Source published November 9, 2026, at 19:26:27 UTC+8.
President Donald Trump said he knows “nothing” about World Liberty Financial while defending his family’s stake in the crypto venture, according to an interview transcript published by CBS News and cited by Decrypt.
Speaking with columnist Ross Douthat after the previous week’s midterm elections, Trump was asked why his co-ownership of a company partly owned by investors linked to the United Arab Emirates government differed from an arrangement he would criticize as corrupt if it involved the Biden family.
“Here’s the difference […] I’m gonna tell you why. Because I know nothing about it,” Trump replied.
Asked why he did not divest, Trump said most of his money was managed by Wall Street firms through index funds and that his sons ran the family business. “It’s hard to say to them, ‘Don’t do anything anymore for four years because I’m president,’” he said.
When Douthat asked whether foreign investors believed they were buying influence, Trump answered: “I don’t know.” He argued that presidential conflicts of interest stretched back to George Washington, saying, “There’s crypto, and before that there was oil,” and that “every president has had this problem.” He also described himself as “a bigger name than other presidents.”
A crypto business with several distinct interests
Eric Trump announced World Liberty Financial in August 2024. The company issues the WLFI governance token and the USD1 stablecoin. In January 2026, it launched World Liberty Markets, a lending and borrowing platform built on the DeFi protocol Dolomite.
Those products represent different parts of the business: a governance token, a stablecoin and a lending platform. The ownership scrutiny concerns the company and its financial arrangements, rather than treating those products as interchangeable.
According to World Liberty’s disclosures:
- DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity affiliated with Trump and certain family members, owns about 38% of the holding company behind World Liberty Financial.
- That entity holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens and is entitled to 75% of net proceeds from WLFI token sales.
- A separate Trump-affiliated entity has an indirect claim on interest earned from the reserves backing USD1.
The disclosures say no Trump family member is an officer, director or employee of World Liberty. Decrypt nevertheless reported that Trump’s sons had remained involved with the company.
The UAE stake and the influence question
In February 2026, Decrypt, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that Aryam Investment had agreed to buy a 49% stake for $500 million four days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. Aryam is a UAE-backed entity tied to the country’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed.
Eric Trump signed the agreement on World Liberty’s behalf. The transaction reportedly preceded the administration’s reversal of restrictions on advanced AI chip sales to the UAE. That reported sequence does not itself establish that the two decisions were connected.
A World Liberty spokesperson said at the time that neither Trump nor his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had “any involvement whatsoever” in the transaction, according to ABC News. Trump had previously said he was unaware of the deal.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, described the arrangement in February as “potentially criminal conduct.” That was his characterization, not a finding of criminal wrongdoing.
Ownership also features in the Justin Sun dispute
World Liberty’s UAE ownership has also become an issue in its legal dispute with Tron founder Justin Sun. Sun’s lawyers asked a federal court to sanction World Liberty, alleging that it delayed disclosing UAE ownership that could defeat federal jurisdiction over his lawsuit.
World Liberty has called Sun’s legal campaign a “meritless PR stunt.”
The central distinction in Trump’s defense is between his claimed lack of knowledge and his family’s disclosed economic interests. The interview records his denial of familiarity with the business; it does not resolve the questions about ownership, foreign investors’ intentions or conflicts of interest.
