Trump Makes False Economic Claims Ahead of Crypto Summit
On Friday, the White House hosted its first-ever crypto summit, bringing together top executives from digital asset companies to discuss the Trump administration’s plans to roll back the previous administration’s anti-crypto regulations.
However, many attendees left disappointed. Here are the crypto price movements over the past 24 hours:
| CRYPTOCURRENCIES | PRICE | PROFIT +/- |
|--------------|-----|----------------|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $86,052 | -0.8% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,182 | +1.5% |
| Solana (SOL) | $136 | -4.3% |
| XRP (XRP) | $2.33 | -2.5% |
| Cardano (ADA) | $0.811 | -0.9% |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | $0.1925 | -3.5% |
This comes just three days after Trump's speech to Congress since returning to the White House, in which he made several statements about the economy that were not entirely consistent with reality.
"We inherited an economic disaster and an inflationary crisis from the previous administration," Trump said
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Under President Biden, GDP growth has averaged 3.4% in the first three years, including 2.5% in 2023. During Trump's first term (excluding the COVID-19 pandemic), GDP growth averaged about 2.5%. The pandemic caused the economy to contract and led to an average growth of 1.6% during Trump's term.
Inflation: Trump claimed that the US had faced “the worst inflation ever.” However, inflation only peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, much higher than at any other time in history, such as 1981. By December 2024, the inflation rate had fallen to 2.9%.
S&P 500: Under Biden, the S&P 500 has risen about 50%, although it fell 19% in 2022 as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to combat inflation.
Dow Jones: Under Biden, the Dow has hit several important milestones:
- Crossed the 30,000 mark on November 24, 2020.
- Hit 35,000 on July 23, 2021.
- Crossed the 40,000 mark on May 17, 2024.
Currently, under Trump, consumer confidence is waning, and the stock market just had its worst week in six months. Inflation remains a concern.
On the crypto front, it is unclear how Trump plans to pay for his digital asset stockpile without raising taxes as he has claimed.
Both Republicans and Democrats are concerned about Trump's statements. Notably, the crypto summit comes just months after Trump and his family launched their own memecoin.
Trump invited big names in the crypto industry to attend, including Michael Saylor, Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), and Vlad Tenev (Robinhood). This is a marked change from the Biden era, when the crypto industry faced a crackdown from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Gary Gensler.
However, not everyone in the industry is a scammer, although 2024 has seen several major scams.
Today, the Trump administration is seen as a “primary driver of chaos” in the sector, according to Felix Salmon and Zachary Basu of Axios.
