Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an independent candidate for US president, went on the offensive against former President Donald Trump Friday night at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, according to media reports.
Trump is scheduled to speak on Saturday at the conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where about 20,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts were gathered.
Kennedy said: “I welcome President Trump’s new enthusiasm for Bitcoin. But he’s only weeks into the Bitcoin dialogue,” the Nashville Tennessean reported.
Kennedy cited his own history as a Bitcoin holder and reminded the crowd that Trump was a crypto sceptic in 2020, before adding that “In 2021, President Trump doubled down and declared that Bitcoin just seems like a scam.”
Reuters quoted Kennedy as saying: “I hope President Trump’s commitment to Bitcoin is more than political expediency.”
“Bitcoin is about our souls. It’s about our values,” Kennedy said, according to the Tennessean. “President Trump needs to explain how his personal values align with those of Bitcoiners. If he doesn’t do that, then we don’t really have any insurance, do we, that his support of them is not another ephemeral monetary policy fad du jour.”
Kennedy said that if he were elected president, the US Treasury would build a Bitcoin reserve comparable to gold reserves, and he would also make direct ownership of Bitcoin tax free, Reuters reported.
Still, Kennedy was favoured by only 8% of voters in a recent Reuters poll, and had not yet qualified for the ballot in many states.
DL News reported last week that Trump plans to hold a campaign fundraiser Saturday alongside the conference, with the top ticket priced at $844,600 per person.
The priciest tickets, which include a seat at a roundtable with Trump, represent the maximum legal donation individuals are permitted to give Trump and the Republican Party’s joint fundraising committee.
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