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

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.

One full day of embarrassment over the party’s response to Donald Trump’s speech to Congress was insufficient for Democrats, who delivered a second helping on Thursday.

Green, who was escorted out of Trump’s speech Tuesday evening by the sergeant-at-arms, is not exactly worse off. He’ll likely receive a fundraising boost resulting from the rebuke.

“I would do it again,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Whether the same can be said for his 10 colleagues who flirted with what Jeffries called a “political and partisan game” is less obvious, as is the actual strategy that Democratic leadership is pursuing.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.