The Journal.
from: The Journal.
The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios
PUBLISHED: APR 25, 2026INDEXED: APR 25, 2026, 5:03 PM

The Crypto President: Part 2

Quotes & Clips

8 clips
The Journal.
Apr 25

UAE royals secretly purchased half of World Liberty Financial

β€œSo, four days before Trump's inauguration, Taknun and some co-investors bought half of World Liberty, purchasing 49 percent of the Trump's company for half a billion dollars. Until we revealed it in January of this year, it had never been disclosed publicly.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

World Liberty earned the Trumps $1.2 billion cash

β€œIn less than two years, World Liberty Financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2 billion in cash, and a lot of that has come through foreign owned businesses. One of the companies they worked with was the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The other involves the United Arab Emirates.”

β€” Jessica Mendoza
The Journal.
Apr 25

Trump approved selling 500,000 AI chips to UAE

β€œHe says that the two countries have agreed to a very big contract for the UAE to buy around 500,000 of the US's most advanced AI chips per year. I mean, obviously, this is what Tuck Noon has been lobbying for, so this is a huge deal.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

The UAE deal closed days before the inauguration

β€œThe deal is signed January 16th, 2025, four days before the inauguration. It's signed by Eric Trump. Signing on the UAE side were two executives working for Taknun. Half of the purchase price was paid upfront, immediately steering $187 million to Trump family entities.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

Presidents remain exempt from standard conflict laws

β€œThe president is exempt from conflict of interest rules in a way that other members of his administration are not. There has always been an assumption that a president would be governed by the norms of this role and the desire to not have there be bad optics and that sort of thing.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

Foreign entities view the administration as transactional

β€œThere is this view abroad that Trump is a transactional president and that, you know, I think some of these countries even appreciate that stance because they feel like they know how to play that game. But the feeling is very much that if you want something from the Trump Administration, you have to be prepared to give something in return.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

Tahnoun bypassed traditional diplomatic protocols for access

β€œTocnune did at one point meet with Biden, but he didn't get this kind of splashy White House dinner with the president and a half dozen cabinet members. And so people who kind of know how these things usually worked found that pretty remarkable.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus
The Journal.
Apr 25

Stablecoin endorsements hidden behind shared secret ownership

β€œWorld Liberty presented this MGX investment using USD1 as an enormous vote of confidence in World Liberty and in its stablecoin. At the time that he knew that both MGX and World Liberty were, you know, partly owned by the same person, was just pretty shocking to me.”

β€” Rebecca Ballhaus

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