President Trump's son Eric was quick to defend himself and his family on Tuesday when he asked about potential conflicts of interest involving the United Arab Emirates investing in Binance and a separate negotiation that led to the Middle Eastern nation gaining access to computer chips.
"We're far from Hunter Biden ... the guy's out there selling finger art," Eric Trump said during a Tuesday interview on CNBC, where he was promoting American Bitcoin. He co-founded the firm and serves as the firm's chief strategy officer.
On Monday, The New York Times published an extensive story outlining how two major deals occurred within a relatively short window. First, in March, the UAE-founded investment firm MGX said it was investing $2 billion into the crypto exchange Binance using stablecoins. Then, in May, it was revealed MGX had made its investment using World Liberty's newly launched USD1 stablecoin.
Two weeks later, the Trump administration apparently allowed the UAE to "buy hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips," NYT said.
CNBC host Joe Kernen held up a physical copy of Tuesday's NYT and asked Trump about a story in the paper that outlines the close ties between the UAE obtaining access to "advanced" AI chips shortly after the deal closed involving the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. Kernen suggested Eric must be used to fielding questions about the president and his sons having success earning money in crypto since Trump's latest term began.
"My father's the first guy who hasn't made money off of the presidency," Eric Trump said. "We've always been serial capitalists; we've always had companies. Crypto came out of a necessity that we were debanked by everybody and needed to find a new way."
NYT said spokespersons from both the White House and World Liberty denied any connection between the two deals.
"There is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other, but the confluence of the back-to-back deals tested the limits of ethics rules, which are intended to bar officials from participating in matters that could benefit themselves or their relatives," the Times also reported.
World Liberty co-founded by Trumps
World Liberty is backed by both the Trumps and Steve and Zach Witkoff. Steve, Zach's father, serves as an envoy for President Trump. As of an August disclosure, Steve Witkoff still held a stake in World Liberty, according to the NYT.
President Trump and all three of his sons are listed as co-founders of World Liberty. Powered mostly by MGX investing $2 billion into Binance using USD1 tokens, the World Liberty stablecoin's total supply was about $2.7 billion as of Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Earlier this month, at least on paper, the Trump family's crypto wealth had grown by nearly $5 billion following World Liberty's WLFI token listing on several crypto exchanges.
Besides World Liberty, both Eric and Donald Jr. are involved in American Bitcoin, a crypto mining and holding company.
When mentioning Hunter Biden during Tuesday's interview, Eric Trump appeared to be alluding to reports that the former president's son had sold paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. The transactions sparked scrutiny among critics who felt buyers may have been seeking to gain influence with then-President Joe Biden.
