On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. addressed rumors claiming he and his brothers had withdrawn from World Liberty Financial, confirming their ongoing involvement as the crypto firm intensifies a notable legal battle.
During a panel at Miami’s Consensus crypto conference, Zach Witkoff, another co-founder of World Liberty, remarked on Twitter speculation that Don and Eric Trump had deserted the project. “It was news to me too,” said Trump Jr., attributing these rumors to online misinformation following the removal of company co-founders—including President Donald Trump and his three sons—from the firm’s website.
“You get enough people who follow what they’re told blindly, plus bots pushing it… I wouldn’t be here if that was true,” Trump Jr. stated. Witkoff affirmed, “As far as I’m aware, Don and Eric are still co-founders of the project.”
The panel’s moderator, David Wachsman—an independent crypto PR executive who manages public relations for the Trump family’s crypto venture—sparked this clarification.
Addressing a lawsuit filed by World Liberty against Justin Sun, founder of the Tron network and one of its main financial supporters, Witkoff explained that Sun had accused the company of leadership misconduct. World Liberty has retaliated with a defamation suit, claiming Sun not only spread false information but also secretly shorted its native token, WLFI, to devalue it.
“We wouldn’t have filed the lawsuit if we didn’t have proof,” Witkoff stated, describing this legal move as a “last resort.”
Witkoff later discussed World Liberty’s regulatory ambitions, noting their January application with a Treasury Department division for a national trust bank charter. This would permit them to manage banking functions related to their stablecoin, USD1.
“We’re eager to hopefully secure our charter,” Witkoff mentioned, indicating they are nearing conditional approval.
Recently, top Democrats have highlighted World Liberty’s pending bank charter application as evidence of President Trump’s alleged “crypto corruption.” Senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized the potential approval, labeling it “perhaps the most disgraceful presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history.”