Trump says he knows 'nothing' about his crypto firm. A UAE royal's investors agreed to pay $500M for 49% of it

Asked on national television why his family's crypto company should not raise the same corruption questions he would raise about a rival, President Donald Trump gave a short answer: "Because I know nothing about it."

The company is World Liberty Financial. Trump confirmed in the same interview that he is a co-owner. Four days before his second inauguration, an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates' national security adviser and a brother of its president, signed a deal to buy 49% of the company for $500 million, The Wall Street Journal reported in January. World Liberty later confirmed the investment to The New York Times.

The exchange aired on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Nov. 8, in Trump's first sit-down interview since Democrats won both chambers of Congress. It has since spread widely on X, including in a Nov. 10 post by Swamp Tracker, an anonymous account that describes its mission as "exposing the political class." This article checks that post against the transcript and the public record, sets out what Trump actually said about divesting, and lays out the competing arguments over whether a sitting president should hold a stake in a company with foreign government-linked investors.

What the viral post says, and what checks out#

Swamp Tracker's post makes two claims. First, that Trump, explaining "why he won't divest from his family's crypto firm," said, "Because I know nothing about it." Second, that "a UAE royal's firm agreed to pay $500 million for 49% of it days before his inauguration."

View this post on X

The second claim matches the reporting. According to the Journal, the buyer was Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Tahnoon. The deal was signed on Jan. 16, 2025, by Eric Trump, the president's son. Half the price was paid up front, and of that, $187 million went to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities tied to the family of Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who became Trump's Middle East envoy, according to CNN's summary of the Journal's reporting. "A UAE royal's firm" is a fair shorthand: Aryam was backed by Tahnoon, and the Journal describes the signers as his lieutenants.

The first claim is accurate on the words but compresses the order of the conversation. In the CBS transcript, correspondent Ross Douthat first asked why the arrangement was different from one he said Trump would call corrupt if it involved Joe Biden's family. Trump's "Because I know nothing about it" answered that question. Douthat's follow-up, "Why not just divest? Walk away?", came seconds later. So the quote is real and the topic is the same, but Trump said the line about the Biden comparison, not in direct reply to the word "divest." The Swamp Tracker post does not link to the transcript or video.

Swamp Tracker is anonymous, and this review covers only this post. Its two claims can be checked against primary sources, and they largely hold up. That is not a judgment about anything else the account has published.

The full exchange#

The transcript, as published by CBS and reproduced by election-law scholar Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog, runs as follows in the key passage. Douthat said: "This company is also partially owned by investors connected to the government of the United Arab Emirates. I think if I told you that story and it was about the Biden family … you would say, 'That sounds corrupt,' right?"

Trump replied: "But here's the difference … I'm gonna tell you why. Because I know nothing about it."

Douthat then asked, "But then why do you need the money? Why not just divest? Walk away?" Trump said most of his money is "given to the biggest firms on Wall Street to invest" in index funds. Pressed again, he said his sons run the family company: "It's hard to say to them, 'Don't do anything anymore for four years because I'm president.'"

When Douthat said Trump could divest "from the company yourself and let them do whatever they want," Trump answered: "You're right, Ross, but how do you divest from cash?" He then returned to his stock portfolio, saying the trades are "all computer generated" and "I have no idea what the hell they're buying."

Douthat's final question on the topic was whether foreign investors "who want things from your government" think they are buying influence. "I don't know," Trump said, adding that every president back to George Washington has faced conflicts involving aides who leave for industry.

The interview also produced headlines on immigration, which our story on Trump's "too tough" deportation remarks covers.

What Trump's own disclosure shows#

Trump's statement that he knows "nothing" about the company sits alongside a large reported income from it. His annual financial disclosure for 2025, filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and stamped received June 29, 2026, lists an entity called DT Marks Defi LLC. That entity holds a 38.25% interest in WLF Holdco LLC. The form says DT Marks Defi is owned 69% by DTTM Operations LLC, 1% by a member corporation and 30% by "Trump Family Members."

Source: OGE Form 278e, calendar year 2025, schedule lines 124.2, 124.3 and 124.6. The form reports income to entities, not to Trump personally.

The form lists further wallets in Bitcoin, USDC and other tokens, each described as proceeds from token sales distributed by World Liberty. News outlets have added these lines up differently. CNBC put token-sale income at about $515 million plus $65 million from equity sales. Bloomberg reported more than $594 million from World Liberty sales. The gap comes from whether the crypto wallet lines are added to the cash line or are a breakdown of it; the form does not say. Either way, the figures are reported to entities in which Trump holds most of the ownership, and the disclosure does not show how much reached him personally.

Those totals do not settle Trump's claim. A person can receive distributions from a company without managing it, and Trump's position is that his sons and the company's executives run it. The disclosure does show that his financial interest in the company's fortunes is large and current, which is the premise of Douthat's question.

How each side responds#

The White House and World Liberty#

The administration has said the arrangement poses no conflict. "President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CNN in February. World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman said: "Neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any involvement whatsoever in this transaction and have had no involvement in World Liberty Financial since taking office." He called any link to U.S. chip policy "100% false" and said holding a private company to "some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American."

Trump's own argument in the interview has three parts: he does not manage the company; his family's business predates his presidency and his sons should not have to halt it; and conflicts involving money and access have dogged every president. His answer, "how do you divest from cash?", points to a real practical issue: much of his wealth, by his account, sits in managed accounts, which are not the same as an operating stake in a private firm.

