “This is, in my opinion, the height of arrogance that one cannot have in a chief regulator.”
An SEC spokesperson told FOX Business: “The reforms adopted by the SEC under Chairman Gensler’s leadership will improve efficiency, competition and investor protections in the U.S. capital markets. returned billions to wronged investors.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee during an oversight hearing at the Capitol in Washington, DC, September 15, 2022. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters Photos)
Donalds, himself a former banker before running for office, said he plans to tell Trump that the crypto industry needs a so-called “regulatory sandbox,” or a regime in which startups and companies in new, currently unregulated sectors are allowed to test. their products and services in a controlled environment, without the burden of regulation.
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“This industry is going to evolve very quickly over the next five years, and what we already know is that the regulatory agencies in Washington are not nimble enough… they don’t have the experience and knowledge of this that’s happening in this industry right now on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis,” he said. “Industry players need to ensure that the rules are clear.”
Former President Trump visits a cryptocurrency-themed bar called Pubkey in the West Village in New York on September 18. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/Getty Images)
As FOX Business previously reported, Trump has aggressively courted the crypto industry for votes, promising a lighter regulatory regime if elected. The reason: Some 50 million Americans interact with crypto, with some considering themselves “single-issue voters” who will vote for a candidate almost solely based on their preference for crypto.
With that, Trump’s crypto turnaround (he once called Bitcoin a scam) has rapidly intensified over the past year. Trump’s embrace of the industry, coupled with GOP support, has turned crypto into an unexpected political football, forcing Harris to launch her own efforts to court the crypto faithful.
Donalds said Democrats’ embrace of cryptocurrencies cannot be trusted and Democratic Party leaders like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is not serious about creating an environment in which crypto can thrive. They have all largely supported the regulatory regime of the Biden administration and the Gensler SEC.
“They don’t want to have a financial environment in the United States where they don’t have direct control and oversight,” he said.
From left: Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt. ; and former Vice President Joe Biden participate in a debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina on February 25, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In a potentially controversial exchange, an audience member interrupted the panel to tell Donalds he didn’t care to hear his political views and said he came to the event to learn, not to be inundated with politics.
Donalds said: “I appreciated your comment” and calmly stated that the two main political parties have two very different views on regulation, due to the fact that regulators are appointed by politicians and can use their authority differently based on the views of their own party. .
He added that politics aside, a federal regulator’s job should be to carry out the mission given to it by Congress.
Donalds said the result has been that regulators have blocked access to sectors such as cryptocurrencies by pressuring banks to do limited business with a sector they deem too risky to become. a leading player in the financial system.
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“Everyone wants to do business here, but not in a regulatory environment like the Biden administration, I might add, which is a continuation of the Obama administration. These are all-powerful busy people who think that they know better than all of you,” he said. said.
