Trump’s family is embroiled in a $500m UAE scandal. We’ve hardly noticed | Mohamad Bazzi

February 7, 2026

Here's something that really slipped under the radar — Trump’s family got involved in a $500 million deal with the UAE, and honestly, hardly anyone's talking about it. According to Mohamad Bazzi, just before Trump’s return to office in January 2025, a UAE royal family member’s investment firm secretly bought nearly half of a crypto startup founded by the Trumps. Now, you’d think that’d cause a media frenzy, right? But here’s the thing — because it’s Trump, this story was buried in the endless news cycle. Bazzi points out that a deal like this, involving foreign money, could normally spark investigations, hearings, and lots of political fallout. Instead, it barely made a ripple. And get this — this isn’t just about shady deals; it’s about how the corrupting influence of money and power gets ignored when it’s Trump involved. So, what’s coming next? The real question is — how many more of these deals are flying under the radar?

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A crypto startup founded by Trump’s family signed a huge deal with the UAE president’s brother. Where’s the political fallout?

Days before Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, an investment firm controlled by a senior member of the United Arab Emirates royal family secretly signed a deal to pay $500m to buy almost half of a cryptocurrency startup founded by the Trump family. Under any other president, such an arrangement, which was revealed this past weekend by the Wall Street Journal, would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings and months of damage control.

But this latest example of corruption involving Trump and his family business hardly made a blip over the past few days, relegated to a passing headline in a relentless news cycle often dominated by Trump’s actions and statements.

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A crypto startup founded by Trump’s family signed a huge deal with the UAE president’s brother. Where’s the political fallout?

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