US President-elect Donald Trump picked former Paypal COO David Sacks to be part of his Cabinet and had a new post for him too — ‘White House A.I. & Crypto Czar’. Trump made the announcement on social media site Truth Social.
“He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for,” Trump said on Truth Social on Friday.
Responding to Trump’s announcement, Sacks posted on X, “Thank you Mr. President. I am honored and grateful for the trust you have placed in me. I look forward to advancing American competitiveness in these critical technologies. Under your leadership, the future is bright!”
Sacks’s entry into the Trump administration, among other additions such as he chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is expected to reshape the existing digital currency policy in the United States.
Who is David O Sacks?
A vocal Trump supporter throughout the US election campaign, David O Sacks holds a varied business portfolio as an angel investor and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Craft Venture, a venture capital firm, and Glue, an AI tool used in workspace platforms like Google Meet and Zoom.
Sacks has been investing in big-tech firms for nearly two decades, with his most significant investments being in Uber, Facebook, Airbnb, Slack, Paypal, and SpaceX, which is headed by Trump ally Elon Musk.
Sacks’ stint as the COO of Paypal left a significant impact on the company. Under his leadership, Paypal expanded its key teams and launched its initial public offering. Considered a member of the ‘Paypal Mafia’, Sacks is among the early employees of the company who went on to found a series of other successful technological companies.
David Sacks’s support for Trump
David Sacks has often politically leaned towards the Republican Party in senate and local elections, and hosted lavish fundraisers for Republican candidates Rob DeSantis and Donald Trump during the presidential race, raising around $12 million for the latter.
Staying aligned with Trump’s agenda, Sacks has also been critical of the current Democratic government’s “involvement” in the Russia-Ukraine war, saying that the US “provoked” Russia to invade Ukraine, which led to worldwide disturbances.
However, Sacks was extremely critical of the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, deeming Donald Trump “clearly responsible” for the incident. In an episode of his All-In podcast, Sacks said Trump had “disqualified himself from being a candidate at a national level” after the riots.
Donald Trump’s push for friendlier cryptocurrency regulations led to Bitcoin rising above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday. Since Trump’s victory in the US election, multiple pro-crypto lawmakers have been appointed to his cabinet, leading to Bitcoin to double its value in the last four weeks. It is expected that Sacks’ appointment in the Trump administration will see the implementation of the multiple policy promises the president-elect made on crypto regulations during his campaign.
