Trump establishes ‘digital Fort Knox’ for bitcoin but crypto markets slump in response: Live updates

The billionaire Trump adviser wants government-run entities like the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak to be taken private.

“Basically, something’s got to have some chance of going bankrupt, or there’s not a good feedback loop for improvement,” Musk told the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom conference this week.

“We should try to privatize everything we possibly can, and that would be my recommendation.”

The DOGE leader reserved special ire for Amtrak, saying the rail provider “can leave you with a very bad impression of America,” compared with comparable services in other countries.

The outgoing Canadian PM appears to be taking Trump’s latest aggressions rather personally.

Trudeau is into his final weeks as the country’s leader after he was forced to resign by his party before Christmas over internal disputes about how to handle the U.S. president and his tariffs on Canadian imports.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, the PM became visibly emotional while saying he had worked hard for the country.

“On a personal level, I made sure that every single day in this office, I put Canadians first, that I have people’s backs, and that’s why I’m here to tell you all, we got you, even in the very last days of this government, we will not let Canadians down today and long into the future,” he said, his eyes welling with tears.

“We want to continue to be strong and resolute in our response and we will continue to be there for each other because the unity that Canadians are feeling right now is actually the most important thing in being able to stand up against the trading partner that is much bigger than us.”

While the American was highly complimentary about Claudia Sheinbaum after their call yesterday, it seems the same cannot be said for his latest exchange with Ottawa.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, contrary to Trump’s claim the interaction was “somewhat friendly”, the truth is that it was heated and profanity-laden.

Here’s more from Katie Hawkinson.

The president is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, according to a senior administration official.

The move, confirmed to Reuters by the official and three other sources, potentially leaves the refugees open to being swiftly deported back home amid the ongoing war, perhaps as early as April.

It would come in stark contrast to the welcome offered to those escaping the conflict that was rolled out by the Biden administration three years ago.

This was Trump’s not very reassuring answer on the matter yesterday:

The president is reportedly considering changing the terms of U.S. engagement with NATO to favor members who spend a set percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.

Officials told NBC News that under the revised policy, the U.S. might not come to the aid of a NATO member that has been attacked if they don’t spend a certain amount of their GDP on defense.

The change would be a departure from NATO’s Article 5, which states that an attack on one country is an attack on all and has only ever been actioned once, in support of America after 9/11.

Here’s the president apparently forgetting his history on that point yesterday:

Gustaf Kilander has more.

The president said a number of other fruity things during yesterday’s press sit down, from “globalists” being responsible for the adverse market reaction to his tariff aggressions, America not needing Canadian lumber anyway (so there) and raving about astronaut Suni Williams, trapped in space for nine months, having wonderful thick hair.

Here are his latest remarks on Zelensky and the prospect of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Also in the Oval yesterday, the president lashed out at the liberal pundits after Wallace criticized his decision to make 13-year-old brain cancer survivor DJ Daniel an honorary Secret Service agent during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Wallace contrasted the gesture with Trump pardoning Capitol rioters and said she hoped Daniels “never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters.”

“Worse than CNN is ‘MS-DNC,’ which is the worst,” the president ranted in response.

“And the good news is very few people watch them anymore. They have lost such credibility; and, frankly, what Nicole Wallace said – I’ve never been a fan of hers, and she’s not very talented — but I’ll tell you, what she said the other day about that young man is disgraceful. She should be forced to resign.

“And Rachel Maddow should be forced to resign. Nobody watches her anyway. I don’t know if – it’s not possible they pay her as much money as I hear – but certainly she’s lost all credibility. Both of them. But what they said the other day, they should be forced to resign, about that young person who is suffering.”

Here’s Josh Marcus on Trump contradicting himself by claiming never to watch liberal channels like MSNBC and CNN.

The president abruptly called a cabinet meeting yesterday to clarify the role of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after they faced significant pushback from the courts over their authority to order the mass firings of federal workers.

Trump told his secretaries that the billionaire and his DOGE staffers cannot fire government employees without their express permission, hoping to draw a definite line under weeks of uncertainty and chaos.

Here’s how he framed that on Truth Social and in the Oval Office in latest question and answer session with reporters:

The president postponed planned 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Mexico and Canada for one month yesterday after speaking to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sheinbaum described her call with Trump as “excellent and respectful,” whereas the Trudeau exchange was reportedly more “colorful”, with the Canadian saying afterwards he expects his country to remain locked in a trade war with the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

Trump said he was granting the exemption on any goods imported into the U.S. that are compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement that he negotiated during his first term but expected to reintroduce the levy hike on April 2.

Here’s Andrew Feinberg with the full story.

Donald Trump has signed an executive order establishing a strategic cryptocurrency reserve for the United States comprised of the 198,000 bitcoins the American government already holds through law enforcement confiscations, which are worth an estimated $17bn.

White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks said the move would “not cost taxpayers a dime”.

“The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value,” Sacks wrote on X

“The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called ‘digital gold.’”

But the announcement caused the price of bitcoin to slump on Thursday night, with the value of rival coins not included in the scheme also falling.

In not unrelated news, Trump is hosting a “Digital Assets Summit” at the White House later today.