Washington — U.S. President Donald Trump was reportedly misled by a lobbyist with ties to Ripple Labs into promoting the XRP token as part of a proposed national cryptocurrency reserve, according to a Politico report published on May 8.
The report claims that an employee of pro-Trump lobbyist Brian Ballard provided the president with suggested text for a social media post announcing a “U.S. Strategic Crypto Reserve,” which included XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA). Trump posted the message to his social media platform on March 2. Only later did he learn that Ballard was also representing Ripple, prompting outrage from the president, sources familiar with the matter told Politico.
“He is not welcome in anything anymore,” Trump reportedly said of Ballard.
Trump’s connections to Ripple appear to stretch back before the March announcement. Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, donated more than $300,000 to fundraising committees backing Trump’s 2024 campaign. In January, both Alderoty and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse met with the then-president-elect and attended inauguration events. Ripple also contributed 5 mi$BTC
llion worth of XRP to Trump’s presidential inaugural fund and is one of the largest donors to Fairshake, a political action committee (PAC) that backs pro-crypto candidates.
Despite the controversy, Trump proceeded with the policy initiative just days later. On March 6, he signed an executive order establishing a “Digital Asset Stockpile,” formalizing the concept first floated in his March 2 post.
As of May 8, the price of XRP remained largely unaffected by the report. It was trading at $BTC 2.23 at the time of publication, reflecting a modest 5% increase over the prior 24 hours.
Ripple has not publicly responded to
the report.