The Crypto President: Part 2

Big Corners, how's everybody doing?

One month after President Trump won re-election, his son Eric grabbed a microphone and jogged

up some stairs to the main stage of a major crypto conference in Abu Dhabi.

Are you happy we have a new president in the United States, please tell me you're happy?

This was the same United Arab Emirates crypto conference you heard about in the last episode.

Eric was the keynote speaker.

He wore a navy suit, crisp white shirt, no tie, tucked in above a silver belt buckle,

his blonde hair slicked back.

Obviously, to all our friends in the UAE, this country is amazing.

How many people in here from the UAE?

Our family loves you.

Our family loves you.

What did you make of Eric Trump's speech at the time?

I think at the time it was something we really glossed over, but I think in light of the

deal that we later learned about, it certainly sticks out a lot more.

That's our colleague Rebecca Ballhouse.

She's part of the Wall Street Journal reporting team that's been investigating the Trump family's

crypto venture, world liberty financial.

I've been focusing in the past year or so mostly on the Trump family and the various ways

that they've been profiting from the presidency.

In less than two years, world liberty financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2 billion

in cash, and a lot of that has come through foreign-owned businesses.

As we examined in yesterday's episode, one of the companies they worked with was the

cryptocurrency exchange finance.

The other involved the United Arab Emirates.

Which weeks after Eric Trump's keynote speech in Abu Dhabi, world liberty financial went

into business with a member of the UAE royal family.

The deal that they made was kept a secret.

Until we revealed it in January of this year, it had never been disclosed publicly.

We had spent a year at that point focusing on finance and world liberty and to learn that

another connected but separate player had been, in fact, giving the largest injection

of money into this company was just a shock to learn that there had been someone else

behind the scenes this whole time.

This secret deal was remarkable.

A foreign government official getting deeply involved with an incoming U.S. president's

company.

And what are the implications?

Typically presidents take pains to avoid any optics that might look like they're conducting

diplomacy in a way that favors their own bottom line.

A foreign government official taking a stake in the president's company right before he

becomes president is the first and is not something we've seen in modern American politics.

Once that deal took place, world liberty financial has become a major player in the crypto

industry and a money making machine for the Trump family.

And the UAE finally got something it's wanted from the U.S. for years.

A lawyer for the White House said that quote, the president has no involvement in business

deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities.

And a spokeswoman for the Trump organization said the idea that politics has enriched

the Trump family is quote, laughable.

Over the course of two episodes, we're diving into the secret dealings that put world

liberty financial on the map, while personally enriching the Trump family.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

Saturday, April 25th.

This is episode two, the deal with the spy shake.

The United Arab Emirates is a tiny but extremely wealthy nation on the Arabian Peninsula.

And for decades, the country has been gearing up for a post-oil future.

To do that, it has its sights set on becoming a world leader in artificial intelligence.

And the person behind that goal is the UAE president's brother, Sheikh Taknoon bin Zayed

al-Nayan.

Sheikh, by the way, in the UAE, is a title for male royals.

So Sheikh Taknoon is this really interesting figure.

He oversees a more than $1.3 trillion empire that's backed by both his personal fortune and

state money.

And he owns companies that span from fish farms to AI to surveillance.

And he is sometimes referred to as the spy shake.

Taknoon gets that spy shake nickname because he's the country's national security advisor.

But he's also just pretty mysterious.

He doesn't really do interviews.

And because of an eye condition, he's almost never seen without a pair of big dark sunglasses

on.

And he has grand ambitions for the future of the UAE.

So Sheikh Taknoon was given this mission by his brother to lead the country's push to

become a world leader in AI.

And what he needs to be able to do that is to secure access to US chips.

He's in artificial intelligence chips, the ones that power AI's quick processing.

There are different kinds of AI chips manufactured around the world, but the ones from US companies

are considered to be the best.

And those are the ones that Taknoon wanted.

Those chips would help him reach a goal he's been working towards for years, building

one of the world's biggest AI data center clusters, a project so big that it would require

the energy of two Hoover Danes.

And he starts doing this under the Biden administration and starts lobbying to be allotted a certain

number of these chips.

