08/26 update below. This post was originally published on August 25
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is gearing up for a bruising race for the White House and has already caused massive shock waves with radical plan to wipe out the spiraling $35 trillion U.S. debt pile.
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Trump, who has surprised many with his controversial embrace of bitcoin this year, has said he opposes the U.S. war on crypto, branded Operation Choke Point 2.0.
Now, as fears swirl of a complete U.S. dollar collapse, Trump has said it’s time to “take a stand” against Wall Street, backing his sons’ plans for a financial “revolution.”
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Former U.S. president Donald Trump has backed his sons’ efforts to take on Wall Street.
“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites. It’s time we take a stand—together,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account alongside 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).
08/26 update: The Telegram group run by Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. has been renamed to World Liberty Financial alongside a link to an X account with the handle @worldlibertyfi. The account is named WLFI, sparking wild speculation on social media that it could be also be the name of a future Donald Trump memecoin.
“Is this the new Trump token,” one anonymous account asked on X.
At least one scam coin called WLFI has been launched on the decentralized exchange Uniswap
Uniswap
“Please be aware 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 posted. “Do not engage with these tokens! For your safety, remember that all official information will only be posted right here in this channel by our trusted team. If it’s not from us, it’s not real. To stay updated and safe, make sure to follow our official Twitter account! Stay vigilant and protect your investments!”
The official World Liberty Financial Telegram channel also teased further updates to come.
“We are gearing up for major announcements and exciting updates,” the message read. “Join us as we transform decentralized finance forever. You won’t want to miss what’s coming next!”
DeFi, as well as the broader web3, are based on the idea digital, internet-based services are too centralized around a handful of powerful companies on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley and could be improved by moving them to protocol-based, crypto-powered alternatives.
Following Trump’s post, a message appeared on the 43,000-member Telegram group railing against “how crooked banks and financial institutions rig the system against everyday Americans.”
“They shut people out, deny them loans, drown them in paperwork and kill them with legal and processing fees,” the message, attributed to Donald Trump Jr., read, claiming the Trump family has been “de-banked, de-platformed and had every political game imaginable played on us.”
The message recalls comments made by Eric Trump to the New York Post earlier this month in which he claimed “over half this country right now cannot be banked.”
Banking and finance have become politicized in recent years, most notably by the Canada trucking protests against covid vaccine mandates that resulted in prime minister Justin Trudeau freezing the bank accounts of protesters. Elsewhere, U.K. politician Nigel Farage claimed his bank account was closed partly due to his politics were deemed “at odds” with the bank.
“These banks and the elites who run them want absolute control but that ends now,” the DeFiant Ones group post attributed to Don Jr. read.
“We’re making finance great again by putting the power back in your hands. This new DeFi platform will cut out the corrupt, expensive and inefficient middlemen. No more bureaucrats deciding your fate. It’s time to modernize an unfair and antiquated system and give everyone the same opportunities the elites have been hoarding. Join us, and let’s make finance work for the people again.”
Further details of the Trump crypto project, such as launch date, the website address and even its name are still not known, though it’s expected to be a crypto platform similar to a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Binance that may also act as a bank account alternative.
Earlier this month Trump brothers Eric and Don Jr. shot down speculation they’d be launching their own cryptocurrency to rival bitcoin, calling their project “the future of finance.”