Watchdog: NYT Report Renews Fears Trump’s Self-Enrichment Schemes Are Endangering Our National Security

Washington D.C. – In May, government watchdog Accountable.US raised serious ethical and national security concerns involving the announced $2 billion deal between Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLFl), the United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm MGX, and Binance. The key question posed: What interests of the American people are being used as a bargaining chip? Now, new reporting from the New York Times provides some potential answers. 

The Times reports that just two weeks after the crypto deal was brokered, the Trump White House “agreed to allow the U.A.E. access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence. Many of the chips would go to G42, a sprawling technology firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon [bin Zayed Al Nahyan] [who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth], despite national security concerns that the chips could be shared with China.”  

According to the Times, Sheikh Tahnoon had previously approached the Biden White House “seeking access to these chips,” but U.S. security officials recoiled at the idea, “worried that China might gain access to Emirati data centers, accelerating its efforts to build A.I.-enhanced weapons that could someday be deployed against American soldiers.”

“The Trump administration has some explaining to do to the American public,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “After Emirati requests for highly sensitive A.I. chips were previously rejected by U.S. officials over national security concerns, did the Trump White House hand over these chips that China may now be able to access and use against our military, because it makes America safer? Or was it because the UAE pumped $2 billion into the Trump family’s unproven crypto venture, a major reason why crypto assets now account for 73 percent of Donald Trump’s net worth? It’s a glaring example of why Congress must put up guardrails to protect American workers and our national security interests as the President involves himself in more and more billion-dollar crypto schemes around the world, including with foreign interests with highly questionable agendas. The President’s allies in Congress should finally put America’s interests above what’s best for Donald Trump’s personal wealth – and the sooner, the better.”

Earlier this month, an Accountable.US analysis of initial public trading of President Trump’s $WLFI crypto coin found that initial trading activity for at least 66% of the total volume was happening on foreign exchanges used almost exclusively by foreign nationals – amounting to over $2.4 billion.

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