According to David Bailey, it’s never occurred to him that US President Donald Trump changed his position on bitcoin (BTC) because he or his family could personally benefit from crypto.
Speaking to CBS news correspondent Jo Ling Kent, Bailey categorically denied the suggestion that Trump changed his stance on BTC to make money personally.
“No, absolutely not,” said Bailey in a broadcast that aired yesterday morning on nationwide TV.
“I don’t think he embraced this industry to enrich himself,” he repeated. “I think that he just sees the same potential that I see.”
Immediately prior to this answer, on-screen CBS analysis tallied $765 million worth of revenue to crypto ventures controlled by the Trump family since September 2024.
Trump has definitely changed his mind on bitcoin
Trump’s about-face about BTC in 2024 is public knowledge. In 2019, he tweeted unequivocally, “I am not a fan of BTC and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.”
He reiterated his negativity for years, including a 2021 affirmation that BTC still seemed like a “scam.”
By 2024, however, he’d changed his mind for his presidential election campaign. He collected millions of dollars for various dinners, and launched new tokens by the month.
Read more: Donald Trump wants close to 1 bitcoin a photo at Bitcoin 2024
Protos has mapped Trump’s crypto empire that has funneled money to his family from thousands of NFTs, multi-billion dollar memecoins, a top 10 stablecoin, a governance token, and several publicly listed crypto companies.
According to Bailey, in spite of up to $765 million worth of revenue to these ventures, none of this potential for personal profit impacted Trump’s decision to reverse his long held BTC beliefs.
Rather than profit motivating his family, according to Bailey, Trump simply became excited about BTC in 2024. “When you get excited about an idea, you feel compelled to do something about it,” Bailey concluded.