The Crypto President: Part 2

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Four days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration, an Emirati royal known as the “spy sheikh” secretly purchased a stake in Trump's cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial for half a billion dollars. In the second of two episodes about World Liberty Financial, WSJ’s Rebecca Ballhaus details what the Sheikh received from the Trump Administration following his deal with the Trump family’s crypto company. Hosted by Jessica Mendoza. Further Listening: - The Crypto President: Part 1 - Private Equity and Crypto Could Be Coming for Your 401k Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bitcoin Earth, how's everybody doing?
0:10.6	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.
0:21.6	Are you happy? We have a new president in the United States. Please tell me you're happy.
0:26.3	This was the same United Arab Emirates crypto conference you heard about in the last episode.
0:31.7	Eric was the keynote speaker. He wore a navy suit, crisp white shirt, no tie, tucked in above a silver belt buckle.
0:39.5	His blonde hair slicked back.
0:40.9	Obviously, to all our friends in the UAE.
0:43.3	This country is amazing.
0:45.2	How many people in here from the UAE?
0:49.0	Our family loves you.
0:50.6	Our family loves you.
0:53.7	What did you make of Eric Trump's speech at the time?
0:57.9	I think at the time it was something we really glossed over, but I think in light of the deal
1:02.9	that we later learned about, it certainly sticks out a lot more.
1:07.9	That's our colleague Rebecca Ballhouse. She's part of the Wall Street Journal reporting team
1:12.4	that's been investigating the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
1:17.7	I've been focusing in the past year or so,
1:20.6	mostly on the Trump family and the various ways that they've been profiting from the presidency.
1:25.9	In less than two years, World Liberty Financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2 billion
1:33.0	in cash.
1:34.4	And a lot of that has come through foreign-owned businesses.
1:38.3	As we examined in yesterday's episode, one of the companies they worked with was the
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