Newsletter

• U.S. President Donald Trump stated in an interview after the midterms that when asked about investors from this cryptocurrency company who were associated with the United Arab Emirates, he "knows nothing" about World Liberty Financial.
• When asked why he did not directly divest from his holdings, Trump said that his sons were running the business and claimed that conflicts of interest are a problem for "every president."
• A company supported by the UAE agreed to acquire 49% of the shares in World Liberty Financial for $500 million a few days before Trump's inauguration, which sparked corruption allegations.

U.S. President Donald Trump defended his family's holdings in the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial in an interview after last week's midterms, claiming that he "knows nothing" about the company, despite being a co-owner of it.

According to the text record published by CBS News, when columnist Ross Doughty (Ross Douthat) asked why he held shares in companies jointly with some investors related to the UAE government, which he would consider corrupt if it involved the Biden family, Trump replied, "That's the difference... I'll tell you why. Because I know nothing about it at all."

When asked why he didn't simply divest from his holdings, Trump said that most of his funds were managed by Wall Street companies through index funds, while his family business was overseen by his sons. "It's hard to tell them, 'Because I'm the president, don't do anything for the next four years,'" he said.

When Dorset asked whether foreign investors thought they were buying influence, Trump said, "I don't know." He also stated that conflicts of interest "have plagued presidents since the time of George Washington," and added that past presidents "owned certain things, regardless of what cryptocurrencies were at the time."

"With cryptocurrencies, and before that it was oil," Trump said, adding, "Every president has faced this problem."

"My fame is greater than that of other presidents, whether we like it or not," Trump said.

World Liberty and its association with the United Arab Emirates

World Liberty Financial was announced by Erik Trump ( Eric Trump ) in August 2024, issuing the WLFI governance token and the USD1 stablecoin. In January, the company launched World Liberty Markets, which is a lending platform built on the DeFi protocol Dolomite.

The UAE connections of this company have drawn scrutiny from Democrats. In February, Decrypt cited a report by The Wall Street Journal stating that an UAE-backed entity Aryam Investment, associated with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE's national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, agreed to acquire 49% of the shares of World Liberty Financial for $500 million four days before Trump's inauguration in January 2025. This transaction was signed on behalf of World Liberty by Eric Trump and is said to have occurred before the government relaxed restrictions on selling advanced AI chips to the UAE. At that time, a World Liberty spokesperson stated that neither Trump nor his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff Steve Witkoff, were "in any way involved" in this transaction. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy, described this arrangement in February as "potentially constituting a criminal act." Trump had previously stated that he was unaware of this transaction.

The UAE affiliation of this company also appears in its legal dispute with Tron founder Sun Yuchen ( Justin Sun ). Sun Yuchen's lawyers requested the federal court to impose sanctions on World Liberty, claiming that the company delayed disclosing its UAE shareholding information, which could potentially undermine the federal court's jurisdiction over the lawsuit. World Liberty, on the other hand, described Sun Yuchen's legal actions as "baseless public relations stunts".

The financial interests of the Trump family in this business are listed in their own disclosure documents at World Liberty. According to the company's disclosures, DT Marks DEFI LLC, which is associated with Trump and some members of his family, holds approximately 38% of the shares in the holding company behind World Liberty Financial, owns 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, and has the right to receive 75% of the net proceeds from the sale of WLFI tokens. Another entity associated with Trump indirectly enjoys the right to claim interest generated by the USD1 reserve fund. The disclosure documents state that no members of the Trump family hold any executive, director, or employee positions in World Liberty; however, Decrypt reported earlier this year that Trump's sons are still involved in it.

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