Trump family's cryptocurrency ties raise concerns as administration loosens regulations

Note: This is a PBS NewsHour television segment from Nov 20, 2025, not AP-wire copy and not coverage of the Aug 27, 2026 WSJ scoop. Included as background because it is the only World Liberty/Abu Dhabi item found on pbs.org/newshour.

As President Trump's administration has loosened regulations on cryptocurrency and pledged to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world, his family's ties to the industry are raising ethical concerns and blurring the lines between business and government.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, takes a closer look.

[Segment transcript excerpts:] For more than a year, President Trump's two oldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., have been on something of a globe-trotting road show preaching the virtues of cryptocurrency... and promoting a crypto company backed by the Trump family called World Liberty Financial.

Launched in September 2024, World Liberty Financial bills itself as a -- quote -- "decentralized finance company."

Earlier this year, when a state-owned investment firm in the United Arab Emirates sought to invest in Binance, Zhao's company gave a high-profile boost to World Liberty Financial's credibility, reportedly pushing for the $2 billion deal to be paid using World Liberty Financial's new stablecoin, USD1, a type of cryptocurrency that maintains a constant price, and, in the case of USD1, is tied to the U.S. dollar.

Zeke Faux, Bloomberg: "You can kind of think of this like Binance putting a $2 billion deposit at the bank of the Trumps. And so that $2 billion has been parked there since as far as we know. And the World Liberty is earning interest on it."

Zeke Faux: "On World Liberty, I'd estimate $400 million, $500 million. And that's just one of their many crypto businesses. The Trumps have likely made more than a billion dollars off crypto while -- just in the year that Donald Trump's been in office."

[Full transcript available at the URL.]