Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday called traditional banking a “pyramid scheme” that effectively forced the Trump family to launch a cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, after the bank closed the family’s company accounts in early 2021.
“We didn’t get into cryptocurrency because we were on the cutting edge,” Trump Jr. told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” during an interview at the World Freedom Forum on Wednesday.
“We came in out of necessity,” Trump Jr. said at an event at his father, President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. “They basically forced it on us.”
Donald Trump Jr. (left) and Eric Trump speak at “Squawk on the Street” on February 18, 2026.
CNBC
Trump and his brother Eric Trump accused traditional banks of misappropriating hundreds of Trump Organization bank accounts in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in which their father’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol while claiming the 2020 election results were invalid.
The brothers said the bank also “unbanked” other small customers because of their conservative politics.
“We’re modernizing finance,” Eric Trump said.
“We’re the most canceled party in the world in 2020, 2021,” Eric Trump said.
“And it’s really great that this retaliation is so close to happening. All of a sudden, we start pushing for a policy. Our policy is to modernize finance and make sure that something like this never happens to anyone again.”
The Trump family’s involvement in the cryptocurrency venture has drawn criticism given the president’s presence in the White House and his ability to shape policy that could affect the venture’s fate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, is one of the leading critics.
In early February, Warren criticized Abu Dhabi royal family Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s reported purchase of a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million, months before the United Arab Emirates and Tahnoun’s company were given access to advanced AI chips by the Trump administration.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” Warren said on February 1. “The Trump administration must reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.”
Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview Wednesday that his family has had the ability for decades to “call a banker in New York and … get a loan for a building.”
“And, you know, we now find ourselves on top of a pyramid scheme in the banking industry,” Trump Jr. said. “If we didn’t have those connections, we wouldn’t have had that benefit.”
He said stablecoins like World Liberty Financial’s “democratize the ability for people to trade, do finance, and get financing for businesses that make sense where none existed.”
In a press release, the World Freedom Forum touted an “unprecedented gathering of global finance, technology, sports, media and government leaders for a high-level dialogue on the forces reshaping the global economy.”
Despite Trump Jr.’s reference to banking as a Ponzi scheme, the event included an interview on the Mar-a-Lago Ballroom stage with one of the world’s most powerful bankers, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
When asked by CNBC’s Eisen why he came to the crypto event, Solomon replied, “I came here because Alex Witkoff called me. Alex and his family are great customers of the company.”
Witkoff is a co-founder of World Liberty Financial with the Trump brothers.
