This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially announced that he is contesting in the Republican presidential primary. The announcement was made during a Twitter Spaces conversation with the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk.

What Happened: Noted economist and Noble laureate Paul Krugman on Friday slammed DeSantis for his stance against a central bank digital currency or CBDC.

“To be honest, I thought Ron DeSantis’ attacks on central bank digital currencies, while revealing, wouldn’t remain a major message — not exactly a guys-in-diners issue,” Krugman tweeted on Friday.

Florida became the first state to ban CBDC, and, while on Twitter Spaces with Musk this week, DeSantis repeated his tirade against the notion of having one at all in the U.S. “You must get authorization from Congress,” he said of a CBDC. “I can tell you, if I'm president, we are not doing a central bank digital currency.”

Krugman noted that DeSantis was fixated on his opposition to CBDC, a central bank-backed blockchain stablecoin. This may be because “Elon Musk and the crypto types may be all the base he has left,” he tweeted.

Still, the governor is a backer of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Bitcoin is a question of civil liberties, DeSantis said, while expressing his support for the potential of digital assets and the freedom they can bring to users. 

See Also: What Is A Central Bank Digital Currency

Cryptos Useless? The economist also drew a parallel between DeSantis’ stance on CBDC and the support former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) showed to weather forecaster AccuWeather while trying to block public access to the National Weather Service.

Krugman also made a cheeky remark about cryptocurrencies, signaling that they are useless. “Of course, private weather services do provide a useful service. Cryptocurrencies … not so much,” he tweeted.

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Photo: Gage Skidmore via flickr