ICYMI: Murphy on Trump's Secret Deal with the UAE: The White House is a Non-Stop Corruption Machine
Press (Murphy)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2026
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Deni Kamper
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
MURPHY ON TRUMP’S SECRET DEAL WITH THE UAE: THE WHITE HOUSE IS A NON-STOP CORRUPTION MACHINE
Senator Murphy’s Remarks Here
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to demand accountability following new reporting that a firm controlled by the U.A.E.’s National Security Advisor secretly purchased a 49% stake in the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. The deal steered millions of dollars to Trump and his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, right before the Trump White House greenlit an unprecedented deal to sell advanced AI chips to the U.A.E. last year, ignoring bipartisan national security warnings.
In his speech, Murphy exposed the crypto corruption Trump has tried to hide from the American people since he took office: “..days before [Trump’s] inauguration, a $500 million payment – a deal to pay World Liberty Financial $500 million for a 49% stake is done in secret. Now we don't know the full extent of that sale, but at the very least, $187 million is going directly from this UAE company into the Trump family's pockets. At least $31 million is going directly from this UAE company into the pocket of the Witkoff family. It is not a coincidence – it is not a coincidence that a secret deal is done in which a foreign government puts money directly into the hands of the president of the United States, secretly, and then very soon thereafter, we find out that the president is throwing out years of national security policy. He's discarding the advice of his advisors, and he's going to hand that country that just gave him $187 million national security secrets.”
Murphy left no doubt about the unprecedented and dangerous scale of Donald Trump’s pay-to-play corruption: “The White House has become a non-stop corruption machine. Never, ever before in the history of the country has the president of the United States so openly, so brazenly, so consistently worked to use the immense power of the presidency to enrich himself. Never before in the history of the nation has something like this happened. In secret, the president of the United States taking payments from foreign governments – put in his own pockets – and then handing them national security favors that the United States had never been willing to do in the past.”
Murphy concluded by calling out Republicans for allowing Trump to trade America’s national security for his personal enrichment, assuring them there will be consequences for this potentially criminal behavior: “What we are talking about here is stunning: a secret payment of at least $187 million to Trump's family, a payment of at least $31 million to the family of Trump's top Middle East advisor, and then, soon after a gift of national security secrets to the UAE that, up until those two secret payments, every American president had refused to give. That is corruption. Those are the elements of a bribe. This is potentially criminal conduct. The rule of law may be suspended today. Republicans may not be willing to do anything about this corruption, simply because the president is of your party. For now, Trump and his friends may get away with these crimes and with this corruption. But the rule of law is coming back, and when it does, everyone who has greased their palms off government service, trading government favors for cash, and violating the laws of this nation are going to jail.”
A video of the speech is available HERE. A full transcript of the speech is available below.
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Madam President, over the course of the last year, President Trump has been engaged in just a stunning array of acts to enrich himself and his family, using government policy, the power of the White House, to essentially trade away US policy, US national security secrets in exchange for investments in Trump himself – making himself rich off of being president of the United States. I'm coming to the floor today because over the weekend, through good old-fashioned investigative journalism, we discovered what might be the most corrupt act in this administration.
Amidst a dizzying array of daily corruption, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that four days before Donald Trump's inauguration, an investment firm closely tied to the United Arab Emirates secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in a company called World Liberty Financial. That's the Trump family's fledgling crypto currency venture. They run that business in coordination with the Witkoff family. The Witkoff family, of course, headed by Steve Witkoff, who is, not coincidentally, the president's chief Middle East advisor. The company that made the investment that took this 49% stake is backed by an individual named Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan. That's UAE’s National Security Advisor, but he is also deeply embedded in a number of very important companies that dole out investments from the United Arab Emirates.
One of the companies he is involved in, Tahnoon is involved in, is an AI firm called G42. This is all important to understand the scope of what we just discovered over the weekend. On behalf of this company, G42, Tahnoon has been arguing that the United States should sell G42, a UAE company, our most sensitive AI chips. We have not sold this hardware to the UAE. In the past, both Republican and Democratic administrations, both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate, both Republican and Democratic members of the House have said, we cannot sell this advanced AI hardware to UAE because of the well-known integration of UAE national security service – including this individual – with China. So, we've never sold these chips to UAE because we were pretty sure, and again, this was a bipartisan consensus, we were pretty sure that these chips would just flow straight to China, and China cannot – cannot – get control of this advanced AI hardware. It was shocking to most national security experts, shocking to Republicans and Democrats in Congress, when shortly after the president's inauguration, he decided against the advice of his national security advisors, to sell these chips to the UAE, and in particular, to this company owned by Sheikh Tahnoon.
Let me just accentuate the bipartisan nature of the opposition to this decision to transfer the technology to the UAE: in 2024, Republican Chair of the House, the House Foreign Affairs committee, Michael McCaul raised, the concern and asked for a probe of Microsoft's $1.5 billion investment into G42 and, again, this is Republican Chairman McCaul says to the Biden administration, I need you to do an investigation into – not the US government transfer – but Microsoft's investment into G42, citing integration between the UAE and China.
As I noted, it has been reported that this decision to sell these chips valued at $1 billion was done over the objection of the senior national security officials, including the Senior Director for Technology at the NSC, who argued for restricting access to these advanced chips. But Trump goes through with the sale, leaving everybody scratching their heads. This is really bad for American national security. Everybody knows that if you give these chips to the UAE, they're going to likely find their way into Chinese hands, but he green lights the sale of $1 billion of these advanced chips, and this weekend, we find out the likely reason: secretly, days before the administration, this UAE company, helmed by the individual who stands to benefit by the sale of the chips, makes an investment of $500 million, secretly, in Donald Trump's company, World Liberty Financial.
