Trump Faces Senate Scrutiny Over $500 Million UAE Investment in Crypto Venture
A group of Senate Democrats is demanding answers over President Donald Trump’s $500 million UAE crypto deal, accusing the administration of allowing foreign money to influence American policy at the highest level.
In a letter dated June 23, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Richard Durbin, and Ron Wyden called on multiple Senate committees to hold immediate hearings into the arrangement. At the center of the controversy is a deal in which lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, Trump’s family-linked crypto venture, for half a billion dollars.
The senators say the Trump’s $500 million UAE crypto deal closed just four days before the president’s inauguration last year. As part of the agreement, foreign buyers reportedly funneled $218 million upfront to entities tied to the Trump family and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s lead diplomat for the Middle East and Russia.
According to the letter, the arrangement was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s National Security Advisor, marking what lawmakers called an unprecedented case of a foreign official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s business.
The concerns don’t stop there. The deal adds to existing worries sparked by a separate investment from MGX, a UAE state-backed firm, which reportedly boosted the market value of the Trump family’s stablecoin by nearly $2 billion overnight.
What’s raising eyebrows is the timing of policy moves that followed. Within months of the deal closing, the Trump administration approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to the UAE despite congressional concerns over weapons reaching armed groups in Sudan, where the conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives. The Treasury Department also launched a “Known Investor Pilot” program, fast-tracking investment approvals through CFIUS, a move the UAE had reportedly lobbied for.
Adding to the scrutiny, the Commerce Department rolled back Biden-era chip export restrictions, letting the UAE import significantly more advanced semiconductors. This cleared the way for G42, a UAE AI firm chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, to receive 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips in a deal worth over a billion dollars. The senators noted that U.S. intelligence officials had previously caught G42 supplying American technology that aided China’s missile programs, despite the firm’s pledge to divest its Chinese holdings.
The lawmakers want Trump administration officials to testify under oath about what they knew, and when, regarding payments made to the president’s family and his top regional diplomat. They argue that public hearings are necessary to restore confidence that U.S. policy serves American interests rather than personal ones.
CoinDesk reported that it has reached out to both World Liberty Financial and the UAE government for comment, though no response has been issued yet.
