‘This is the most brazen act of self-dealing’: Elizabeth Warren lashes out at Trump family's plan to launch a bank

“Our ambition is clear: to build the most trusted and widely used digital dollar in the world while strengthening the role of the U.S. dollar across the global economy,” he wrote.

Warren had a different interpretation of World Liberty’s goals.

“This is the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen,” she said on X.

Warren and her Democratic colleagues on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs raised the alarm about potential presidential conflicts of interest when World Liberty applied for a bank charter in January of this year.

The firm, co-founded by Donald Trump in 2024 before his second term as president, trades in the USD1, a stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar.

“We have never seen financial conflicts or corruption of this magnitude,” she said at the time.

Warren’s concerns are not only about the money Trump’s family is making from World Liberty while he’s in office, but that while he is president, a government arm that regulates banks — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) — granted the company conditional approval to establish a national trust bank under the World Liberty Trust banner.

Zach Witkoff said that his company will comply with all the OCC requirements and the OCC will regulate World Liberty Trust. Unlike a regular commercial bank, it will not be able to make loans or accept federally insured deposits.

But those reassurances are not good enough for Sen. Warren, who is prepared to introduce legislation to challenge the move. Here’s a look at how much money is involved.

How Trump’s family could stand to benefit

According to Bloomberg, World Liberty was worth $1.7 billion by June of this year. Trump’s family had a $630-million share of that worth thanks to their 38% ownership in the two-year-old venture — the biggest asset in their portfolio. There are $4 billion worth of USD1 stablecoins in circulation, according to CNN.

Last year, as the Wall Street Journal reports, Trump sold $263 million in equity in World Liberty to a group of investors headed by United Arab Emirates Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan. Moving forward as a national trust bank, World Liberty will be able to deal directly with institutional investors.

The Wall Street Journal notes that having a bank charter will allow World Liberty to issue, redeem and store more stablecoins without middlemen. Currently BitGo, a digital trust company, stores USD1 reserves. People can also trade, borrow and lend USD1 stablecoins through the platform Dolomite. Removing the middleman will streamline World Liberty’s operations and boost profits.

Having a federal banking charter will also ease regulatory compliance, as the company will be able to operate across state lines rather than dealing with individual state regulators.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, World Liberty is not the first crypto venture to get a charter as a national trust bank. Jonathan Gould, a banking lawyer who now heads the OCC, also gave Ripple and Crypto.com approval to set up banks.

Concerns about conflicts of interest

Former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter told CNN the World Liberty Trust bank charter approval is fraught. He managed potential conflicts of interest for senior administration appointees under President George W. Bush.

“It is quite precarious to have the president and his family invested heavily in one of our most important regulated industries at the same time as he has the power to hire and fire the regulators,” he said.

Sen. Warren is more blunt. “The OCC’s review is a sham,” she wrote in a statement.

The OCC’s Gould rejected the idea that the president would do something “inappropriate or illegal” related to World Liberty. OCC Senior Deputy Comptroller Stephen Lybarger responded to concerns that Gould, as a Trump appointee, might give World Liberty preferential treatment — either being more lax with regulations or applying stiffer regulations to others unfairly.