In a deal that will raise more questions about US President Donald Trump’s business interests while holding office, World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by Trump, is working with Hong Kong-based AI platform WorldClaw.
The platform provides access to roughly 90 AI models, of which 43 are developed by Chinese companies including Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek, and Moonshot.
Those firms face direct U.S. restrictions, Alibaba and Baidu are designated as Chinese military-aligned companies, while Z.ai is on the Commerce Department’s entity list. DeepSeek and Moonshot have been accused by U.S. officials of stealing American technology.
The platform also offers models from U.S. firms including OpenAI and Anthropic, but the presence of restricted Chinese models has drawn sharp scrutiny.
How the Trump Family benefits financially
Users can pay for WorldClaw’s services using USD1, World Liberty’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, allowing the Trump family to benefit from the token’s use.
The family owns 38 percent of World Liberty and has already earned more than $1.4 billion from token sales. The president’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have publicly promoted WorldClaw on social media, and a World Liberty executive has served as an advisor to the platform.
The WorldClaw spokesperson stated that Ryan Fang, World Liberty’s head of growth, has been a “helpful external adviser and supporter” of the company.
A clash with administration policy
Seven experts on Chinese technology, trade, and government ethics reported that the collaboration runs counter to the administration’s tough stance on Chinese tech companies.
Sam Bresnick, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, called it “hypocritical” for the administration to try to counter Chinese AI while Trump-linked ventures profit from selling it.
The White House has defended the arrangement, with spokesperson Anna Kelly stating that “there are no conflicts of interest” and that “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
World Liberty and WorldClaw maintain that they are independent companies and that offering a model does not constitute endorsement of its developer.
The USD1 stablecoin: The financial glue behind the AI platform’s controversy
At the center of this partnership lies World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin, which serves as the payment rail for WorldClaw’s AI services. So this is not just a technical detail, but the financial mechanism that allows the Trump family to profit from every transaction involving restricted Chinese models.
Since the Trumps own 38 percent of World Liberty, every time someone pays for an Alibaba or Z.ai model, a piece of that money ends up benefiting the president’s business.
This stablecoin was meant to take on big names like USDT, USDC, etc., but now it’s stuck right in the middle of a messy mix of AI, national security, and bad optics.