Now, just so you have no illusions, there is no separation between Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and World Liberty Financial. The World Liberty Financial is affiliated with a company called DT Marks DeFi LLC and President Trump reportedly owns 70% of that company. The rest of the 30% is believed to be split amongst Trump's sons, DT Marks, by the way, is not held by the Trump Organization or any of its companies. It's a company owned directly by Donald Trump. Steve Witkoff said that he was divesting his stake in this company, World Liberty Financial, but on a disclosure that he filed as late as September last year, just months ago, he still had a stake, a financial interest in that company.
So, Steve Witkoff, the Middle East advisor, Donald Trump, president of the United States – direct ownership stakes in World Liberty Financial – days before the inauguration, a $500 million payment, a deal to pay World Liberty Financial $500 million for a 49% stake is done in secret. Now, we don't know the full extent of that sale, but at the very least, $187 million is going directly from this UAE company into the Trump family's pockets. At least $31 million is going directly from this UAE company into the pocket of the Witkoff family. It is not a coincidence. It is not a coincidence that a secret deal is done in which a foreign government puts money directly into the hands of the president United States, secretly,
and then very soon thereafter, we find out that the president is throwing out years of national security policy. He's discarding the advice of his advisors, and he's going to hand that country that just gave him $187 million national security secrets.
Now of course, this isn't the first time that President Trump has done business with this particular individual, because Sheikh Tahnoon also runs a company called MGX. MGX put $2 billion worth of investment towards the president's business empire earlier in
the year. Now this was done in public so we saw it all for ourselves, but it was no less corrupt, just because it wasn't discovered by journalists. In that deal, this UAE company decided to finance an investment in a company called Binance with Donald Trump's
crypto coin. At the time, Trump's crypto coin was a fledgling product in the market. It did not have any big backers. Guess who comes to the rescue? Sheikh Tahnoon. With another one of his companies, he finances a $2 billion investment in Binance with Trump's
crypto coin – almost overnight, making that crypto coin one of the most successful…one of the most highly traded in the industry.
Now, in that case, the investment was directly by UAE into Donald Trump's company. It was financing a venture in Binance with Trump's crypto coin. But just because the corruption was a little bit more oblique doesn't mean that it wasn't corruption in this case.
In this case, it is a direct investment by a foreign government of half a billion dollars, directly into a company controlled and run by the president of the United States. There is no record in the history of the United States of a foreign government making
a direct investment in a company owned by the president of the United States. No wonder they did this in secret. No wonder they tried to get away with it without anybody knowing.
The UAE doesn't give this money away for nothing. They were asking for these national security secrets. They were asking for this advanced chip technology. And it's just not a coincidence. You don't have to be born yesterday to understand that. There's a connection between the payment to Donald Trump, the investment in his business, and the transfer of the national security secrets. I just don't want this to become normal. I just don't want us to paper over the multimillion-dollar corruption of the president of the United States – every single day profiting off of his position. I don't understand why our Republican colleagues excuse this. The White House has become a non-stop corruption machine. Never, ever before in the history of the country has the president of the United States so openly, so brazenly, so consistently worked to use the immense power of the presidency to enrich himself. Never before in the history of the nation has something like this happened in secret. The president of the United States taking payments from foreign governments, put in his own pockets, and then handing them national security favors that the United States had never been willing to do in the past.
Back during the Biden administration, there were endless hearings. There were nonstop speeches on this floor about the “Biden crime family.” You guys went wild over this, despite not a single allegation ever being made of an exchange by President Biden giving
favorable government treatment in exchange for a personal benefit to the president. The closest Republicans ever came was that the president's son, Hunter Biden, had been named to the board of an energy company in Ukraine when his father worked on Ukraine
policy. You know how many boards the Trump kids have been named to in the last 12 months? You know how many contracts – government contracts – have been given to those companies that the Trump kids just got put on the boards of, magically, when their father
became president? Listen, what Hunter Biden did was wrong. I said it at the time. He shouldn't have been on that board. But there was never a single allegation that President Biden did anything for that company, that his son was on the board of or got a single
dollar in exchange for his son's service on that board. Investigations, speeches, hundreds of hours on Fox News – not a single allegation.
Trump enriches himself every single day off his office. Every single day, foreign governments buy him things: luxury planes, investments in
his company, sweetheart deals, licenses to build hotels. All in exchange for favorable treatment from the United States government. It's all out there in the open for people to see.
This was a case in which they knew it was so egregious, it was so wrong, that they did it in private. What we are talking about here is stunning – a secret payment of at least $187 million to Trump's family, a payment of at least $31 million to the family of Trump's top Middle East advisor, and then soon after, a gift of national security secrets to the UAE that up until those two secret payments, every American president had refused to give. That is corruption. Those are the elements of a bribe.
This is potentially criminal conduct. The rule of law may be suspended today. Republicans may not be willing to do anything about this corruption, simply because the president is of your party. For now, Trump and his friends may get away with these crimes and with this corruption, but the rule of law is coming back, and when it does, everyone who has greased their palms off government service, trading government favors for cash and violating the laws of this nation are going to jail.