An analysis of fresh data has revealed a curious paradox in the business interests of the U.S. president's family. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a company controlled by the Trump clan, has found itself in the orbit of the Hong Kong-based platform WorldClaw, which opens access to Chinese AI for American users. This comes amid the White House administration officially labeling Chinese technology as a national security threat.
My calculations show that out of the 90 models available on WorldClaw, 43 belong to developers from mainland China — Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, and others. The rest are American solutions, including flagship products from OpenAI and Anthropic. The platform accepts payment in the USD1 stablecoin and World Liberty tokens, which directly links the financial chain to the Trump family, which owns 38% of the project and earns income from the turnover of these assets.
Of particular interest is the revenue structure: USD1 is backed by U.S. Treasury bonds, and the Trumps claim a share of the interest income on these reserves. The details of the financial agreements between WLFI and WorldClaw remain behind the scenes, but it is clear that we are talking about multi-million-dollar flows.
A Game on Two Fronts
The WorldClaw platform, launched in 2026, positions itself as an independent player. However, a key figure — Ryan Fang, head of growth at World Liberty — has served as an advisor to the service on USD1 integration and international expansion. The president's elder sons, co-founders of WLFI, actively promote the platform: Donald Trump Jr. promised WorldClaw contest winners a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, and Eric Trump called the partnership "the future of finance."
Here I see a clear conflict of interest. The Trump administration has imposed strict restrictions against a number of Chinese AI companies. The Pentagon has added Alibaba and Baidu to the list of firms linked to the Chinese military, and Z.ai (formerly Zhipu AI) was placed on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List for "aiding China's military modernization." At the same time, WorldClaw calmly offers their models to American users, and the president's family profits from it.
Regulatory Undertones
It is telling that on August 14, the OCC gave preliminary approval for the creation of the trust bank World Liberty Trust Company. This entity will handle the issuance of USD1 and manage reserves. Four of the seven comments submitted to the regulator concerned conflicts of interest involving the Trumps and Emirati investors. Senator Elizabeth Warren has already called it "the most brazen self-enrichment in the history of the financial system" and announced a bill to ban banking licenses for presidential families.
Experts I consulted agree: while Washington tries to contain Chinese AI, Trump's involvement in WorldClaw looks hypocritical. Sam Bresnick of Georgetown University directly stated that "turning to Chinese tools for profit is a contradiction of the administration's course." However, lawyer Peter Jaydel sees logic in this for a second term: less hawkish pressure on China and a priority on business interests.
My assessment: this situation is a classic example of how the crypto industry intertwines with geopolitics and family interests. For the market, it is a signal of growing reputational risks: if regulators tighten the rules, projects at the level of WLFI could face serious consequences. Investors should take into account the political volatility of such assets.