Senator Murphy Accuses Trump of Secret Deal with the UAE: “The White House Has Become a Never-Ending Corruption Machine”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the Senate, accused former President Donald Trump of engaging in “unprecedented corruption” through a secret investment deal with an entity linked to the United Arab Emirates, stating that the White House under Trump had turned into a “never-ending corruption machine.”
In a speech delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Murphy said recent media reports revealed that an investment firm linked to UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan had purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, just days before Trump’s inauguration. The deal was reportedly valued at approximately $500 million.
Murphy added that the deal—signed “in complete secrecy,” according to his remarks—would result in at least $187 million being transferred directly to the Trump family, along with no less than $31 million to the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East adviser and a partner in the venture.
The senator argued that these investments coincided in a manner that “cannot be separated” from the Trump administration’s decision to grant the UAE an unprecedented deal to purchase advanced artificial intelligence chips worth nearly $1 billion, despite bipartisan security warnings in the United States about the risk of this technology being transferred to China through Emirati cooperation networks.
Murphy noted that previous U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democratic, had refrained from selling such chips to the UAE due to “clear national security concerns,” but that Trump approved the deal “against the advice of his senior national security advisers.”
In his speech, Murphy stated: “The U.S. president receives secret payments from foreign governments and then grants them privileges Washington had previously refused to approve,” describing the matter as containing “elements of bribery” and potentially amounting to “criminal conduct.”
He further described the situation inside the White House by saying: “Never in the history of the United States has a president used his power so openly and repeatedly to enrich himself,” stressing that “the rule of law will return,” and that those he described as “involved in selling influence for money” would ultimately face accountability.
