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steve witkoff
'Corruption on a Breathtaking Level': Report Details Massive Foreign Investment in Trump Crypto Firm
"This was a bribe," said one critic.
Feb 01, 2026
A bombshell Saturday report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family secretly backed a massive $500 million investment into the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture months before the Trump administration gave the United Arab Emirates access to highly sensitive artificial intelligence chip technology.
According to the Journal's sources, lieutenants of Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed a deal in early 2025 to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the startup founded by members of the Trump family and the family of Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Documents reviewed by the Journal showed that the buyers in the deal agreed to "pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities," while "at least $31 million was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with" the Witkoff family.
Weeks after green lighting the investment into the Trump crypto venture, Tahnoon met directly with President Donald Trump and Witkoff in the White House, where he reportedly expressed interest in working with the US on AI-related technology.
Two months after this, the Journal noted, "the administration committed to give the tiny Gulf monarchy access to around 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips a year—enough to build one of the world’s biggest AI data center clusters."
Tahnoon in the past had tried to get US officials to give the UAE access to the chips, but was rebuffed on concerns that the cutting-edge technology could be passed along to top US geopolitical rival China, wrote the Journal.
Many observers expressed shock at the Journal's report, with some critics saying that it showed Trump and his associates were engaging in a criminal bribery scheme.
"This was a bribe," wrote Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, in a social media post. "UAE royals gave the Trump family $500 million, and Trump, in his presidential capacity, gave them access to tightly guarded American AI chips. The most powerful person on the planet, also happens to be the most shamelessly corrupt."
Jesse Eisinger, reporter and editor at ProPublica, argued that the Abu Dhabi investment into the Trump cypto firm "should rank among the greatest US scandals ever."
Democratic strategist David Axelrod also said that the scope of the Trump crypto investment scandal was historic in nature.
"In any other time or presidency, this story... would be an earthquake of a scandal," he wrote. "The size, scope and implications of it are unprecedented and mind-boggling."
Tommy Vietor, co-host of "Pod Save America," struggled to wrap his head around the scale of corruption on display.
"How do you add up the cost of corruption this massive?" he wondered. "It's not just that Trump is selling advanced AI tech to the highest bidder, national security be damned. Its that he's tapped that doofus Steve Witkoff as an international emissary so his son Zach Witkoff can mop up bribes."
Former Rep. Tom Malinkowski (D-NJ) warned the Trump and his associates that they could wind up paying a severe price for their deal with the UAE.
"If a future administration finds that such payments to the Trump family were acts of corruption," he wrote, "these people could be sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act, and the assets in the US could potentially be frozen."
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'Incredible Corruption': Blockbuster Report on Trump Crypto Grift Leaves Observers Stunned
"If this is true, this is the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the United States and it's not even close," said one critic.
Sep 15, 2025
The New York Times on Monday published a blockbuster report detailing how US President Donald Trump's administration gave the United Arab Emirates access to high-powered artificial intelligence chips just days after receiving a massive investment in Trump's cryptocurrency startup.
As the Times report documented, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) ruling family, had one of his investment firms deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, the startup founded by members of the Trump family and the family of Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Just two weeks later, wrote the Times, "the White House agreed to allow the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence," despite national security concerns about these chips being shared with China.
The Times, which interviewed more than 75 people in its investigation of the deals, did not present direct evidence that the two deals were explicitly linked, and the White House denied any connection between the massive investment in the Trump family's crypto firm and the decision to grant UAE access to the chips.
However, the paper interviewed three ethics lawyers who said that "the back-to-back deals violate longstanding norms in the United States for political, diplomatic, and private dealmaking among senior officials and their children."
Other political observers were stunned by the Times' report.
"If this is true, this is the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the United States and it's not even close," commented Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
US foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen questioned whether Witkoff's dealings with the UAE and other countries were impacting his ability to do his job in other areas.
"Maybe Witkoff is too busy pushing deals to enrich his and Trump’s families to focus on getting an Israel-Gaza hostage deal over the line, recognizing the Russians are not interested in ending the war on Ukraine, etc.," she speculated.
Alasdair Phillips-Robins, a fellow in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, marveled at the reporting that Trump's negotiation team appeared to be willing to grant UAE access to the chips without forcing any major geopolitical tradeoffs.
"This sounds like the world's weakest negotiation: telling the UAE they'll get unlimited chips before they've agreed to a single concession in return," he wrote.
Independent journalist Jacob Silverman, who has written extensively on the politics of the US tech industry, remarked that the Trump administration's actions exposed in the Times report were "impeachable" and smacked of "incredible corruption."
In addition to his cryptocurrency-related dealings with UAE, Trump has also come under scrutiny for accepting a luxury jet from the government of Qatar that he plans to use for the remainder of his term in office and that will be given to his official presidential library after he leaves the White House.
