Another Trump scandal

[ificandream]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/01/spy-sheikh-stake-trump-crypto.html

United Arab Emirates’ ‘Spy Sheikh’ bought secret stake in Trump crypto company: WSJ
PUBLISHED SUN, FEB 1 20262:45 PM ESTUPDATED SUN, FEB 1 20263:36 PM EST

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates purchased a secret 49% stake in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, The Wall Street Journal reported late Saturday.

Tahnoon, known as the “Spy Sheikh,” is a UAE royal and government official who serves as the country’s national security adviser and manages its largest wealth fund.

World Liberty counts President Donald Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff as co-founders emeritus, and is run by members of the Trump and Witkoff families.

Months after Tahnoon purchased the $500 million stake, the U.S. agreed to give the UAE access to 500,000 of America’s most advanced AI chips per year.

[Easterncedar]

1. Is it a scandal if everyone just yawns?

[Permanut]

3. I wonder this every day.

[B.See]

4. The scandal is in the yawning, methinks.

[Torchlight]

8. Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall relied on that sentiment.

[mdbl]

10. Will Congress ever enforce the law?

[FormerOstrich]

2. Quid Pro Quo / Corruption

Here is another article with more information, including pictures with Bill Gates and Tim Cook. The original is from the Wall Street Journal but I don't have a subscription.

Family Secret

It is difficult to comprehend all the many tentacles the family has into so much corruption at the very highest levels!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Remembering "the good ole days" when all we had to worry about

was Bandar Bush . . . . .

[KPN]

6. The Trump's are plain and simply treasonous.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. I have long thought his intent may well be to collapse the dollar so crypto can rule. Vlad smiles

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. MaddowBlog-Previously undisclosed UAE stake in Trump company sparks new controversy

The latest revelations led one Democratic senator to argue, “Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people.”

The latest revelations led one Democratic senator to argue, “Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people” -Sen. Chris Van Hollen (MD). Previously undisclosed UAE stake in tRump company sparks new controversy.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Petisia (@petisia.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T20:55:11.978Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/previously-undisclosed-uae-stake-in-trump-company-sparks-new-controversy

Controversies soon followed. Trump faced awkward questions, for example, about the curious group of business partners with whom he had linked arms. A year later, in one of the most scandalous presidential pardons in American history, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, which just so happened to have struck a lucrative business deal with World Liberty Financial.

The broader story, however, hasn’t hit rock bottom just yet. The Wall Street Journal reported:

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 deal, the Journal added, “marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s company” — which, at the time, “had no products.”.....

In the president’s first term, there was considerable interest in the emoluments clause and foreign interests renting rooms at Trump-owned properties. In his second term, the seeming corruption is spectacularly worse.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming president's company -- how do you respond to those who say this is a serious conflict of interest?

BLANCHE (lying): The Biden family did the same thing

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-01T16:25:57.314Z

.....There are a few elements to this that are worth keeping in mind. First, never in American history has a foreign country bought a stake in a company owned by the American president, even as the president negotiated foreign policy matters with the other country. The idea that Joe Biden did “exactly the same thing” is plainly ridiculous.

Second, if Trump had been “completely transparent” about all of this, the Journal’s reporting would have been old news. It wasn’t — because all of this had been secret from the public up until now.

And third, let’s not overlook the fact that Blanche was offered an opportunity to offer his best possible defense of the president. Evidently, he couldn’t think of anything persuasive.

I guess that’s not too surprising, given how difficult it is to defend the indefensible.