Supporters cheers as former president Donald Trump walks out to speak at a campaign rally at his golf club in Doral, Fla., on Thursday.
In recent months, Trump advisers say the former president has held numerous meetings about cryptocurrency with donors and prospective donors. His interest was piqued on cryptocurrency — a digital currency not tied to any central bank — when a group of donors came to Mar-a-Lago and said they would support his campaign and complained about Biden administration officials, including SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
Haley then drafted the platform that had the supportive language about cryptocurrency, the people said. It was a topic the party had never touched in the past and surprised some longtime party members, who wondered where the language came from. It passed overwhelmingly in Milwaukee last week and received little scrutiny.
A senior Trump 2020 campaign adviser said there were never discussions about focusing on cryptocurrency in the campaign or including it in the party’s official platform because Trump was so opposed. Samani, Bailey and other donors said the industry was frustrated by the Biden administration’s regulatory actions. Others in the industry, including some who dislike Trump, said Gensler had been particularly aggressive and that they needed to come up with reasonable regulations for a largely unregulated industry.