Key facts
- Trump said he knows "nothing" about World Liberty Financial despite being a co-owner, per a CBS News transcript.
- Trump said his sons run the family business and that conflicts of interest are a problem "for every president."
- Aryam Investment agreed to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million before Trump's January 2025 inauguration, Decrypt reported.
- DT Marks DEFI LLC, affiliated with Trump and family members, owns about 38% of the holding company behind World Liberty Financial, per company disclosures.
- DT Marks DEFI LLC holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens and is entitled to 75% of net proceeds from WLFI token sales, per the company.
- Sen. Chris Murphy described the UAE-linked arrangement in February as "potentially criminal conduct."
US President Donald Trump said he knows "nothing" about World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture he co-owns, when asked about its investors linked to the United Arab Emirates government, in an interview with columnist Ross Douthat conducted after the November 3, 2026 midterm elections. A transcript was published by CBS News.
Asked why his co-ownership of a company partly owned by UAE-linked investors differed from arrangements he would call corrupt if they involved the Biden family, Trump said: "Here's the difference [... ] I'm gonna tell you why. Because I know nothing about it." Pressed on why he did not divest, Trump said most of his money is managed by Wall Street firms through index funds and that his sons run the family business. "It's hard to say to them, 'Don't do anything anymore for four years because I'm president,'" he said. Asked whether foreign investors believe they are buying influence, Trump said: "I don't know."
Trump argued that conflicts of interest have affected presidents "going back to George Washington," adding that past presidents "own something, whatever crypto was at the time." He said: "There's crypto, and before that there was oil," and that "every president has had this problem." He added: "I'm a bigger name than other presidents, whether we like it or not."
World Liberty Financial, which Eric Trump announced in August 2024, issues the WLFI governance token and the USD1 stablecoin. In January it launched World Liberty Markets, a lending and borrowing platform built on DeFi protocol Dolomite.