Donald Trump took the stage about an hour and a half behind schedule—the Secret Service needed time to secure the room—but the audience didn't seem to mind. The once and future president waited for Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." to come to its rousing finish, mouthed the song's final lyric, walked to the podium, and smiled. "Hello Bitcoiners!"
Trump had arrived at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, seeking the support of a movement that once had seemed like a radical fringe but now was entering the mainstream. "I stand before you today filled with respect and admiration for what the bitcoin community has achieved," the candidate said.
Trump had once sounded like a typical politician when opining on the topic. "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies," he tweeted in 2019, adding that they're "not money," "highly volatile," "based on thin air," and a tool for 'illegal activity."