But he really encounters hurdles because during the Biden administration, US officials are

really skeptical about the UAE and in particular, Taknoon's company is ties to China.

And so in 2023, one of Taknoon's companies says that it's cutting its ties to China,

that it's siding with the US, but the skepticism sort of remains.

Back then, it wasn't just Democrats who were concerned.

Some Republicans were worried too.

Here's representative Mike Gallagher.

Above all, when we look at this space, we need to understand that a world in which the

Chinese Communist Party dominates critical technologies, particularly artificial intelligence,

is a very dark and dystopian world.

And it's one that we don't want to do.

With all the pushback, Biden decided to allow the UAE access to only a small number of

AI chips.

Our fewer than Taknoon had been pursuing.

But Taknoon isn't used to being told no.

After all, he controls more money than almost anyone else on the planet.

When Trump is elected, Taknoon sees an opportunity to get the approval for more chips that he

had wanted during the Biden administration.

And so they really launched this full court press to win over the incoming Trump administration.

After the U.S. presidential election, Taknoon began finding ways to get close to the

incoming Trump administration.

And an opportunity presented itself in the Trump family's new crypto company, World

Liberty Financial.

So four days before Trump's inauguration, Taknoon and some co-investors bought half of

World Liberty, purchasing 49% of the Trump's company for half a billion dollars.

The deal was signed January 16th, 2025, four days before the inauguration.

It's signed by Eric Trump.

Signing on the UAE side were two executives working for Taknoon.

Half of the purchase price was paid up front, immediately steering $187 million to Trump

family entities.

It was not disclosed.

They never announced this partnership.

This was a massive deal, and it was kept a secret.

My colleague, Sam Kessler, called me on a weekend and said that he had reviewed a company

documents that backed up that the shake had struck this deal with world liberty.

And I think my jaw just dropped.

It was, you know, that was a big surprise.

A world Liberty spokesman said that the deal was in the company's best interest, and

that the president has had no involvement in either this deal or in the company since

taking office.

The spokesman also said the idea that, quote, a privately held American company should

be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous

and un-American.

A person familiar with Taknoon's investment said that it was not discussed with President

Trump.

What's kind of amazing is that at the time of the investment, world liberty doesn't have

any products, which, you know, if you're looking at a typical deal, you're going to say that's

not a great deal for this investor.

Right.

So what was it that they were purchasing exactly?

What did they get in return?

I mean, I think that's the question.

It's certainly, if you're talking about trying to avoid optics of what would look like

a deal where, you know, it begs the question of what one party is getting.

This doesn't necessarily follow what previous presidents might have done.

And that's not all.

After that deal with world liberty was done, Taknoon, now a major secret owner in the Trump's

company, made another move.

Shake to Noon runs several other companies, including the company MGX.

We told you about MGX in the last episode.

Is that company that's backed by the UAE government?

And it's also the company that used world liberty's USD one to make a $2 billion investment

in the cryptocurrency exchange finance.

You may remember that transaction was a huge moment for world liberty.

It ultimately allowed world liberty to pocket $80 million in income annually, and it legitimized

the company in USD one in the eyes of the crypto world.

MGX is Taknoon's company.

But when that $2 billion transaction happened, it wasn't public that MGX and world liberty

shared ownership, Taknoon.

So world liberty used it as an endorsement.

Like hey, this major Emirati investor is using our stablecoin, and you should too.

World liberty presented this MGX investment using USD one as an enormous vote of confidence

in world liberty and in its stablecoin.

And so the fact that Zach Whitcoff took the stage and was saying, we thank MGX for their

trust in us.

We thank MGX and Binance for their trust in us.

And at the time that he knew that both MGX and world liberty were partly owned by the

same person was just pretty shocking to me.

What is the risk of going into business with the foreign government official in this way?

The risk is that then every deal you do with that foreign government or every interaction

you have with them is sort of called into question whether this is part of a business deal

or whether you're doing this in the best interest of the US.

Three months after the secret deal, Taknoon goes to the White House.

That's next.

In March of 2025, three months after Taknoon had secretly bought a stake in world liberty

financial, President Trump invited him to the White House.

