Donald Trump Jr. Reveals DeFi Project to 'Take On' Big Banks

If you had to imagine a poster-child of the unbanked, you might not think of Donald Trump Jr.

Nonetheless, Don Jr. and his brother Eric Trump are now hyping up their new decentralized finance project to help serve the unbanked and "take on the big banks."

After the sons of former President Trump took to X this week to reveal their newfound love of crypto and DeFi, many speculated that the Trumps might be dropping a memecoin. One of those memecoins, Restore the Republic, shot up and then fell 95% after Don Jr. cleared up the rumors on his podcast and explained why now is the right time to launch a new crypto tool.

“What we want to do is take on a lot of the banking world. I think there has been a lot of inequality in that only certain people can get financing," Don Jr. said. "So this notion of decentralized finance is obviously very appealing to guys like me who have been debanked.”

Now, to be fair, there is at least some precedent for conservative figures facing debanking issues. British conservative Nigel Farage, who led the country's Brexit movement, saw his accounts at NatWest's private bank Coutts closed last year. He said he was later turned down by nearly a dozen banks over his political views. As Coinage has also covered, many right-wing truckers in Canada saw their funds frozen after protesting during the pandemic.

"This notion of decentralized finance is obviously very appealing to guys like me who have been debanked or haven't been able to get insurance or whatnot or mortgages because they don't check certain boxes," Don Jr. said.

But by most accounts, it doesn't necessarily seem like any of the Trump children have had any issues getting mortgages. Last year, the Daily Beast reported that Don Jr. took out a $4.8 million-dollar mortgage to buy a nearly $10 million-dollar home in Florida. Eric Trump reportedly also took out a more than $2 million-dollar mortgage from Valley National Bank.

Regardless of whether the Trumps might be building the DeFi platform to use themselves, they do seem to be increasingly leaning into crypto. Many people were surprised at Donald Trump's recent call for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, but it's almost just as surprising to hear his sons are now building in DeFi.

Still, many across the aisle are skeptical any of this is more than postering. Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel (D-NC) has perhaps been the loudest detractor. At the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville he was booed for calling out the former President's old statments on crypto, including when he called Bitcoin a "scam."

"He's someone who's just trying to stay out of jail. I think he'll say anything and do anything and I don't think that commitment is especially real," Rep. Nickel said.

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