If Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs send household good prices soaring and drive the economy into recession, at least one industry could profit.

The Trump administration is considering using tariff revenues to buy Bitcoin for a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” a top administration crypto official said in an interview last week.

The White House’s proposal is driving interest from crypto industry figures who have made building the reserve one of their top priorities.

It is uniting critics on the right and left, however, who have cast the reserve as a pointless industry giveaway that will come at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. Using tariff money would add insult to injury, they say.

“There is nothing here but a conjunction of bad ideas,” said George Selgin, an economist and professor emeritus at the University of Georgia. “The tariffs are a bad idea, the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve is a bad idea, and using the tariff revenue for the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve is a bad idea.”

Reaping Revenue?

Ever since Trump proposed across-the-board tariffs on the campaign trail last year, he has touted the idea as a way to both build domestic industry and raise revenue.

Trump has suggested that tariff revenue could replace the nearly $5 trillion the government hauls in income tax revenue per year, while a top trade official in his administration estimated........

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