Former president Donald Trump promoted his family’s new cryptocurrency project Monday during a disorganized livestream short on details and even shorter on actual mentions of cryptocurrency, but the Trump clan’s supposed top “DeFi visionary” ghosted on the affair.
Trump’s youngest son Barron, 18, was nowhere to be found when it came time for him to speak, some two hours into the meandering promotional for World Liberty Financial, which even Trump’s crypto sector allies reportedly think is a stupid idea.
“He’s not here anymore,” said Farokh Sarmad, the crypto entrepreneur who hosted the livestream on X. “We took too long. We’re gonna try and get him back.” It would have marked Barron’s first major speaking role in public.
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“Damned teenagers,” joked Trump’s eldest child, 46-year-old Donald Jr., who sat in on the livestream along with his 40-year-old brother, Eric.
Documents obtained by CoinDesk show that World Liberty Financial is reportedly being touted as a decentralized finance (DeFi) money market, essentially a place where investors can borrow, lend, and make interest on crypto. Among the Trump family members listed on the company’s team are Don Jr. and Eric, both “Web3 Ambassadors,” while their father is “Chief Crypto Advocate.” The most revered title of “DeFi Visionary” is reserved for Barron.
According to Bloomberg, the dealmaker behind the crypto project is Chase Herro—a man who once described himself as “the dirtbag of the internet.”
“You can literally sell s--t in a can, wrapped in p--s, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it,” Herro said of the crypto space in one 2018 video. Speaking as he drove a Rolls-Royce, he adds in the clip: “I’m not going to question the right and wrong of all that.”
While Barron, the family “visionary,” was nowhere to be found on the launch livestream, a rambling 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 this, Barron’s a young guy, but he knows,” said the proud father. “He talks about his wallet, he’s got four wallets or something, and I’ll say ‘what is a wallet?’” (A cryptocurrency wallet is a device or program that stores keys that allow users to access their coins and perform transactions, he surely explains.)
It’s possible Barron didn’t make the livestream because he was busy putting that academic spirit to work. Earlier this month, he matriculated at New York University where he’s studying at the Stern School of Business and students have noticed the visionary towering over his Secret Service detail around campus.
“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said during the livestream. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
