Former President Donald Trump promoted his family’s new cryptocurrency project Monday in a disorganized livestream that was lacking in detail and even less about cryptocurrency, but the Trump clan’s supposed “DeFi visionary” brushed it off.
Trump’s youngest son, Barron, 18, was nowhere to be found when it came time for him to speak, about two hours into the meandering World Liberty Financial promotion that even Trump’s crypto allies would consider a stupid idea.
“He’s gone,” said Farokh Sarmad, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who hosted the livestream on X. “We took too long. We’re going to try to get him back.” It would have marked Barron’s first major public speaking role.
“Damn teenagers,” joked Trump’s eldest child, Donald Jr., 46, who watched the live broadcast with his brother Eric, 40.
Documents obtained by CoinDesk show that World Liberty Financial is reportedly billed as a decentralized finance (DeFi) money market, essentially a place where investors can borrow, lend, and earn interest on cryptocurrencies. Trump family members on the company’s team include Don Jr. and Eric, both “Web3 Ambassadors,” while their father is “Chief Crypto Advocate.” The more revered title of “DeFi Visionary” is reserved for Barron.
According to Bloomberg, the negotiator behind the cryptocurrency project is Chase Herro, a man who once described himself as “the internet’s bastard.”
“You can literally sell shit in a box, wrapped in PS, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story is true, because people will buy it,” Herro said of the crypto space in a 2018 video. Speaking while driving a Rolls-Royce, he adds in the clip: “I’m not going to question the right and wrong of it.”
While Barron, the family’s “visionary,” was nowhere to be seen during the launch livestream, a chatty Donald Trump — who compared understanding cryptocurrency to his “beautiful granddaughter” Arabella learning Chinese from a nanny — nevertheless found time to praise his son’s supposed genius.
“Barron knows so much about it, Barron’s a young guy, but he knows,” the proud father said. “He talks about his wallet, he has four wallets or something, and I’m like, ‘What’s a wallet?’” (A cryptocurrency wallet is a device or program that stores keys that allow users to access their coins and make transactions, he probably explains.)
Barron may not have been on the livestream because he was busy putting that academic mindset into practice. Earlier this month, he enrolled at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and students noticed the visionary dominating his Secret Service detachment on campus.
“Cryptocurrencies are one of those things that we have to do,” Trump said during the livestream. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
