PALM BEACH, Fla.–Donald Trump, Jr. said traditional banking is a “Ponzi scheme” that forced the Trump family to start its crypto venture World Liberty Financial after banks closed the family company’s accounts in early 2021.
“You know, we didn’t get into crypto because we were on the leading edge,” Trump Jr. told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on “Squawk on the Street” during an interview that took place at the Wednesday at the World Liberty Forum.
“We got into it out of necessity,” Trump Jr. said at the event that is being held at the Mar-a-Lago club that is owned by his father, President Donald Trump, in Palm Beach, Fla. “They basically forced us into it.”
Booted Out
During the CNBC interview, Donald Trump, Jr. and his younger brother Eric Trump blamed traditional banks for booting the Trump Organization’s hundreds of bank accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, during which supporters of his father stormed the U.S. Capitol while claiming the 2020 election results were invalid.
Donald Trump Jr. told CNBC said that for decades, the family had the ability “to call any banker in New York … and [get] a loan for a building.”
“And, you know, we just realized that we were sort of at the top of the Ponzi scheme that was banking,” Trump Jr. said. “If you didn’t have those connections, you didn’t get that benefit.”
Claims of Debanking
Donald Trump, Jr., along with his brother, Eric, said banks also had “debanked” other, smaller clients because of their conservative politics.
“We’re trying to modernize finance,” Eric Trump told CNBC. “We’re the most canceled people in the world in 2020, 2021. And it’s really great to almost have this retribution, where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda, our agenda is to modernize finance to [make sure] that can never, ever happen to anybody again.”
Donald Trump, Jr. said that stablecoins like those of World Liberty Financial “democratizes the ability for people to transact, to do finance, to get loans for businesses that make sense, that didn’t exist.”
Critics Cite Conflicts
Critics of World Liberty Financial have been citing what they say are conflicts of interest, included a reported $500 million purchase of a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial by the Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan months before the United Arab Emirates and Tahnoon’s company were given access to the advanced AI chips by the Trump administration, CNBC noted.
