The Crypto President: Part 2

**Eric Trump** (0:05)
Bitcoiners, how's everybody doing?

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:11)
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.

**Eric Trump** (0:21)
Are you happy we have a new president in the United States? Please tell me you're happy.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:26)
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.

**Eric Trump** (0:40)
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.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:54)
What did you make of Eric Trump's speech at the time?

**Rebecca Ballhaus** (0:57)
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.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:08)
That's our colleague Rebecca Ballhaus. She's part of the Wall Street Journal reporting team that's been investigating the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.

**Rebecca Ballhaus** (1:18)
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.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:26)
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 Binance. The other involves the United Arab Emirates.
Just weeks after Eric Trump's keynote speech in Abu Dhabi, World Liberty Financial went into business with a member of the UAE royal family. And the deal that they made was kept a secret.

**Rebecca Ballhaus** (2:03)
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 Binance 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.

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:32)
This secret deal was remarkable. A foreign government official getting deeply involved with an incoming US president's company.
And what are the implications?

**Rebecca Ballhaus** (2:44)
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 a first, and is not something we've seen in modern American politics.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:10)
Since 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 US 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. It's Saturday, April 25th.
This is Episode 2, The Deal with the Spyshake.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:23)
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**Jessica Mendoza** (4:58)
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 Taqnoon bin Zayed al-Nayan. Sheikh, by the way, in the UAE is a title for male royals.

**Rebecca Ballhaus** (5:26)
So Sheikh Taqnoon 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.