President Donald Trump was asked on Monday in the Oval Office to react to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal that a crypto company owned by him and his family received a half-billion-dollar investment from a foreign country just days before he took office.

The WSJ report also linked the investment to the United Arab Emirates, where the investment came from, gaining access to highly sensitive processing chips that the previous administration had withheld over national security concerns. The WSJ was the first to report on what it called an “unprecedented” and “secret” deal between the Trump family and a foreign country.

“Mr. President, the Wall Street Journal reported that the royal family of Abu Dhabi invested hundreds of millions of dollars in World Liberty Financial. Can you explain why you decided to take that investment? Was that a transaction?” Trump was asked by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny.

“Well, I don’t know about it. I know that crypto is a big thing and they like it. A lot of people like it, the people behind me like it. My sons are handling that. My family is handling it. And I guess they get investments from different people, but I’m not—I have all I can handle right now with Iran and with Russia and Ukraine and with all the things we’re doing. So I don’t know. I don’t know exactly, other than, you know, I’m a big crypto person. I’m the one that probably helped crypto more than anybody, because I believe in it,” Trump replied, dodging the question.

“And the reason I believe in it is because if we don’t do it, Scott, I think we can say then China is going to do it. If we don’t do crypto, then China’s going to do it, and it’s just like AI. We’re leading AI by a lot. And if we weren’t leading, China would have led. You know, they’re very capable. They’re very good. What do you have to say about that?” Trump added, turning to his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“You’ve made America the digital asset capital of the world. We did the GENIUS Act for stablecoins. Many of the people standing up here working on the Clarity Bill for market structure, and we’re bringing U.S. best practices to an exciting new industry—digital assets, innovation—and it spreads everywhere,” Bessent replied dutifully.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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