OMG, hold up! Our man Donald Trump got bamboozled into shouting out XRP like it’s the next big thing! Word on the street (aka a Politico report from May 8) is that some slick lobbyist linked to Ripple Labs fed Trump a script for a social media post. The post? Oh, just casually announcing a US crypto reserve featuring XRP, Solana ($SOL ), and Cardano ($ADA ). Trump dropped it on his platform on March 2, thinking he was the crypto king, only to find out later that the lobbyist, Brian Ballard, was Team Ripple. Cue the drama—Trump was pissed, feeling like he got played! 😤
According to Politico, quoting two insiders, Trump said, “This guy [Ballard] ain’t welcome anywhere anymore.” Like, burn!
Here’s the kicker: Trump and Ripple go way back. Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, shelled out over $300K to back Trump’s 2024 campaign. Plus, both he and Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, were hobnobbing with Trump in January and even showed up at inauguration events. Oh, and Ripple? They donated a cool $5 million in XRP to Trump’s inaugural fund and are major players in Fairshake, a PAC about boosting pro-crypto candidates. Big money moves, y’all!
Crypto Reserve? It’s Happening, Boo
$TRUMP loves dropping policy bombs on social media, and this was no different. Four days after that spicy March 2 post (which is still up, BTW), he signed an executive order on March 6 to kick off a “Digital Asset Stockpile.” Like, talk about moving fast!
XRP’s price? Didn’t even flinch after the May 8 report. It’s chilling at $2.23, up about 5% in the last 24 hours. Cointelegraph tried to get a comment from Ripple, but they’re playing hard to get. No response yet.
