Trump: ‘Didn’t Know’ About $500M Abu Dhabi Bet On WLFI

US President Donald Trump stated he was unaware of the $500 million funding by an Abu Dhabi royal into World Liberty Financial, pushing duty to his sons as questions mount over international cash, crypto rails, and US coverage selections.

Asked on the White House on Feb. 2 a couple of The Wall Street Journal report that the Abu Dhabi royal household invested “a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” into the Trump-linked enterprise, Trump flatly denied data and framed the operation as a family-run facet undertaking.

“Well, I don’t find out about it. I do know that crypto is a giant factor they usually prefer it. Lots of people prefer it,” Trump stated. “The individuals behind me prefer it. My sons are dealing with that. My household is dealing with it. And I suppose they get investments from totally different individuals. But I’m not.” He then pivoted to geopolitics: “I’ve all I can deal with proper now with Iran and with Russia and Ukraine and with all of the issues we’re doing.”

Why The Trump Deal Raises Questions

The denial lands amid a fast-building paper path round World Liberty Financial’s cap desk and its ties to Gulf-linked capital. According to the report, a agency related to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal tied to the emirate’s state funding equipment, acquired roughly 49% of World Liberty Financial in a deal valued at about $500 million, with paperwork reviewed by the Journal indicating the settlement was struck simply days earlier than Trump took workplace.

The report additionally describes why the timing is politically flamable: months after the reported stake buy, the Trump administration moved forward with supplying the United Arab Emirates with superior US-made AI chips regardless of prior issues about diversion dangers to China, intensifying the notion that enterprise and statecraft are entangled.

World Liberty Financial, for its half, has rejected the suggestion that any authorities motion was influenced by the funding. A spokesperson stated that neither Trump nor Steve Witkoff was concerned within the transaction and referred to as claims tying it to the chips choice “100% false,” whereas White House counsel stated the president has no involvement in enterprise offers that might implicate his constitutional obligations.

The controversy has a second, crypto-native layer: the identical Abu Dhabi orbit has already proven it’s keen to make use of World Liberty-linked devices as settlement rails. Abu Dhabi-backed MGX used World Liberty’s dollar-pegged stablecoin (USD1) to settle a $2 billion investment into Binance, a deal publicly mentioned by World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff at TOKEN2049 in Dubai.

That mixture has given critics a simple narrative hook: international state-linked capital gaining proximity to a US president’s household enterprise whereas coverage selections affecting the identical nation transfer by means of Washington.

At press time, WLFI traded at $0.13.

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