<\/p>\n
D<\/span>ays before Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, an investment firm controlled by a senior member of the United Arab Emirates royal family secretly signed a deal<\/a> to pay $500m to buy almost half of a cryptocurrency startup founded by the Trump family. Under any other president, such an arrangement, which was revealed<\/a> this past weekend by the Wall Street Journal, would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings and months of damage control.<\/p>\n But this latest example of corruption involving Trump and his family business hardly made a blip over the past few days, relegated to a passing headline<\/a> in a relentless news cycle often dominated by Trump\u2019s actions and statements.<\/p>\n This scandal deserves our attention: a half-billion-dollar transaction with a foreign government official, executed in the shadow of Trump\u2019s inauguration, which directly enriched the president and his family. The deal to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company<\/a> founded by the Trump family and several allies in the fall of 2024 during Trump\u2019s presidential campaign, was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, one of the most powerful officials in the UAE. Known as the \u201cspy sheikh\u201d<\/a>, Tahnoon is the brother of the UAE\u2019s president and serves as national security adviser. He also oversees one of the largest investment empires in the world, serving as chair of two Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, which have $1.5tn in assets, and G42, a firm focused on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n It\u2019s dizzying to keep up with the ways that Trump has monetized the presidency and used it for personal profit in his second term. The Trump Organization, run by the president\u2019s sons, has negotiated foreign real estate deals<\/a> worth billions of dollars, some of which involve private companies backed by governments<\/a> of the three wealthiest Arab petrostates: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. In May, as Trump prepared to visit the Middle East, Qatar\u2019s government donated a $400m luxury Boeing jet, which is being refitted by the US military so Trump can use it as Air Force One. It was probably the most expensive gift from a foreign government<\/a> in US history \u2013 and Trump has said the plane will be transferred to his presidential library when his term ends in 2029, meaning he could still use it after he leaves the White House.<\/p>\n In late May, the president hosted a private dinner<\/a> at his Virginia golf club for the 220 largest buyers of his memecoin, called $Trump, which is a type of cryptocurrency connected to an online joke or mascot and has no inherent value. The top 25 buyers in the crypto contest<\/a> got invited to a VIP reception with Trump and a White House tour. In all, the Trump family\u2019s crypto business raked in about $148m<\/a> from the contest, most of it from foreign or anonymous buyers. The top spender was Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto billionaire who bought more than $20m worth<\/a> of Trump\u2019s memecoins. (In February 2025, a few weeks after Trump took office, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended a civil fraud case it had brought against Sun in 2023 \u2013 leading to accusations that he was getting favorable treatment because he had invested $75m<\/a> in another of the Trump family\u2019s crypto projects. A spokesperson for Sun said<\/a> he had \u201cnot requested special treatment, nor conditioned any commercial activity on regulatory decisions\u201d.)<\/p>\n Despite the sheer scale of these conflicts surrounding Trump over the past year, the <\/strong>$500m deal involving World Liberty and the UAE\u2019s Tahnoon is \u201cthe only known case of a foreign government official purchasing a major stake in a Trump company after his election\u201d, as the Journal reported<\/a>. By intertwining his personal fortune with the ruling families of the Gulf, Trump has compromised his ability \u2013 and the ability of his entire administration \u2013 to negotiate foreign policy and act as an honest broker. How can Washington credibly pressure the UAE on its role fueling<\/a> a civil war in Sudan, when the Emirates\u2019 national security adviser is a business partner of the US president?<\/p>\n Over the past decade, Tahnoon has steered foreign policy negotiations with the US over major issues including fighting terrorism, economic investments and securing UAE access to advanced computer technology. In March, he visited Washington and met with Trump<\/a>, gaining access to top cabinet members and being feted at a White House dinner<\/a> \u2013 honors normally bestowed on a visiting head of state. The public did not know about the secret deal Tahnoon\u2019s investment firm had signed two months earlier with the Trump family\u2019s crypto company.<\/p>\n The revelations also underscore why Trump\u2019s foray into crypto has turned into the most lucrative, and dangerous, way for him to profit from the presidency. After Trump\u2019s first term, his family business expanded beyond a real estate conglomerate that licensed the Trump brand to hotels, golf resorts and residential towers around the world \u2013 it now includes media platforms such as Truth Social and various crypto ventures. Overall, the Trumps generated $1.4bn from crypto projects over the past year, making up almost a fifth of the family\u2019s estimated fortune of $6.8bn, according to Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n These crypto ventures are particularly ripe for exploitation because they allow Trump and his family to collect hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> from foreign investors and government officials who would usually have a difficult time channeling money to a US politician. Trump is not only enriching himself through the presidency, he\u2019s tapped into an industry that is rife with fraud and a lack of transparency. Within months of returning to office, the Trump administration began to deregulate the industry<\/a> and ordered the justice department to disband a national unit dedicated to investigating crypto-related fraud, which was set up in 2022 under Joe Biden\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n