Taknoon arrives in Washington with his delegation and Trump hosts this big White House dinner

for Taknoon and his delegation and he invites the Vice President and several cabinet members

including the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury.

We see Taknoon in photos that the White House releases is sitting across from Trump.

Taknoon got the full red carpet treatment.

Photos showed them together in the Oval Office sitting side by side, Trump with a huge

grin on his face.

And what I heard from national security officials or informer national security officials

that I spoke to was that they were pretty stunned to see this level of access that Taknoon

is getting because under previous administrations what usually happens with a visiting for an

official is that they'll meet their US counterpart.

So for Taknoon, that would be the national security adviser.

And Taknoon did at one point meet with Biden, but he didn't get this kind of splashy White

House dinner with the President and a half dozen cabinet members.

So people who kind of know how these things usually worked found that pretty remarkable.

A big part of Taknoon's visit was to get artificial intelligence chips, the same chips that

the Biden administration had limited over concerns about the UAE's links to China.

He's there in large part to push for a chip deal with the US.

He meets with Trump in the Oval Office.

He makes this $1.4 trillion investment pledge.

He says the UAE will invest in the US over a decade, which, you know, Trump loves those

kinds of announcements, loves to later tell those and he told people at the time that he

was really excited about that.

Then two months later in May, Trump made a visit in turn.

He went to the UAE himself.

Trump travels to Abu Dhabi.

He's also kind of a total love fest between Trump and the UAE.

The UAE organizes these fighter jet escorts for Air Force One.

There was a parade of soldiers and dancers and people waving US and UAE flags, greeting

Trump inside the country's beautiful white and gold presidential palace.

Trump tells the president of the country who's Taknoon's brother that he's a magnificent

man.

A very strong man, a brilliant man, a man of vision.

And he brings Taknoon up in meetings.

He says your wonderful brother has recently been to Washington to the president.

And your wonderful brother came to Washington a few weeks ago and he looks over this 3D

model of a massive AI data center project and Steve Whitkopf and Taknoon are kind of

looking on nearby.

So it's sort of amazing convergence of many of the players who are all together in Abu

Dhabi.

I have absolutely no doubt that the relationship will only get bigger and better.

You're a relationship.

And then on the final day of the trip, Trump made a big announcement.

Yesterday the two countries also agreed to create a path for UAE to buy some of the world's

most advanced AI semiconductors from American companies, a very big contract.

He says that the two countries have agreed to a very big contract for the UAE to buy

around 500,000 of the US's most advanced AI chips per year.

I mean, obviously this is what Taknoon has been lobbying for.

So this is a huge deal.

When he gives you a handshake, when he makes a deal, that's the deal.

National security concerns were not mentioned.

And on his flight home, Trump boasted about his relationship with the UAE.

It's been an amazing trip.

We've raised millions of dollars of investment for our country.

And we're dealing with really good people that have been abandoned and awaited by our country

and by the United States.

Then in January of 2026, Taknoon's secret stake in world liberty financial suddenly wasn't

a secret anymore.

Because Rebecca and the Wall Street Journal published the reporting, saying that four months

before the US agreed to sell all those AI chips to the UAE, Taknoon had bought almost

half of Trump's world liberty financial.

And the news spread quickly.

Well, as there are times when I see a lead of a news story that is so startling to me,

I have to read it out loud.

There are brand new revelations that re-series questions about the depth of Donald Trump's

second term grip.

Sheik wanted AI chips, so he said, all right, I'm going to buy Trump's crypto.

And I get the chips, it was literally a Sheik down and weird.

After the news broke, more than a dozen Democrats condemned the Trump family's decision to accept

an investment from a foreign official.

Democrats, as you would expect, were pretty apoplectic about our reporting.

We see Senator Chris Murphy goes to the Senate floor and condemns the deal.

The White House has become a non-stop corruption machine.

Congresswoman Gregory Meeks is saying that he wants a review of these conflicts of interest

and foreign influence to be completed and shared with the Congress, and Meeks kind of

points his finger at the shouts, and so it's kind of amazing to see there's been so much

brewing between Democrats and the administration about this idea of, you know, profiting off

of the presidency.

We really see some of those tensions come to a head in that hearing.

