Investment bank TD Cowen noted that President Donald Trump did not mention cryptocurrency in his Congress speech on Tuesday night, despite his recent comments on the industry.
According to TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group, led by Jaret Seiberg, this omission indicates that crypto is not a personal priority for Trump. “If it was a personal priority, then it would have been in the speech,” Seiberg wrote in a note on Wednesday.
Trump sidelines crypto in speech, signaling political strategy or low priority
The exclusion particularly stood out since Trump had referenced crypto in prior speeches and on social media just days before the Congress address, according to Seiberg. He views the exclusion as “more substantive” than Trump’s silence on other topics like housing and banking, given that the president does have a crypto strategy.
Seiberg highlighted a political rationale for Trump’s omission of crypto in the speech, noting that congressional Republicans seek Democratic support for stablecoin legislation in the coming months. Trump’s involvement could complicate that effort.
However, he also proposed a more nuanced reason — Trump does not view crypto as a central issue in his broader political agenda. “Trump talks up crypto when he is before crypto investors. Yet we continue to believe this is not a personal priority,” Seiberg said.
Generally, Trump’s speech was “long on showmanship and short on substance for even a Donald Trump address,” according to Seiberg. “As many commentators noted last night, the address more resembled a campaign rally speech than a State of the Union speech.”
The White House is set to hold its first Crypto Summit on Friday, led by Trump’s crypto czar, David Sacks. Industry leaders such as Michael Saylor and Brian Armstrong are expected to attend, with reports suggesting the event may reveal details about a U.S. crypto reserve.
Crypto prices rally after Trump backs five coins for ‘Crypto reserve
The president’s address, spanning a record 99 minutes, served as a defiant sales pitch for the policies Trump championed during his campaign and doubled down on in his first weeks back in office.
He vowed to continue enacting sweeping changes to rescue the nation from what he described as his predecessor’s destruction and missteps. Throughout the speech, he rarely addressed the American people directly, who are grappling with recent upheavals, while repeatedly taking jabs at the Democratic lawmakers seated before him.
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who delivered the Democratic response after Trump’s speech, said, “America wants change, but there’s a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy.”
Though Trump did not mention cryptocurrency in his Congressional speech on Tuesday night, he recently revealed the names of five cryptocurrencies that he says he’d like to be included in a new strategic reserve to make the US “the Crypto Capital of the World.“
The market prices of the five coins he named – Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano – swiftly jumped after the announcement.
During Trump’s presidential campaign, he aggressively courted the crypto community. The previous US president, Joe Biden, had overseen a crypto crackdown due to fraud and money laundering concerns.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/trump-omits-crypto-in-congress-speech/