The Emirates Didn't Bribe Trump-They Purchased Him -- EmptyWheel

[erronis]

https://emptywheel.net/the-emirates-didnt-bribe-trump-they-purchased-him/

Last weekend, WSJ had a blockbuster story describing that, days before Trump's inauguration, the Emirates' spy chief bought almost half of Trump's cryptocurrency bribery machine, World Liberty Financial. Then, last year, Trump approved the sale of Nvidia chips to UAE, in spite of concerns that they would, in turn, share the technology with China.

Four days before Donald Trump's inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities.

The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn't previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president's son. At least $31 million was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who weeks earlier had been named U.S. envoy to the Middle East, the documents said.

The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal who has been pushing the U.S. for access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips, according to people familiar with the matter. Tahnoon--sometimes referred to as the "spy sheikh"--is brother to the United Arab Emirates' president, the government's national security adviser, as well as the leader of the oil-rich country's largest wealth fund. He oversees a more than $1.3 trillion empire funded by his personal fortune and state money that spans from fish farms to AI to surveillance, making him one of the most powerful single investors in the world.

The deal marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president's company.

Under the Biden administration, Tahnoon's efforts to get AI hardware had been largely stymied over fears that the sensitive technology could be diverted to China. Of particular concern was one of Tahnoon's own companies, the AI firm G42, which had stoked alarm among intelligence officials and lawmakers over its close ties to the sanctioned tech giant Huawei and other Chinese firms. The company said it severed ties with China in late 2023, but concerns persisted.

Trump's election reopened the door for him. In the months that followed, Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump, Witkoff and other U.S. officials, including in a March visit to the White House where the sheikh told officials he was eager to work with the U.S. on AI and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter.

I recommend reading the story in conjunction with this superb visualization NYT did late last year, which covered some of the same relationships.



As the NYT visualization makes clear, this massive scandal interlocks with a bunch of other ones (for example, the roles of Howard Lutnick and David Sacks in it; other parts of this visualization include Justin Sun's role in initially funding the bribery machine).

But the story is all the more breathtaking when you contextualize the past history.

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[cliffside]

1. knr nt