Critics in Congress and ethics lawyers#

Critics argue that the "I know nothing" defense misses the point. Their concern is not whether Trump reads the company's books. It is that a foreign official whose government seeks U.S. approvals bought into a company that pays the president's family. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the UAE deal "Corruption, plain and simple" when it was first reported, according to CNN. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., wrote to World Liberty in a Feb. 4 letter that the deals "do not just bear the appearance of impropriety, but of illegality," citing conflict-of-interest law and the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause. Those are allegations; no court or ethics body has ruled on them.$$

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the incoming chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent World Liberty a letter on Nov. 5 setting a Jan. 4, 2027, deadline to voluntarily produce records in an inquiry he opened in May 2025, according to his office's release. The letter warned of "alternative measures to obtain compliance," which outlets including Cointelegraph read as a reference to subpoenas once Democrats take the Senate. These are requests, not findings.$

Our earlier record of World Liberty's UAE investors, bank charter and lawsuits details the chip-export timeline critics cite and the regulators' responses. Witkoff's own holdings are covered in our story on his latest ethics filing.

Reaction on X#

Commentator Ken LaCorte, who describes his work as "a serious look at questions most people don't discuss," praised the interview as a whole. His post links to an X Article titled "60 Minutes did a great job," which lists Douthat's questions, including the World Liberty sequence, and says they were neither flattering nor hostile to the president.

View this post on X

Posts like this show that the exchange spread; they do not measure what the public thinks. In a keyword search of X posts about the exchange from Nov. 8 through the afternoon of Nov. 10, we found no posts from administration officials or World Liberty defending Trump's answer directly.

Checking the claims in the interview#

Several statements in the exchange can be tested against the record.

"I know nothing about it." This cannot be proved or disproved from public documents. The disclosure shows ownership and income, not involvement. World Liberty says Trump has had no role since taking office. Critics point out that the company named Trump its "Chief Crypto Advocate" at launch in 2024, The Block reported.

"My sons run the company." World Liberty's day-to-day leadership is public: Zach Witkoff, Steve Witkoff's son, is chief executive, and Eric Trump signed the Aryam deal. Trump did not say which son, and asked Douthat "Which son are we talking about?"

Obama and Netflix. Trump said Barack Obama "made the deal during his presidency" with Netflix. That is not supported. Netflix announced the Obamas' production deal on May 21, 2018, more than a year after Obama left office. The comparison is also a tu quoque argument: even if another president had a conflict, that would not answer whether this one does. Douthat said he would check the claim, and the record shows the timing was after the presidency.

"Every president has a problem." It is true that past presidents and their aides faced conflict questions. It is also true, as Douthat noted, that no earlier president co-owned a crypto company with foreign government-linked investors. Both statements can hold at once; the question is how much weight the precedent should carry.

Funding and data notes#

Under 567politics rules we checked Trump's campaign-finance record before writing about his financial interests. The site's FEC snapshot for Trump has not yet been verified, so this article makes no claims about his campaign donors. Trump is not on a ballot, and the money at issue here is personal business income reported to the Office of Government Ethics, not campaign receipts. No live federal dataset covers ethics disclosures, so the figures above come directly from the OGE filing.

Why the dispute will grow#

Democrats will hold both chambers in January, and Blumenthal's deadline falls the day after the new Congress convenes. That gives critics subpoena power for the first time since the UAE deal became public. Polling on how much voters weigh this specific issue is limited; our review of voters' corruption concerns covers what surveys have and have not asked.

Trump, for his part, did not say he would sell. "I don't care. Honestly, I don't care," he said of his managed investments. The question for Congress is whether that answer applies to a company that a foreign royal's investors helped fund four days before he took office.

Differing perspectives

Should President Trump sell his stake in World Liberty Financial while he is in office?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Divest, or bar such holdings by law

  Who holds it: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, other Senate Democrats and ethics lawyers including Richard Painter

  These critics argue that a president cannot credibly separate himself from a company that pays his family and whose largest outside investor is tied to a foreign government seeking U.S. approvals. They say managing it at arm's length does not remove the incentive. They want Trump to sell his stake, and back legislation barring regulators from approving banks owned by the president or his family.

  In their words: CNN, Aug. 17, 2026 ↗

• Get the records before deciding

  Who holds it: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, incoming chair of the Senate investigations subcommittee, and House Democrats led by Rep. Ro Khanna

  This group argues that the public cannot judge the arrangement until World Liberty produces its agreements, payment records and communications with the UAE investors. They point to unanswered questions, including where the second half of the $500 million went. Blumenthal has asked the company to hand over records by Jan. 4, 2027, and says the subcommittee will consider other measures if it does not.

  In their words: Office of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (via Capitol Releases) ↗

• Keep the stake while his sons run the business

  Who holds it: President Donald Trump and the White House

  Trump says he knows nothing about the company's dealings because his sons and its executives run it, and that most of his wealth sits with large Wall Street firms that trade without his input. He argues it is unfair to tell his family to stop doing business for four years because he is president, and says every president, back to George Washington, has faced questions about aides and money.

  In their words: CBS News, 60 Minutes transcript ↗

• Treat it like any other private company

  Who holds it: World Liberty Financial and its spokesman, David Wachsman

  World Liberty says it is a private American company that raised money from the UAE-backed investor because the deal was good for the business. It says neither Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any role in the transaction or in the company since taking office, and denies any link to chip export policy. It argues that holding it to a standard no similar company faces is unfair.

  In their words: CNN, Feb. 1, 2026 ↗

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