Trump Boys Talk ‘Retribution’ as CEOs Kiss the Ring at Their Crypto Event

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the eldest sons of President Donald Trump, are holding an event at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday for their crypto company, World Liberty Financial. In many ways, it’s a victory lap for the Trump family, a recognition that there is no mechanism available to stop the unprecedented corruption that’s being done out in the open, as foreign governments and U.S.-based executives jostle to please the Trump regime and profit from their proximity to political power.

There’s no livestream available for the World Liberty Forum in Florida, but CNBC is on hand broadcasting as an “exclusive partner” for the event. CNBC host Sara Eisen sat down with the Trump sons to ask them about the goal of their conference.

“We were the most canceled people in the world in 2020, 2021,” said Eric Trump. “And it’s really great to almost have this retribution where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda. Our agenda was to modernize finance, to allow that to never, ever, ever happen to anybody again.”

The part Eric Trump is leaving out, of course, is President Trump’s attempt at a self-coup on Jan. 6, 2021, sending a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in a bid to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. The president was banned from the major social media platforms, and his family was cut off from some banking opportunities over his effort to overthrow the government. The president has since sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon over the moves.

The Trump sons bragged to CNBC about how opening their own crypto company has given them “credibility” to operate outside the traditional banking system, but Eisen pointed out that “critics” will say “the credibility factor is the Trump name and the Trump White House, and that everyone is here to curry favor.”

Eric Trump countered that “they didn’t give us much of a choice,” with Donald Trump Jr. proudly insisting “they created this monster.”

Speakers at the World Liberty Forum include big names in both government and finance, like Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman, Chairman of the CFTC Michael Selig, President of the New York Stock Exchange Lynn Martin, and U.S. Senators Bernie Moreno and Ashley Moody. Moreno and Moody are both Republicans.

Eisen also asked the Trump sons about foreign investments in their crypto ventures, specifically $187 million paid to Trump family entities from people connected to the Emirati royal family, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“I do want to ask you about the World Liberty Corporation which has been in the news. And there was this big Wall Street Journal report about the 49% stake that was sold to an Emirati royal family member after your father was elected president, raising questions about whether they were doing that so they could get access to AI chips,” Eisen said.

Donald Trump Jr. insisted that his father “has nothing to do with it” and that the UAE investment wasn’t related to access to AI chips. He also said that everyone goes to the Middle East to do business to find investment, calling the sovereign wealth funds in that part of the world “some of the biggest investors in every fund in America.”

“We’ve been dealing with the conflict of interest stuff for years. And they tried all this nonsense the first time around. Frankly, it’s gotten old,” Donald Trump Jr. said, perhaps referring to the fact that no other White House in modern history has seen the president and his family profit in such a galling way.

“They were the ones that put us into this position by creating legislation to try to put us out of business,” the Trump son continued. “We just fought back. We weren’t willing to sit in a corner, curl up in a ball, and die like they would love us to do. That’s not how we function. That’s not how we operate. And you can see that whether it’s my father or us, that’s never going to happen.”

World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, USD1, is a fiat-backed cryptocurrency that the Trumps have tried to tout as a brilliant hedge against the traditional financial system, an argument that doesn’t make much sense given how dependent it is on that same system for stability. Donald Trump Jr. said that before they were briefly debanked, they didn’t appreciate the ways in which banks could just drop you at their own discretion.

“Either one of us could have called any banker in New York over the last 20 years and gotten a loan for a building… and we just realized we were sort of the top of the Ponzi scheme that was banking,” Donald Trump Jr. said.

“If you didn’t have those connections, if you didn’t have these things, you didn’t get that benefit. Crypto totally democratizes the ability for people to transact, to do finance, to get the loans that they need for businesses that make sense. That didn’t exist for everyone. And we’re really glad to be able to bring that to the forefront in the market.”

It’s a compelling pitch to people who don’t understand how anyone works. Just last year, World Liberty blacklisted Justin Sun’s blockchain address, which has over 595 million WLFI tokens, due to suspicious transactions. The idea that you’re somehow operating in a completely unfettered system when you use crypto is frankly idiotic. Every financial institution, whether it’s focused on crypto or traditional banking, has to follow certain laws and regulations and has the discretion to lock up funds or boot anyone it doesn’t like.

The Trump boys have tried to pump Bitcoin as best they can, even while touting their stablecoin, with Eric Trump telling CNBC on Wednesday that he thinks it will hit $1 million. But the cryptocurrency is down roughly 50% since reaching an all-time high of about $126,000 in Oct. 2025. Bitcoin is currently trading at $67,000.

The Trumps were also asked about their involvement in the prediction markets, and Donald Trump Jr. seemed to admit that he was making wagers on the 2024 election.

“I got involved in the prediction markets a few years ago, back when we had no chance of ever even coming back from the dead,” Donald Trump Jr. responded. “We were written off, as always, because I saw what was going on out there in the political sphere, actually. We’d see polling… ‘Kamala Harris is gonna win Iowa by 12 points.’ I’m like, man, I was in Iowa last week. I didn’t see a single sign. I think this is nonsense.”

“So you took the other side?” Eisen asked with a smile. Trump didn’t respond, and there was no follow-up by the CNBC host to clarify whether he was making bets on the election in which he was frequently campaigning for his father.

Donald Trump Jr. announced on Jan. 13, 2025, just a week before his father was sworn in for a second term, that he was joining Kalshi as a strategic advisor.