'Nothing like this has happened before.' Trump family deepens financial ties across Middle East

Oh baby, it is time for Money Power Politics. And tonight, there is a new story that is forcing us to ask the question yet again, is the White House for sale?

The Wall Street Journal has extraordinary reporting that lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial for half a billion dollars. Just four days before Trump's inauguration last year. That is according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. Half of that money was reportedly paid upfront to two Trump family entities, a $187 million windfall.

And while that deal was taking shape, the United Arab Emirates government was in the process of securing its own deal with the Trump administration to acquire highly sought after AI chips despite serious national security concerns that those chips could be passed on to China.

We should note a World Liberty spokesperson says that Trump did not have any involvement in the deal. A White House spokesperson told the journal the president's assets are in a trust managed by his children and there are no conflicts of interest. And the White House counsel said the president has zero involvement in business deals that would implicate him and his constitutional responsibilities.

He is with the Wall Street Journal and he is the lead reporter on this extraordinary and hugely important piece. And Ron Insana, our favorite, is back, veteran financial journalist and publisher of the Message of the Markets on Substack. Holy cow, Hallelujah, and congratulations. This is incredible reporting. We'd love for you to tell us how you got it, but we will not ask you that. Donald Trump promised that this would be America first.

But

all I see here is Trump family first. Explain.

I mean, I think you you laid out the the core of this article that we wrote in in that great introduction. Um, what's important I think to focus on is just the the parties that were involved and the timing of this deal. So it's not I I I I can't really comment on, you know, whether the the the, you know, president is for sale or anything like that, but you just do have to look at the timing of this deal and the parties that I mentioned before, where it's for example, Sheikh Tahnoun, who was on the other side of this deal that we're talking about today. He is often referred to as the spy Sheikh. Um, he is not only the brother to the the the president of the UAE, but he's also that country's national security advisor.

And so for the president four days before the election,

his family rather, to enter into a deal directly with a spy Sheikh.

Of course.

Um,

worth $500 million.

The AI

dollars.

And then make policy later on down the line that affects not only the Sheikh's

um, you know,

country, the UAE, but also his own

business empire, his own

companies.

That being the Sheikh's companies.

Uh, it's pretty extraordinary.

The AI race is hugely important.

And it is between the United States and China, which is why the Biden administration

did not want to sell these sought after chips to the Saudis because they feared they would end up in the hands of China, correct?

Yeah.

There

so there were there were concerns that selling these chips to the Emiratis and in particular

um, to to this firm G42, which is one of the firms in

in Sheikh Tahnoun's vast $1.3 trillion business portfolio

would get back to China in some form.

These were just national security concerns that came up throughout the Biden administration.

Um, so G42, that firm said that they had broken any ties that they had with China and with companies like Huawei before Trump went into office.

When this deal was made, um, um, after Trump was was was of course elected and inaugurated,

people did not know that there was this pre-existing contract between World Liberty Financial,

the president's cryptocurrency firm and um,

you know, this same Sheikh Tahnoun, um,

and, you know, the chips deal we talked about came came in sequence.

What is your reaction to this reporting?

I feel like it was two weeks ago.

It's spectacular.

I feel like it was two weeks ago, we're like, Trump made $1.8 billion in his first year.

Scratch that, $4 billion and counting.

Yeah, well, I

I asked the staff to put together if we have it

a graphics of the emoluments clause of the Constitution that deals with

what the president can and cannot accept.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, with or without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign state.

It's a clear violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

Now, whether or not anyone in Congress does anything about this, since they did not authorize a transaction like that, or certainly still has not,

um, remains to be seen, but this is an enormous conflict of interest that has already, I think, played itself out as as as noted in graphic detail.

Is the Trump administration not worried about China and these national security risks that we're talking about?

What's the reaction to that?

I mean, it it it's really hard to say.

Of course, the president has taken a different posture towards China than the Biden administration.

But he's also taken or

towards the UAE with regards to China.

Um, then compared to the Biden administration.

But he's taken a different posture towards a lot of different things.

So it's hard to say whether, you know, this deal, which is I think what you're insinuating,

actually, you know, made him give up, um, you know, our our national security establishment's concerns

um, in favor of making this deal.

So it's it's hard to to to to know.

Um, but there have been changes.

And just when you look again at this timeline,

um, it it certainly raises questions according to ethics experts about conflicts of interest.

Um, if not those, you know, conflicts of interest certainly existing.

Republicans were laser focused on Hunter Biden's business dealings during his father's presidency.

Have we not heard from James Comer and the Oversight Committee investigating this?

Not not not a single word.

I mean, and and and Hunter Biden who sat on the board of Burisma,

which is a Ukrainian energy company, you know, and made a substantial amount of money.

And then later sold paintings for substantial amounts of money relative to what many might have viewed the actual value of.

Um, having said that, it in many ways pales in comparison to what we're talking.

Just in this set of transactions alone, and then when the New Yorker follows up with the fact the president may have made in the first year in office,

or at least his family or the trust that he is the beneficial owner of, by the way, $4 billion in a single year.

It is not like anything we've seen in history, and you could pick any administration you want, and nothing like this has happened before.

It's no surprise Democrats response to this reporting.

Have you spoken to any Republican lawmakers?

Help us understand.

This story broke on Saturday.

What is the fallout been since?

You've actually not seen a huge response from Republican lawmakers.

You have seen

The whole.

Haven't seen it.

We'll check.

Didn't read the paper this weekend.

You you have seen a pretty loud response, um, you know, actually, you did see, um, if you consider the the president a Republican lawmaker,

um, which which she is.

Um, he did respond to our reporting earlier today in a question, um, in the Oval Office.

And he, um, reiterated what she what he said before, which is that his business empire is led by his children.

Of course, I'm I'm paraphrasing.

And he didn't know anything about this deal.

But I think what's really extraordinary about this particular deal is

how, you know, on one hand, of course, the scale of it, $500 million is just massive.

But on the other hand, the most, you know, still confounding thing to me is that this was kept secret.

And the thing that I just keep thinking about over and over and over again is

was this sort of a really remarkable deal just because of its scale?

And they wanted to keep this particular deal quiet for some reason, because we know about a lot of those deals.

You mentioned some of these articles.

Or are there other deals out there just like this one?

Um, it begs that question.

I do not know.

You're probably going to find out.

I'd love to find out.

And it certainly begs the question.