Foreign governments are paying for access to the Trump administration through the president's own crypto ventures — and Trump says he doesn't even know about the money.
Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in January with an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto firm, to explore using its USD1 stablecoin for cross-border payments. Six months later, there has been no pilot project, no licenses issued, and no known transactions using the coin, according to Al Jazeera. But Pakistani officials got exactly what they paid for: rare access to the Trump White House. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir personally welcomed WLF executives — including Zach Witkoff, son of Trump adviser Steve Witkoff — to Islamabad for the signing ceremony.
Follow the Money
Trump's latest financial disclosure shows he took in roughly $1.2 billion last year from crypto holdings alone. World Liberty Financial's token sales generated more than $500 million for the president, part of a broader crypto windfall worth hundreds of millions more, Al Jazeera reported. The firm earns interest on the reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin, meaning wider adoption directly enriches the Trump family.
Pakistan is already the world's third-largest crypto market, with most informal activity flowing through Tether's USDT — not Trump's USD1. A senior Pakistani banking executive told Al Jazeera no reliable estimate exists for how much money moves through stablecoin channels, and figures in circulation are inferred rather than measured. The country received a record $38.3 billion in formal remittances last fiscal year, raising real questions about why Islamabad needs a new stablecoin at all.
The answer: it doesn't need the coin. It needs the connection.
'I Don't Even Know Who They Are'
Pressed about his crypto earnings in an Oval Office interview with CNBC, Trump claimed ignorance. "I let people invest it. I don't even know who they are," he said, according to the New York Post. "My son Eric handles it. I don't talk to him about things such as this."
He then conceded that even if he did know, it wouldn't matter. "There's nothing illegal with that. I could know," Trump said, noting the president and vice president are not required to recuse themselves from decisions affecting their financial interests. He pointed out he forgoes his $400,000 government salary.
The Al Jazeera framing emphasized the transactional nature of the Pakistan deal — a diplomatic bet that paid off in access rather than utility. The New York Post, by contrast, buried the foreign influence angle entirely and framed the story around Trump's defense of his earnings and his complaint that his children face unfair scrutiny.
The Swamp, Now on Blockchain
This is the same pay-to-play machinery Trump vowed to dismantle, except it runs on distributed ledger technology instead of K Street lobbying firms. A foreign government signs a deal with the president's family business, gets face time with the prime minister and military leadership, and the president claims he isn't aware of the arrangement. Whether that's plausible or not, the structure is clear: World Liberty Financial serves as a toll booth between foreign interests and American power.
The question isn't whether it's illegal — Trump himself says it isn't. The question is whether the people who sent him to Washington to drain the swamp are getting what they voted for.
