The True Economic Story of Trump's Crypto Move Is Neither the Outrageous Market Value of $TRUMP Nor the Gross Exploitation of His Believers

It is about symbolism: a sitting president openly challenging, and sabotaging, the national monetary system he is sworn to uphold.

Just days before his second inauguration, Donald Trump announced $TRUMP, a meme cryptocurrency tied to his personal brand.

“It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING,” he wrote on Truth Social.

For many, especially his most loyal supporters, this wasn’t merely an investment opportunity; it was a pledge of allegiance. The coin’s value peaked explosively at $US15 billion in market capitalisation before slumping to $8 billion — staggering sums given the absence of any underlying business model or fundamental value. Yet the savings of Rust Belt America flowed into $TRUMP, driven by a belief that this new currency represented something more desirable, more worthy, than the US dollar itself.

Underreported yet profound, the true economic story of Trump’s crypto move is neither the outrageous market value of $TRUMP nor the gross exploitation of his believers. It’s about symbolism: a sitting president openly challenging, and sabotaging, the national monetary system he is sworn to uphold.

Donald Trump is the first pump-and-dump president

The dollar has long been more than a currency; it is the cornerstone of America’s global power. Its dominance rests on trust in US institutions, in the Federal Reserve’s neutrality, and in the dollar’s role as the global constant. $TRUMP, through its conjuring into existence, opens a surreal crack in this foundation.

For the first time in history, the leader of the United States has effectively introduced a “rival” currency, bypassing the centralised systems that define national monetary sovereignty. While the motivation behind the venture is, without doubt, pure personal gain, the result is more than financial exploitation and meme theatre. It signals to the world that even the office of the US president no longer sees their own dollar’s supremacy as inevitable.

$TRUMP sets a precarious precedent. Currency has always been a reflection of state power, backed by the legitimacy of governments and their ability to provide stability. $TRUMP upends this. It is 100% speculative, decentralised and grounded in personal loyalty. For Trump’s supporters, this is precisely its appeal. $TRUMP is a rejection of the institutions they view as elitist and unaccountable. By investing in it, they are declaring their trust in a leader over the system he leads.

The dominance of the US dollar has always depended on its stability and indispensability. It is not just America’s currency; it is the world’s currency, the ultimate liquid store of value and the lifeblood of global trade. $TRUMP introduces doubt and factionalism into a system already complex and fragile. For the dollar, whose authority is underpinned by a shared belief in its strength, the departure is significant, and such cracks in trust have a way of spreading.

Globally, the subversion runs deep. For decades, the dollar has been America’s most effective tool of influence, ensuring trading superiority and allowing the US to finance its deficits with unparalleled ease. Yet this exclusivity has bred resistance. Nations like China, Russia and the BRICS bloc have long sought alternatives. While he has threatened huge tariffs on any country that does not use the dollar, in a move of Trumpian contradiction, the launch of $TRUMP makes this threat both more real and more farcical.

The implications at home are equally profound. The Federal Reserve, long the steward of America’s monetary stability, now faces a challenge unlike any other. $TRUMP operates entirely outside its purview, creating a decentralised system that drains trust and liquidity away from the dollar, even if superficially it appears affiliated with the centre of American political theatre.

While $TRUMP is unlikely to disrupt the economy in any material way, its symbolism weakens the Fed’s authority. It signals that monetary stability, once the bedrock of US governance, is now a contested space. The gate has been opened to dispute — unlocked and left ajar from inside the castle. For Trump’s supporters, this is validation. For America’s rivals, it is an invitation. Trust is depleted, even at the heart of the country that built the global financial system.

Economically, $TRUMP is a fiscal flag burning that has gone unchallenged, dismissed as entertainment, a transient punchline from the White House entertainment stream. Meanwhile, the real-dollar wealth it lifts from the American public and funnels to its leader’s pockets is genuine and immense.

$TRUMP’s reliance on personal branding ensures its lifespan will mirror the political fortunes of its creator. For those who invested their savings, the volatility risks are immense. But even when $TRUMP meme mania fades, the system is now ever so slightly less stable. What $TRUMP has shown is the reserve currency can be unseated, not by external adversaries but by its own leadership.