Trump Family Sold 49% Stake to UAE Official for $500M
Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, representatives of Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, Trump’s cryptocurrency venture, for $500 million according to company documents and sources familiar with the transaction. Eric Trump signed the deal on behalf of the Trump family, with $187 million paid immediately to Trump family entities and at least $31 million directed to entities connected to Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder appointed as U.S. envoy to the Middle East weeks prior.
Tahnoon, known as the “spy sheikh,” serves as Abu Dhabi’s national security adviser and brother to the UAE’s president, overseeing a personal and state-funded empire exceeding $1.3 trillion spanning AI companies, surveillance operations, and other ventures. This investment represents an unprecedented arrangement in American politics: a foreign government official acquiring direct ownership in an incoming U.S. president’s company, creating an immediate conflict of interest and foreign influence over presidential business interests.
The Biden administration had restricted Tahnoon’s access to advanced American artificial intelligence chips due to security concerns, particularly regarding his AI firm G42’s documented ties to sanctioned Chinese technology company Huawei and other Chinese firms. Although G42 claimed to sever Chinese connections in late 2023, intelligence officials and lawmakers maintained reservations about the company’s loyalty and technological transparency.
Following Trump’s election victory, Tahnoon’s prospects for obtaining restricted AI technology reversed dramatically. The sheikh met multiple times with Trump, Witkoff, and other U.S. officials, including a March White House visit where he expressed interest in American AI collaboration and other bilateral initiatives, demonstrating direct access and influence over Trump administration technology policy.
This transaction exemplifies how Trump’s businesses operate as vehicles for foreign influence and financial benefit tied directly to policy decisions affecting national security and technological sovereignty. The arrangement allowed a UAE official to purchase controlling interest in Trump’s company while simultaneously positioning himself to extract concessions on restricted defense technology, converting Trump’s political power into personal wealth while compromising American strategic interests to hostile foreign governments.