Trump’s swipe at El Salvador’s Bukele riles Bitcoin backers – What now?

• Trump’s criticism of Bukele and El Salvador sparks controversy among Bitcoin advocates.
• Trump remains the frontrunner in Polymarket predictions despite recent controversies.

Latest developments suggest that former President Donald Trump is gaining momentum in the upcoming U.S. election. However, a recent remark could impact his appeal to voters from El Salvador.

Trump’s controversial comment

On 18th July, speaking at the Republican National Convention, Trump criticized El Salvador’s Bitcoin [BTC] supporting President Nayib Bukele, accusing the country of “dumping criminals” into the U.S.

“El Salvador crime rate is down 70% because they’re dumping all their criminals here.”  

Here, Trump critiques President Bukele’s methods for handling criminals, questioning the effectiveness of their rehabilitation efforts.

He also suggests that the reported decrease in El Salvador’s murder rate could be attributed to the exportation of these criminals to the U.S., rather than genuine improvements within the country.

This comment has ignited considerable controversy among BTC advocates and political analysts, and might potentially affect Trump’s support base. 

Trump receives widespread criticism

Criticising Trump’s take on Bukele, Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures said, 

“Trump is just wrong on this, no shame in admitting that. What Bukele did definitely stemmed the flow of MS13 into the US.” 

For context, MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is a violent Central American gang known for drug trafficking and crimes.

Sharing a similar line of thought an X user- The Bitcoin Therapist added,

Source: The Bitcoin Therapist/X 

Market trends unaffected

However, despite the recent controversy, the latest Polymarket prediction data for the 2024 Presidential Election shows no significant change, with Trump still leading the charts with 65% of the votes.

Meanwhile, the Trump-themed memecoin Doland Tremp [TREMP] also saw a 4.8% increase over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

However, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 45 indicates that sellers currently outweigh buyers. Thereby, to shift the market trend in favor of bulls, the token would need to surpass the resistance level at the $0.60 mark. 

Source: TradingView

In conclusion, with Mark Keiser, Bukele’s Bitcoin advisor, planning to confront Trump directly at the upcoming Bitcoin Conference, it will be intriguing to see how this interaction plays out.