Ramaswamy Praises Trump for Opposing Central Bank Digital Dollar
(Bloomberg) -- Vivek Ramaswamy praised Donald Trump for joining him in opposing a central bank-issued digital dollar, after the Ohio businessman exited the race for the Republican nomination and endorsed the former president.
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“A central bank digital currency, I believe, is a threat to liberty in this country,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Manchester, New Hampshire on Tuesday. “It creates a mechanism for government to be able to wipe out your bank account or wipe out your dollars if you do or say something the government disapproves of.”
Trump came out against the digital dollar two days after the Iowa caucuses and hinted at Ramaswamy’s influence in shaping that position.
“I explained that to Donald Trump, and I give him credit for being intellectually open, getting to the bottom of it,” Ramaswamy said. “A few nights later I saw him mention that.”
The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur said opposition to a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is particularly resonant in New Hampshire, whose libertarian political leanings are reflected in the state’s “Live Free or Die” motto.
Read more: Trump Vows to ‘Never Allow’ a Federal Reserve Digital Dollar
The race for the Republican nomination is down to Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. A decisive victory for Trump in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary would solidify his claim to the nomination and add pressure on Haley to follow Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in exiting the race.
Ramaswamy declined to say what role he might want in a future Trump administration, but did say that the Securities and Exchange Commission — which is looking to regulate cryptocurrency — would not be “the right specific role for me.”
“I do have strong views on what I think the future of clarity in regulation needs to be,” he said. “A lot of these agencies — the SEC included, I think — have been guilty of regulation-by-enforcement, where the way you know what the regulations are is based on who they enforce them against.”
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