Trump says his sons run World Liberty Financial and he knows nothing about it

President Donald Trump says he has nothing to do with running World Liberty Financial, the family crypto venture he still co-owns. In a November 8 interview with CBS News, he told Ross Douthat that his sons handle the business and he cannot stop them while he's in the White House. Why it matters: lawmakers are about to get subpoena power over exactly those dealings.

The interview put the president's foreign ties on the spot. Douthat pressed him on investments connected to the United Arab Emirates government and asked why he hadn't sold his stake, comparing the situation to the Biden family. Trump's answer: 'Because I know nothing about it.' When asked whether foreign investors might think they were buying influence, he said, 'I don't know.'

The UAE money is the center of the storm. A vehicle tied to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security adviser, took a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial through a deal reported at $500 million, signed by Eric Trump shortly before the January 2025 inauguration. Trump previously said he didn't know about it when reporters asked in February 2026.

A second ownership tangle sits behind the company's proposed banking arm. Sheikh Tahnoon and other investors were reported in August to hold 49% of WLTC Holdings, with a Trump family-affiliated entity holding 38%. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave the proposed bank preliminary conditional approval on August 14 to issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin, manage reserves and offer institutional custody, with final sign-off still tied to capital and operational conditions.

Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the November midterms days before the interview, opening a lane for new investigations. Representative Robert Garcia, expected to chair the House Oversight Committee, has flagged Trump family businesses and crypto transactions as targets; Senator Elizabeth Warren has questioned the company's foreign investments and its ties to banks and exchanges. Scrutiny has reached USD1 itself, the stablecoin Abu Dhabi-backed MGX used in a $2 billion investment into Binance in 2025.

The legal pressure isn't only coming from Washington. On November 3, Tron founder Justin Sun asked a court to sanction World Liberty Financial and its lawyers, claiming they failed to disclose UAE citizenship during their dispute. Sun says the company first listed only Florida as its jurisdiction before filing an amended disclosure naming 22 entities in its ownership chain, including UAE-linked ones.