President Trump told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to clamp down on the trading and selling of the internet currency Bitcoin, according to John Bolton’s book about his time in the Trump administration.
“Don’t be a trade negotiator,” Trump allegedly said, as was written in The Room Where It Happened, a copy of which was provided to the Washington Examiner. “Go after Bitcoin [for fraud].”
“If you don’t want me on trade, fine, your economic team will execute whatever you want,” Mnuchin responded in a tense exchange over upcoming trade sanctions and tariffs on China.
The comment to Mnuchin happened in May 2018, according to Bolton. The Trump administration has long been skeptical of cryptocurrencies and released new guidelines for the trading and selling of the currencies earlier this year.
“We want to make sure that technology moves forward, but on the other hand, we want to make sure that cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts,” Mnuchin said in February.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Trump’s former national security adviser on Tuesday, asking a judge to stop its release, set for June 23, because it contains classified material.