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Trump Officials' Gaza Tour Slammed as 'Blatant Theatrical Display'
"The goal is clear—to erase the truth, discredit thousands of recorded videos, and wash away the blood," said one Palestinian photojournalist.
Aug 01, 2025
Palestinians and international humanitarian groups were among those who denounced Friday's highly orchestrated tour of a Gaza aid distribution center run by a U.S.-backed group condemned for its role in Israeli forces' massacres of desperate people seeking food and other lifesaving aid.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff visited one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) distribution sites near Rafah in southern Gaza, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials presented a sanitized version of a reality normally characterized by near-daily massacres of desperate, starving Palestinians clamoring for food and other aid.
"The purpose of the visit was to give [President Donald Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza," Witkoff wrote on the social media site X.
In recent days, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have acknowledged that Palestinians are starving, with Vance lamenting that "little kids... are clearly starving to death"—a direct contradiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lie that "there is no starvation in Gaza."
However, unconditional U.S. support for Israel continues unabated and practically unchallenged, save for another failed bid led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to suspend some arms transfers.
Palestinian photojournalist Osama Abu Rabee described Friday's visit as "a blatant theatrical display."
"Everything appears organized and civilized: no repression, no pepper spray, no gunfire or casualties, not even crowd stampedes," Abu Rabee wrote on social media. "The goal is clear—to erase the truth, discredit thousands of recorded videos, and wash away the blood of nearly 1,000 starving martyrs and hundreds of wounded victims trapped in humiliation."
"To perfect the staged scene, aid distribution was restricted to the families of mercenaries loyal to Yasser Abu Shabab's forces," he added, referring to the Israel-backed anti-Hamas alleged drug trafficker known for looting humanitarian shipments. "Snipers and tanks were withdrawn, and the deception ceremony was prepared—one that Trump's envoy arrived to witness and rubber-stamp as 'reality.'"
Huckabee—who during his ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign denied the very existence of the Palestinian people—claimed on social media that GHF has served more than 100 million meals in two months, a dubious assertion emblazoned on banners around the site he visited.
"Gaza has 2 million people. If that number were true, every person in Gaza should have received 50 meals by now," Gaza teacher and activist Alaa Radwan wrote on the social media site X. "But I know for a fact that my family didn't get a single one. Neither did my friends."
"One hundred million meals. And yet famine is tearing through people's bodies," Radwan continued. "One hundred million meals. And my mother, my father, and my siblings have lost nearly half their body weight. What kind of lie is this? What kind of cruelty does it take to put out a number so outrageous, so disconnected from reality, while the world watches children collapse from hunger?"
"If they insist on lying, they could at least try to make it believable," she added. "But even that seems too much to ask."
Shortly after Huckabee and Witkoff left Gaza, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the IDF killings of aid-seekers at GHF sites are "war crimes" and urged the abandonment of the "U.S.-backed death trap scheme."
"U.S.-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths," HRW noted.
1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, most by the Israeli military, between May 27 and July 21 in Gaza.Israeli forces routinely opening fire on starving Palestinians amount to war crimes.Learn more: bit.ly/46yFXlj
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— Human Rights Watch (@hrw.org) August 1, 2025 at 6:50 AM
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys."
IDF whistleblowers including officers and soldiers have said they were ordered to open fire on civilians seeking aid at GHF sites with live bullets and artillery shells.
Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. special forces colonel who worked as a security subcontractor at GHF sites before resigning, described Israeli troops and American mercenaries indiscriminately shooting at starving Palestinian aid-seekers.
"What I saw on the sites, around the sites, to and from the sites, can be described as nothing but war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of international law," Aguilar told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman earlier this week. "This is not hyperbole. This is not platitudes or drama. This is the truth... The sites were designed to lure, bait aid, and kill."
HRW added that "the dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel's use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime—as well as Israel's continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, which amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide."
The International Court of Justice, where Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case brought by South Africa and supported by dozens of nations, has repeatedly ordered Israel to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the strip, where more than 60,200 Palestinians have been killed and over 146,800 others wounded since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
However, Israel has ignored these orders. Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered the "complete siege" of Gaza that has fueled deadly mass starvation and disease—for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass starvation and murder.
Responding to Huckabee and Witkoff's visit, Oxfam America director of peace and security Scott Paul called on the U.S. government "to use its full influence to put an end to this catastrophe before we pass the point of no return."
"We do not have time for symbolic measures—a few more trucks, airdrops, and humanitarian pauses may be better than nothing—but in reality, they are far more effective in grabbing headlines than they are at saving lives," he said.
"Without urgent, meaningful action, these numbers are going to spiral out of control in the coming days," Paul added, "and the growing death toll will be an indelible stain on this administration."
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