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Sam Kessler@skesslr · Feb 1, 2026

SCOOP: Days before the inauguration, the Trump family secretly signed away 49% of World Liberty Financial, their…

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Summary

The Trump family secretly sold a 49% stake in their crypto company World Liberty Financial to a UAE royal advisor for $500M days before inauguration, with the deal involving board seats for UAE executives and subsequent cryptocurrency investments that benefited from Trump administration actions including a pardon of Binance's founder.

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  1. #1

    SCOOP: Days before the inauguration, the Trump family secretly signed away 49% of World Liberty Financial, their crypto company, in a deal with a U.A.E. royal, acc. to documents and people familiar. The $500M investment came months before the U.A.E. won access to U.S. AI chips🧵

  2. #2

    Read our full story: w/ @rebeccaballhaus @eliotwb @AABerwick wsj.com/politics/polic… 2/

  3. #3

    The @worldlibertyfi deal was signed by Eric Trump and split into two installments. The first $250M was paid up front, steering $187M to Trump family entities and $31M to entities tied to the family of Steve Witkoff, who was just named U.S. envoy to the Middle East. 3/

  4. #4

    The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the U.A.E.’s national security adviser. Tahnoon oversees a $1.3T business empire, but his AI ambitions had been stymied for years by U.S. officials over concerns about his companies' ties to China. 4/

  5. #5

    As a result of the deal, two top executives from Tahnoon’s AI firm, G42, took seats on World Liberty’s board. They also sit on the board of another Tahnoon company: MGX. 5/

  6. #6

    In May, Tahnoon’s MGX elected to use World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, to invest $2B Binance. The deal was marketed as an organic endorsement of WLF's technology. The company never disclosed that it shared leadership with MGX. 6/

  7. #7

    Months after the investment, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. People close to the U.A.E. royal family had urged the Trump administration to pardon Zhao, saying it would help bring the world’s largest crypto exchange back to the U.S., people familiar with the matter said. 7/

  8. #8

    There's much, much, much more detail in the full story. Please give it a read! wsj.com/politics/polic…