Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon disagrees with President Trump on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. While Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have harshly criticized cryptocurrencies and are pushing the narrative that they are tools for human trafficking and money laundering, Bannon says the emerging digital currencies “have a big future.”
Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News argues that China and third world countries are changing the playing field and that they’ll use cryptocurrencies to escape US dollar domination.
Responding to host Joe Kernen about his crypto holdings, Bannon remarked,
“I would like to say I had enough foresight and enough courage to buy [Bitcoin] as it went all the way down.
I think cryptocurrencies have a big future, I really do. I think they could be a very important part, going forward, particularly in this global populist revolt.”
Steve Bannon on $FB #Libra: People have to confront how China and third world countries are starting to put payment systems in place that are going to try to give them global dominance and be able to get off the reserve currency of the dollar. pic.twitter.com/vkCX1ysv3N
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 2, 2019
Regarding Trump’s China trade strategies and yesterday’s announcement that the US will impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion in goods from China, starting in September, Bannon says the President will not back down.
“I think yesterday was a very important day in American economic history because on September 1st, we’re going to cross an important psychological barrier. Every good that comes into the United States from China is going to have a tariff on it. I think Trump’s given the Chinese Communist Party enough time to respond to this fundamental restructuring of their economy…
This is the defining event of our time. And the relationship between China and the United States is going to set the framework for how we go forward as a world economy for the next 25, 30, 40, 50 years…
This is bringing our manufacturing base back. It’s not easy… [Trump] understands deeply what the geopolitical struggle is.”
Trump’s announcement triggered another market downturn with the Dow Jones Industrial Average currently sliding 254 points today. As geopolitical tensions play out, Bitcoin is up over 4% at $10,475 in the past 24 hours.
You can check out the full interview here.
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