The Crypto President: Part 1
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Hey, everyone. It's Jess.
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Join me live on Twitter Spaces at 8 p.m. this September 16th for the launch of World Liberty Financial.
In September of 2024, in the final months of Donald Trump's presidential campaign for re-election, he sat down in front of a mic and camera in the library at Mar-a-Lago. He was launching a new crypto company, World Liberty Financial.
It's a fledgling business, and yet it's a massive business. But it has a chance to really be something special.
Also at the announcement was Trump's longtime friend, Steve Witkoff.
People see Witkoff, a great friend of mine, a great businessman.
Witkoff weaved in and out of the room throughout the launch. At one point, he hopped on the mic to talk about how World Liberty Financial came to be.
And so we had a meeting initially with Eric, Don Jr. and the president and his counsel. And we said, let's go pursue it.
Trump and Witkoff had only recently gotten on board with crypto, and they credited their sons for that.
Eric and Don know it so well. They do. It's almost like younger people know it a lot better than older people.
Eric and Don Jr. were both at the launch too, excited about this new venture. Here's Eric.
You've got countries, you've got sovereign wealth funds that are literally putting their entire fortunes into crypto. If America doesn't do it, we're going to be left behind. We can't be left behind in anything we do. Certainly not digital finance, right?
Throughout Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, the Trump family had been getting increasingly involved in cryptocurrency. But World Liberty Financial was their biggest effort to join the crypto gold rush.
There's no question that this is the future, guys.
Trump, of course, went on to win re-election, and he appointed his friend Steve Witkoff to a high-profile role as special envoy in the incoming administration. Over the past year, my colleagues Angus Barak and Rebecca Ballhaus have been reporting on World Liberty Financial and how much it's grown. And they found the Trump family's crypto company has been secretly working with foreign-owned businesses. Here's Angus.
You've got one of the most powerful officials in the United Arab Emirates who has put a huge amount of money into a company run by the president's family. And you've got the world's biggest crypto company, which isn't even allowed to operate in the United States because of its criminal conviction that has been boosting world liberty.
And those international business associates wanted something from the U.S.
What is World Liberty Financial and how did it start?
government.
It's something that is totally unprecedented in American politics and, you know, is something that I think previous presidents would absolutely have avoided because it calls into question the motivations behind your administration's foreign policy.
World Liberty said President Trump and Steve Witkoff haven't been involved in the company since taking office and that Witkoff has divested. The White House said that President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that World Liberty is run by the Trump and Witkoff sons, independently of their fathers. The White House also said that there are no conflicts of interest and that President Trump, quote, only acts in the best interest of the American public. Rebecca, how much money is the Trump family made from World Liberty Financial?
Yeah, it's a pretty amazing number. So World Liberty has doled out at least $1.2 billion to the Trump family. And just to put it in perspective with Trump's, you know, real estate empire, it took eight years for Trump's real estate, golf, and brand empire to make that amount of money between 2010 and 2017.
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