Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump spent a sunny day at Mar a Lago pushing a bold idea. They say the U.S. dollar needs an update and that their new coin can do the job.
The brothers opened a forum they called World Liberty Forum to introduce USD1. They describe USD1 as a stablecoin that tracks the dollar but runs on block chain.
Their pitch was simple and loud. They told a room full of investors and guests that private industry can move faster than the government.
Reporters asked why a private company should take on what the Treasury has always handled. “This is actually going to preserve dollar hegemony,” Donald Trump Jr. said when asked about the risks.
He went further in the same answer. “There’s crypto companies that are the top five buyers in the world,” he said. “That’s going to actually stabilize the US dollar and do all the things that we need to.”
Eric Trump made clear who he thinks should lead the effort. “We’re going to lead the way as Americans,” Eric Trump said. “You’re going to leave that to who, JPMorgan, to do? You’re going to leave that to the federal government to do?”
He aimed a bit of mockery at big banks and their habits. “Do you think big banks will actually do this?” he asked. “And the reason I say this is, I mean, it’s been 50 years, where bankers are working six hours a day. They have a two-hour lunch break. They’re typically out of the office at four o’clock in the afternoon.”
The tone at Mar a Lago mixed business talk with personal grievance. The brothers said banks pushed them out after 2021 and that helped push them into crypto.
“You know, we didn’t get into crypto because we were on the leading edge,” Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC’s Sara Eisen. “We got into it out of necessity. They basically forced us into it.” Eric added, “We were the most cancelled people in the world in 2020, 2021 and it’s really great to almost have this retribution where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda.”
“Our agenda was to modernize finance, to allow that to never ever, ever happen to anybody again,” Eric Trump said. The language was full of feeling and low on policy detail.
At times the event was part pitch meeting and part family story. Eric recalled accounts being closed and bills that could not be paid.
“These are commercial buildings, residential buildings, golf courses around the world. These aren’t political entities, and they were pulling these accounts from us like we were absolute dogs,” Eric Trump said. That memory shapes much of the message he and his brother brought to the stage.
Not every question got a neat answer. How a private coin will fit into banking rules and how regulators will respond were not solved by slogans.
Near the end someone offered a quip about names. “Call it Truth Dollar,” one speaker said, and the line landed like a wink and a challenge.
The project already has money behind it and a crowd that will listen. Now the real tests begin with investors and with the people who write the rules.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
