Trump Presses Senate on 'Fair' CLARITY Act as Democratic Senator Pushes Back Same Day

4 min readPublished 20 Aug 2026

President Donald Trump used a White House gathering of crypto and finance executives on Wednesday to press the Senate to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, telling the room that lawmakers must approve a “fair version” of the bill, according to Cointelegraph and Decrypt. The same day, at a separate event in Wyoming, a Democratic senator pushed back on what that fairness actually means — a friction point neither CoinDesk‘s headline nor the White House meeting itself resolved.

What happened at the White House

Trump told the gathered executives, “Now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” according to Decrypt. “It’s a very, very powerful structure legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else,” Trump said, Decrypt reported, adding that it would “open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators.” Cointelegraph separately reported that Trump invoked staying “ahead of China” in describing the bill’s stakes, and that he called for passage of “a fair version” of CLARITY.

Decrypt reported that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were joined in the room by a wider group of finance and crypto executives. That group, per Decrypt, included Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse, Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman and Intercontinental Exchange’s Jeff Sprecher, alongside Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith and a16z founder Chris Dixon. Decrypt also reported that SEC Chair Paul Atkins, CFTC Chair Michael Selig and White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt joined Trump at the meeting.

Trump also criticized the prior administration’s approach to the industry, accusing it of driving business overseas through what he called “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” and pointed to his administration’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, digital asset stockpile, a ban on a US central bank digital currency, and the GENIUS stablecoin act as policies enacted since he returned to office, Decrypt reported. Trump said the administration is working to bring Hyperliquid into the US under a compliant regulatory framework, according to Decrypt.

Armstrong’s vote count, and Gallego’s rebuttal

Armstrong, speaking after Trump and regulatory officials, said the CLARITY Act would make US crypto policy “durable into the future, so it could survive for decades and decades to come,” according to Cointelegraph. He speculated the bill could draw “more than 60 votes” once the Senate addresses a cloture motion on Sept. 15, Cointelegraph reported. Trump responded that the bill is “very bipartisan,” adding “Lot of Democrats support,” per Cointelegraph.

That bipartisan framing met resistance the same day. At the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Sen. Ruben Gallego said of Trump’s remarks, “I think, unfortunately, what the president means is fair to him,” referring to ethics language in the bill, according to Cointelegraph — the only outlet in this evidence set to report his comments. Gallego added that Trump is “agreeing to some limitation,” but argued “it’s not his place to agree,” saying authority instead rests with “the place of the Congress, the Senate and then the White House,” and that “the president doesn’t just get to decide what level of regulation he gets.”

Cointelegraph also reported that Trump pushed for CLARITY’s passage in July following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, calling Graham a “big supporter” of the bill and urging the Senate to advance it in his honor.

Regulators moving without the bill

The White House meeting came a day before the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet, according to both Cointelegraph and Decrypt. Cointelegraph reported CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agency would explore advancing crypto regulations at that meeting since Congress would not return to session for another month. Cointelegraph also reported that, the same week, the SEC proposed rules offering companies a safe harbor from having tokens treated as “investment contracts,” along with certain exemptions for token issuance.

Where the reporting agrees, and where it doesn’t

Cointelegraph and Decrypt agree on the core facts: Trump called for a “fair version” of CLARITY at a Wednesday White House meeting, invoked competition with China, and the gathering preceded a CFTC committee meeting. Both outlets also confirm Armstrong and the Winklevoss twins attended.

Where the outlets diverge is in what each chose to carry. Only Cointelegraph reported Gallego’s rebuttal at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium and Armstrong’s specific prediction of “more than 60 votes.” Only Decrypt reported the full attendee roster beyond Armstrong and the Winklevoss brothers — including Garlinghouse, Tenev, Friedman, Sprecher, Sethi, Nazarov, Smith and Dixon — as well as Decrypt’s figure that Republicans need roughly six Democratic votes to clear the 60-vote threshold, and Trump’s remarks on Hyperliquid and Operation Chokepoint 2.0. CoinDesk’s report was available to this newsroom only as a headline, so no further claims from that outlet are included here.

What remains unresolved

Whether the Senate actually holds the cloture vote reportedly expected around Sept. 15 is not yet known. Nor is it clear what specific ethics or conflict-of-interest language Gallego and other Democrats object to, or whether Armstrong’s vote-count prediction will hold once the Senate returns from recess. What CoinDesk’s full reporting adds to this record is also unknown, since only its headline was available for this article.