White House Crypto Adviser Pushes Back on Trump Conflict Claims After Clarity Act Setback

Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, rejected claims that President Donald Trump’s crypto ties helped sink the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Speaking Wednesday at the Financial Markets Quality conference at Georgetown University, he said Democrats turned the issue into a political fight. The Senate failed to advance the bill last week.

Trump Crypto Ethics Provisions Explained

Two Concessions Offered by the White House

Witt said the president accepted two ethics provisions that had no precedent. One would have forced Trump to divest his crypto interests or place them in a blind trust. The other would have let state attorneys general take action against the federal government if it failed to police ethical lapses. He called it the strictest ethics rule any president has agreed to.

Democrats and the Housing Bill Comparison

Witt questioned why a recent major housing bill passed without a tough ethics section, given Trump’s background as a real-estate developer. He also called it ironic that senators on banking committees trade stocks in the financial firms they oversee.

Banks and Stablecoin Rewards Blamed for Clarity Act Defeat

Witt also blamed banking lobbyists, who worried that stablecoin rewards would compete with interest-bearing deposits. He said large banks started the pushback and it spread to community banks. If the threat were real, he argued, they would be back on Capitol Hill demanding the bill pass. With the year-end lame duck session no major focus, he said the work now moves to regulators such as the SEC.