Trump to Meet Senators Over Clarity Act Ethics Standoff

President Donald Trump was scheduled to meet Republican senators at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on July 15 to work through the ethics provisions holding up the Clarity Act, the bill that would become the first federal legislation to comprehensively regulate digital assets. Expected in the room: Senators Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, White House senior crypto adviser Patrick Witt and chief of staff Susie Wiles. Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, told The Block the meeting would put several ideas on the ethics question in front of Trump and try to secure his approval. She called it a "very positive signal" and said the discussion would be "critical" to the bill's passage.

The ethics sticking point

At issue is whether federal officials, the president and vice president included, along with members of Congress, should be barred from profiting off digital assets while in office. Both parties have been negotiating that language for months. The argument got louder last month, when Trump's financial disclosure showed crypto-related income worth hundreds of millions of dollars tied to his family's World Liberty Financial. Which is the awkward geometry of the whole thing: the man who would sign the bill is drawing crypto income while it moves.

Where the votes stand

Democrats have been blunt. No ethics provision, no bill. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks voted the measure through the Senate Banking Committee, then said the ethics issue has to be resolved before they support it on the floor. Chris Van Hollen, Chris Murphy and Jeff Merkley went further at a July 15 press conference, opposing any move to advance the bill without such language. Republicans have kept talking while turning down parts of what Democrats want. Lummis has said she opposes letting state attorneys general sue public officials. Blind trusts, she has said, she is willing to consider. If Congress and the White House land on wording both sides can live with, she argues, the result would be balanced.

The August clock

The Senate wants a floor vote before the August recess, and Majority Leader John Thune has said he intends to bring the bill up before lawmakers leave. That is not much runway for a fight that has already consumed months, and the ethics text is the last real thing standing in the way. Smith, who spent most of this process assuming the bill was going nowhere, now says she sees a path. "At this moment, I may be more optimistic than anyone else," she said.