Donald Trump’s crypto ignorance is relatable

A day after nearly being shot again, the seventy-eight-year-old Donald Trump is once more being mocked for sounding like a fool while talking about cryptocurrency. In an interview with Farokh Sarmad, another of these hugely popular male influencers whom the vast majority of people have never heard of, Trump ruminated on the importance of making America the “crypto capital” of the planet. 

Sitting in Mar-a-Lago, underneath the hilariously kitsch “Visionary” portrait of young Donald in white trousers and a tennis jumper, Trump told the Persian-Canadian Farokh that he learns about crypto from his sons. “Barron is a young guy,” he said. “He’s got four wallets or something. I’m saying ‘explain this to me.’ He knows it so well. And Eric and Don. I have a lot of respect for them.”

Trump admits he hasn’t a clue. In doing so, he speaks for the vast majority

Trump said that learning about crypto is “sort of like a language” — before boasting about his granddaughters speaking Chinese — and then talked vaguely about artificial intelligence, too. “It’s so important. It’s crypto. It’s AI. It’s so many other things. AI needs tremendous electricity capabilities beyond anything I ever heard.”

Trump has previously been widely teased for launching a ridiculous range of personalized NFTs. And the Farokh interview seems to have been a clumsy plug for the Trump family’s ambitious new “World Liberty Financial” crypto banking platform. Cue lots more media entities sniggering about Trump’s “painful” ignorance, his confusion about the digital future, his blatant attempts to court “crypto bro” voters, and the absence of Barron from this latest attempt to cash in on decentralized finance. 

Of course, it is very funny. But what many of the chortlers don’t understand is that hilarity and shilling is what crypto is all about — and that’s the point. The Trump campaign’s efforts to build a “crypto army” is by no means foolish, especially in an election which will be decided by very fine margins. Wooing the millions of people who are interested or involved in this still-ambiguous digital universe makes sense. Kamala Harris may have a huge advantage among young women in this election, but Trump is gaining an edge among young men, especially among America’s black, Latino, Arab and Asian populations. It’s also worth noting that crypto companies or backers have put forward almost half of all the corporate money contributed to this year’s federal election campaigns.  

Trump may sound naïve in his grandfatherly enthusiasm for crypto projects. Again, though, that’s the point. It’s endearing to those who aren’t blinded by animosity. He isn’t pretending to get it, as the Harris campaign seems to be as it talks about supporting “cutting-edge industries of the future.” It would be fun to listen to Harris explain what she thinks crypto is to a young influencer, but as the Democratic nominee she has so far tended to shun such conversations.  

Trump admits he hasn’t a clue. In doing so, he speaks for the vast majority, who don’t really understand the possibilities of crypto, yet who are open to the idea of less corruptible digital money systems and uncynical about the youthful, often eccentric enthusiasm surrounding such futuristic concepts. 

Trump is also not wrong about crypto being its own language and his point about AI needing masses of electricity is astute. It seems that we are moving towards a world in which algorithms and robots take over much, if not most, human activity. The amount of energy needed to power such a future will indeed be far greater than what mankind is currently able to produce. 

As so often, Trump sounds stupid as he says something quite shrewd, while his critics sound smart while probably being quite dim.  

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.