President Donald Trump stated that he is completely unaware of World Liberty Financial, the digital asset enterprise he co-owns, when questioned regarding overseas backers and potential conflicts of interest during a 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday.
“Because I know nothing about it,” Trump informed CBS News reporter Ross Douthat when queried why foreign backing in his cryptocurrency project would not spark the identical corruption worries that might arise if former President Joe Biden held comparable stakes.
Douthat additionally inquired why Trump could not divest his share in World Liberty Financial while permitting his children to keep managing the firm. “How do you divest from cash?” Trump responded. He mentioned that the bulk of his net worth is kept with prominent Wall Street institutions and put into index funds.
The President had previously defended keeping his equity by pointing out that his offspring operated the business. World Liberty debuted in September 2024, designating him as its “Chief Crypto Advocate,” whereas Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were labeled “Web3 Ambassadors” and Barron Trump appeared as “Chief DeFi Visionary.”
“I have a company. My sons run the company. It’s hard to say to them, ‘Don’t do anything anymore for four years because I’m president,’” he stated.
Trump’s crypto orbit
These remarks emerge amid heavy scrutiny over World Liberty’s international investments and ownership framework. In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan alongside co-investors maintained a 49% stake in WLFI-linked WLTC Holdings. The enterprise recently secured provisional approval from the OCC for a national trust bank charter.
In a separate piece, an earlier WSJ report indicated that a Tahnoon-backed investment entity covertly secured a 49% share in World Liberty Financial for $500 million just prior to Trump’s swearing-in.
World Liberty is also dealing with a legal battle involving investor Justin Sun, who claims he put $45 million into WLFI tokens. Sun has requested sanctions against the firm, claiming it failed to reveal that participants within its ownership layout possessed UAE nationality until months into their court fight. The Tron creator filed a lawsuit in April concerning the supposed freezing of his tokens, while World Liberty has dismissed his lawsuit as a “meritless PR stunt.”
Meanwhile, Public Citizen calculated in August that participants across Trump-associated crypto initiatives were at minimum $4.7 billion underwater, mostly in unrealized losses. It blamed at least $1 billion of those paper losses on WLFI.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-11-09-trump-says-he-knows-nothing-about-uae-linked-investment-in-his-crypto-firm-436079.
