The WLF Affair
Inside the Trump family's crypto corruption machine
This post has been edited since it was originally published, to include additional material sourced from subsequent National Review reporting. And for the record, I have now become a NR subscriber.
As you might expect, I am not a subscriber to National Review, the conservative magazine founded by the late William F. Buckley, Jr. But I am considering becoming one, after learning about the NR’s coverage of the growing scandal involving World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto financial services firm. This is a story which has now been reported by The Wall Street Journal, as well as National Review, but which has largely been ignored by most other media outlets on the right, including most importantly Fox News.
B&B readers may recall that I have written before about the Trump family’s widespread crypto corruption, most recently in my post “Our Crypto President”. But until I came across the recent WSJ and NR coverage of the World Liberty Financial affair, I had not fully recognized the sheer magnitude of the latest allegations. And while the facts are still coming out, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the Trump family’s activities through World Liberty Financial (WLF) could become the largest financial scandal in US political history, and one which directly implicates the President of the United States.
As I write, it appears that as much as $6 billion of cash has flowed from foreign entities into or through WLF, 40% of which seems to have come from affiliates of the UAE government. According to reporting in the WSJ and the NR, over $1 billion of this cash may already have been distributed by WLF to the Trump family, and smaller amounts to the Witkoff family, the Trumps’ partners in WLF. (Steve Witkoff is also the President’s “special envoy” to the Middle East, but until recently we didn’t know just how “special” his role really was.)
This $6 billion total includes $500 million that was secretly “invested” in WLF just four days prior to President Trump’s second inauguration, half of which was reportedly distributed to the WLF owners (mostly to the Trumps) just a few days later. This cash reportedly came from an entity controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE national security advisor and brother of the UAE president, whose hands seem to be all over a number of suspect financial transactions involving WLF.
It appears that Sheikh Tahnoon was also behind the subsequent purchase of $2 billion of USD1 stablecoins issued by WLF to MGX, a UAE sovereign wealth fund. This transaction took place in March of 2025, just two months before the Trump administration controversially approved the sale of national security-sensitive chips to the UAE, a deal reportedly brokered between the Trump administration and Sheikh Tahnoon by Steve Witkoff.
MGX was also one of the parties later selected by the Trump administration to receive an equity stake in Tik-Tok’s US business, in a spin-off from its Chinese owners mandated by Congress and orchestrated by the Trump administration.
A separate UAE entity, also controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, has reportedly invested over $1.5 billion into the investment fund managed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who served as special envoy to the Middle East during Trump’s first term. Entities affiliated with the Saudi and Qatari governments have invested similar amounts.
The $2 billion of USD1 coins purchased by MGX from WLF in March 2005 were used by MGX to facilitate the purchase of a minority equity stake in Binance, the offshore crypto exchange which is legally banned from doing business in the USA. Readers may recall that Binance was founded by the notorious Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”), a convicted felon who was recently pardoned by President Trump, potentially clearing the way for Binance to resume operations in the US. Binance is now headquartered in the UAE (where CZ now lives), in a move reportedly facilitated by Sheikh Tahnoon.
Since the original UAE transaction, Binance has been actively promoting the purchase of additional USD1 stablecoins, $3 billion of which (in addition to the UAE holdings) are now held by it in offshore accounts on behalf of (presumably) foreign purchasers whose identities are largely undisclosed. At the current level of US interest rates, this $5 billion of outstanding USD1 stablecoins generates an estimated $150-200 million of annual interest income for WLF, a large portion of which will presumably flow through to the Trump and Witkoff families, with who knows what in the way of future benefits flowing to Binance, Sheikh Tahnoon or others.
Neither the President nor the White House has denied any of the facts relating to the WLF Affair, as initially reported in The Wall Street Journal. Instead, they have said only that the President himself was not personally involved in the underlying transactions, and would “never, under any circumstances” engage in transactions which conflict with his duties as president.
Andy McCarthy is the National Review’s principal legal commentator and he is well known as a longstanding and harsh (to say the least) critic of Presidents Biden and Obama. McCarthy has written extensively about the alleged financial corruption of the Biden family, which reportedly involved improper payments of as much as $27 million, approximately 1% of the amount paid to World Liberty Financial just by the UAE. The National Review has now published a five-part series written by McCarthy, about what it calls the “sordid story” of Trump, World Liberty Financial and the UAE, which I strongly recommend that you all read. (Links above and below).
House Democrats are attempting to investigate the various money flows from suspect foreign entities to World Liberty Financial and the Trump family. To my knowledge, however, no Republican member of Congress has publicly voiced even the slightest concern over this matter, notwithstanding recent comments from Republican mega-donor Ken Griffin, who criticized the President for engaging in activities which in his words have been “very, very enriching to the families of those in the administration”.
Only time will tell how this all plays out, and what impact the National Review and Wall Street Journal reporting may have on Republican voters and their representatives in Congress. But if this plays out the way I think it might, the ramifications could be huge. And when that happens, Fox viewers, I’d like you to remember where you first heard about it: Here on Banking & Beyond, your go-to-source for the most important financial news and commentary. Particularly when it involves the President.
L:inks
One Generation Runs the Country. The Next Cashed in on Crypto. WSJ. November 7, 2026
The UAE-Binance-Trump Affair, National Review, November 9, 2026.