Trump’s Crypto Confusion: Did XRP Just Pull a Fast One on the Former President?

by

Sunday, the sun rising over Mar-a-Lago with that lazy gold that makes the palm trees look richer than they are, and by breakfast, XRP was the talk—not just of the club, but of the nation. Donald Trump, woken early, tossed off a post on Truth Social with the ease of a man who once believed Twitter would last forever. He called for a “Strategic CryptoReserve”—a phrase as heavy as one of Melania’s suitcases after a spring shopping spree—and inside it he dropped XRP, Solana, Cardano. By lunch, he’d discovered he’d been outfoxed by a lobbyist’s invisible hand, and the president, as one aide said, felt—how can one say this in polite company—“played.”

The Curious Case of the XRP Post (Or: How Not to Vet Your Staffers)

There, in the tangerine-lit halls of Mar-a-Lago, sat a Ballard Partners staffer, persistence thicker than Florida humidity. Not once, but twice, they pestered Trump with prewritten praise for certain cryptocurrencies. Rebuffed twice—Trump not yet out of Diet Cokes or patience—the draft finally landed in the hands of an aide known for posting things with only half an eye open.

The words left the president’s account with all the subtlety of an elephant in golf shoes:

“A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure the US is the Crypto Capital of the World. We are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

There’s a saying in Washington: if you don’t know who’s getting played, it’s probably you. The second the message hit the airwaves, sharp-eyed staff realized Ripple, faithful client of Ballard, had just hit the jackpot. Trump, redder than a blockchain in meltdown, froze Ballard out of everything short of cocktail hour.

Meanwhile, David Sacks, the self-anointed “crypto czar,” dialed Susie Wiles and did what crypto czars do best—panicked about optics. The president then furiously posted a second time, adding, as if by afterthought:

“And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be the heart of the Reserve. I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!” (All caps were implied, if not present.)

Susie traced the breadcrumbs back to a Ballard employee, and not much later, Ballard discovered that loyalty is like an NFT—it’s valuable, but only if everyone keeps believing in it.

Ballard, with dignity and just a hint of wounded pride, declared that rumors of a freeze were greatly exaggerated. After all, he was still getting fundraiser invites, and his phone calendar, like a used coin, said he was not yet banished. But it seems some of his clients started searching other Trumpworld orbits for meetings—a subtle shuffle, the political equivalent of making sure your salad fork is still clean.

Ripple had been courting the Trump camp before any of this hullabaloo began: their legal chief had donated over $300,000 to assorted committees, and Ripple itself gave $5 million in XRP to help warm the presidential welcoming committee. The kind of support that says, “If you want to dance, at least put on some decent shoes.”

Does that explain XRP’s cameo in the “Strategic Reserve”? Maybe. Maybe not. What’s clear is that on March 6, Trump signed an executive order for a “Digital Asset Stockpile” (because we all know America’s cupboards need to be well-stocked). The catch? Reserve is buy-only for Bitcoin; the Stockpile is for holding or—when the moment’s right—selling. Clear as mud, as my grandfather would say.

As of press time, XRP trades at $2.29—and for a brief, shining moment, was worth its weight in presidential embarrassment. 🤦‍♂️💸

Read More

2025-05-09 18:16