The Crypto President: Part 1

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:00)
Hey, everyone, it's Jess.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:02)
And Ryan. A quick heads up before we begin, our next live show is just days away.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:07)
It's happening Tuesday, April 28th. The Journal podcast is going to be in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theater.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:13)
We'll have Oscar and Emmy winner Riz Ahmed.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:16)
And TV and film producer Franklin Leonard, who created The Blacklist.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:20)
We'll be talking about the future of Hollywood, plus a few other fun surprises.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:24)
And there's still a few tickets left, so grab yours now.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:28)
Find the link in our show notes.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:30)
See you there April 28th.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:31)
Can't wait to meet you.

**Donald Trump** (0:39)
Join me live on Twitter Spaces at 8 p.m. the September 16th for the launch of World Liberty Financial.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:48)
In September of 2024, in the final months of Donald Trump's presidential campaign for re-election, he sat down in front of a mic and camera in the library at Mar-a-Lago. He was launching a new crypto company, World Liberty Financial.

**Donald Trump** (1:04)
It's a fledgling business, and yet it's a massive business. But it has a chance to really be something special.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:11)
Also at the announcement was Trump's longtime friend, Steve Witkoff.

**Donald Trump** (1:15)
People see Witkoff, a great friend of mine, a great business man from mostly…

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:21)
Witkoff weaved in and out of the room throughout the launch. At one point, he hopped on the mic to talk about how World Liberty Financial came to be.

**Steve Witkoff** (1:29)
And so we had a meeting initially with Eric Don Jr. and the president and his council. And we said, let's go pursue it.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:39)
Trump and Witkoff had only recently gotten on board with crypto, and they credited their sons for that.

**Donald Trump** (1:45)
Eric and Don know it so well.

**Zack Witkoff** (1:47)
They do.

**Donald Trump** (1:48)
It's almost like younger people know it a lot better than older people.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:52)
Eric and Don Jr. were both at the launch too, excited about this new venture. Here's Eric.

**Eric Trump** (1:58)
You've got countries, you've got sovereign wealth funds that are going to retire fortunes into crypto. If America doesn't do it, we're going to be left behind. We can't be left behind in anything we do, certainly not digital finance.

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:11)
Throughout Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, the Trump family had been getting increasingly involved in cryptocurrency. But World Liberty Financial was their biggest effort to join the crypto gold rush.

**Eric Trump** (2:24)
There's no question that this is the future, guys.

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:31)
Trump, of course, went on to win re-election, and he appointed his friend Steve Witkoff to a high-profile role as special envoy in the incoming administration.
Over the past year, my colleagues Angus Berwick and Rebecca Bauhaus have been reporting on World Liberty Financial and how much it's grown. And they found the Trump family's crypto company has been secretly working with foreign-owned businesses. Here's Angus.

**Angus Berwick** (2:58)
You've got one of the most powerful officials in the United Arab Emirates, who has put a huge amount of money into a company run by the president's family. And you've got the world's biggest crypto company, which isn't even allowed to operate in the United States because of its criminal conviction that has been boosting World Liberty.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:21)
And those international business associates wanted something from the US government.

**Rebecca Bauhaus** (3:27)
It's something that is totally unprecedented in American politics, and is something that I think previous presidents would absolutely have avoided because it calls into question the motivations behind your administration's foreign policy.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:42)
World Liberty said President Trump and Steve Witkoff haven't been involved in the company since taking office, and that Witkoff has divested. The White House said that President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that World Liberty is run by the Trump and Witkoff sons, independently of their fathers. The White House also said that there are no conflicts of interest, and that President Trump, quote, only acts in the best interest of the American public.
Rebecca, how much money is the Trump family made from World Liberty Financial?

**Rebecca Bauhaus** (4:17)
Yeah, it's a pretty amazing number. So World Liberty has doled out at least $1.2 billion to the Trump family, and just to put it in perspective with Trump's, you know, real estate empire, it took eight years for Trump's real estate, golf, and brand empire to make that amount of money between 2010 and 2017 So it's safe to say that Trump is seeing an influx of wealth unlike what he's ever seen before.