On a sweltering mid-August day in New York City, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. swung open the doors to a boardroom at the Trump Organization. The two sons of President Donald Trump sat around a polished black stone table on the 25th floor of the Trump Tower. In between them sat Zach Witkoff, the son of real estate magnate Steve Witkoff who is serving as Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.
“He’s a man that I look up to,” Zach said of the 47th President. “He’s a man that I’ve named my first son Don after.”
Donald Jr. responded with mock outrage. “Wait, I thought it was…” he said, trailing off, implying that he thought it was he, not his father, that had inspired Zach’s name choice.
The banter continued as Chase Herro, a cofounder of the Trump family’s crypto business, weighed in with feigned sympathy: “It’s terrible that that’s how you find that out—in an interview.”
As of now, World Liberty Financial has three main ventures: a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar called USD1, a cryptocurrency called WLFI, and a publicly-traded company that holds WLFI. Those who purchase WLFI can help make future decisions about the development of World Liberty Financial products. The public company, meanwhile, was created by partnering with a onetime biotech firm, and exists primarily as a way for traditional investors who don’t use crypto exchanges to gain exposure to WLFI by buying shares.
Eric and Donald Jr., along with Zach, wore suits and blue ties. Then there was Herro, the crypto venture’s co-founder, who sported a light beige t-shirt and olive jeans, with what appeared to be a Greek statue inked on his right bicep and plenty of other tattoos. Folkman, wearing a black long sleeve shirt and sleek sweatpants, was likewise tatted up with an ink butterfly gracing his left hand along with other marks. World Liberty Financial, it seems, favors two uniforms: business formal or crypto leisure.
The details of how the Trumps teamed up with a group of crypto veterans are still fuzzy, but the story begins on a golf course.
While Herro, clad in tattoos, was on the green, Zach happened to be driving by. “He could tell I was a little, like, out of my realm,” said Herro. “And he’s like, ‘Listen, you come ride with me.’ And literally, on the golf cart, we just started shooting the shit.”
During the same livestream, Zach’s father, Steve Witkoff, sought to reassure the audience, urging them not to judge this book by its cover.
“They look a little different than us. They dress a little different than us,” he said. “I met traders from all over the world and these guys are as smart as any currency traders I’ve ever met.”
Now, the Trump family crypto venture, which numbers between 20 and 30 employees, has its sights on the launch of a crypto lending and borrowing protocol and an app for decentralized finance, or what those in crypto call DeFi. Folkman declined to say when those products would launch.
The rush of capital and Trump-branded crypto products has raised alarm bells among ethics experts, who argue that World Liberty Financial gives would-be seekers of presidential favor a direct line to his family’s pocketbook. When asked previously about the ethical quagmires, Eric Trump dismissed them. “I keep separation between the two,” he said, referring to his business relationships and relationship with his father. “But, I think he’d be proud of what we were doing.”
Zach, Herro, and Folkman are also proud of their crypto company. On the back of Herro’s neck was a tattoo of World Liberty Financial’s logo, a geometric eagle. Folkman had a similar tattoo on his left forearm. And Zach admitted he, too, had the tattoo. Apparently, it stemmed from a night out on the town, according to Matt Morgan, an advisor to the Trump family crypto project who was also in the boardroom.
When asked where his tattoo was, Zach was cagey. “He may or may not have a tramp stamp!” wisecracked Folkman, referring to a tattoo just above one’s backside.
