Why anti-CBDC Trump refuses to sign bill banning a digital dollar through 2030
The president's opposition to a digital dollar remains intact, even as he delays signing the bill that would codify it.President Donald Trump has spent his second term trying to close the door on a U.S. central bank digital currency. On Wednesday, he canceled a planned signing ceremony for a housing bill that would put a temporary ban on a Fed-issued digital dollar into federal law.
The decision placed Trump in the unusual position of blocking, at least temporarily, a measure that would codify his own opposition to a digital dollar.
The president has repeatedly described a Federal Reserve-issued central bank digital currency, or CBDC, as a threat to financial privacy and prohibited federal agencies last year from taking steps to establish, issue, or promote one.Trump’s move did not signal a change in that position. Instead, he turned the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act and its CBDC provision into leverage, saying he would withhold his signature until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, an elections bill requiring voter identification and documentary proof of citizenship.