Rebecca says it's unlikely that the Democrats calls for investigation will go anywhere, while

the party is in the minority.

Republican lawmakers have largely refrained from commenting on the deal.

A world liberty spokesman said the deal didn't grant either party access to government

decision-making.

He also called the Democrats' comments baseless, saying, quote, these lawmakers are harassing

a private American business to score political points.

Donald Trump Jr. was asked about taknoons 49% stake in world liberty during an interview

with CNBC.

Here's Don Jr.

Hey, my father has nothing to do with B. It has nothing to do with AI chips and C. We

met in the Middle East the first time.

What their argument is is essentially that the sons are not in government and therefore

can do what any other businessman can do.

And that because their fathers are not involved, there's no conflict of interest.

We've been dealing with the conflict of interest for years.

I mean, they tried all this nonsense the first time around.

Frankly, it's gotten old.

There were the ones that put us into this position.

So some Democratic lawmakers have called this conflict of interest.

How do conflict of interest laws apply to the president?

The president is exempt from conflict of interest rules in a way that other members of his

administration are not.

And we talked about this so much during Trump's first term, the idea that there were really

not a lot of rules in place for presidents and conflicts of interest and, you know, ethical

obligations because there has always been an assumption that a president would be governed

by the norms of this role and the desire to not have there be, you know, bad optics

and that sort of thing.

Past presidents have typically placed their assets in a blind trust and avoided striking

new business deals while in office.

And we saw Trump very much not abide by those norms in his first term.

And I remember there being a lot of questions about like what rules will be imposed after

he leaves office to address this going forward.

And we really didn't see very much of anything be put in place.

And so now he's back and he's, you know, just doing the same thing he was doing before

and maybe sort of turbocharged this time around.

A White House spokesperson said that, quote, President Trump only acts in the best interests

of the American public.

The spokesperson also said that President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children

and that there are no conflicts of interest.

Over the past several years, his children have pursued business deals like the ones they've

struck through world liberty financial, which has earned over a billion dollars for the

Trump family since its launch.

Rebecca, do these deals change the diplomatic playbook in any way?

Yeah, I spoke to a number of people about that while we were reporting out this story.

And what you've heard from really over the course of the past year, from a number of

lobbyists who have foreign governments as clients and foreign diplomats is that there

is this view abroad that Trump is a transactional president and that, you know, I think some

of these countries even appreciate that stance because they feel like they know how to play

that game.

But the feeling is very much that if you want something from the Trump administration,

you have to be prepared to give something in return.

There is certainly this perspective that it's got to be a trade.

This deal really only reinforces that dynamic.

Just a couple months ago, in February of this year, world liberty financial held a crypto

conference of its own, the inaugural world liberty forum.

Back where it all began, at Trump's Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago.

World liberty is throwing a conference in this ornate ballroom at Trump's resort in Palm Beach.

There's a golden eagle that's sort of hanging over the conference stage, guests are mingling

by the pool where there's another golden eagle sitting in the pool.

Conference attendees included regulators, business leaders, and Trump administration officials.

So it's just yet another example of this kind of intermingling of world liberty and the

Trump administration.

Another attendee was CZ, the pardoned founder of cryptocurrency exchange finance.

This visit to Mar-a-Lago was his first time back on U.S. soil since he was released

from prison.

This event really sort of highlights how the Whit cough sons and the Trump sons have leveraged

their father's roles in the administration to kind of flaunt their access to power.

This event only demonstrated that they plan to grow from here.

So it's pretty clear that world liberty has no plans to slow down any time soon.

That's all for today, Saturday, April 25th.

The journal is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal.

This episode was produced by Sophie Codner and edited by Laura Morris.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

Additional reporting in this episode by Angus Barich, Elliott Brown, and Patricia Cowsman.

Fact checking by Mary Mathis.

Sound design and mixing by Nathan Singapac.

Music in this episode by Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord, and Nathan Singapac.

Our theme music is by so wildly and remixed by Nathan Singapac.

Special thanks to Beth Blackshire, Catherine Brewer, Pia Gagcari, Colin McNulty, Sarah Platt,

and Tatiana Zameez.

Thanks for listening.

See you Monday.