Connections & Associates

An Abu Dhabi-backed sovereign technology fund that deployed $2 billion worth of the Trump-linked USD1 stablecoin in a transaction with crypto exchange Binance. The deal drew significant scrutiny from US Democratic lawmakers who called it deeply unusual.

Served as Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization for decades. Convicted of tax fraud in 2022, he was sentenced to five months in jail and later pleaded guilty to perjury in 2024 in connection with the New York civil fraud case against Trump.

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. He donated approximately $290 million to support Trump's 2024 presidential campaign -- the largest individual political donation in US history to that point -- through America PAC and other vehicles. Following Trump's election victory, Musk was appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body tasked with identifying federal spending cuts and regulatory rollbacks, operating outside the formal executive branch structure. Musk's DOGE role created immediate and sustained conflicts of interest. His companies -- SpaceX, Tesla, and X -- have significant federal contracts, regulatory relationships, and government dependencies. SpaceX holds billions in NASA and Defense Department contracts. Tesla's electric vehicle business was affected by DOGE-recommended changes to EV tax credits and regulatory positions. X had pending regulatory matters with the FTC. The overlapping interests led to multiple legal challenges and sustained criticism from government ethics officials. In June 2025, Musk publicly stated on X that the reason the Epstein files had not been released was because Trump's name appeared in the documents -- a claim the Department of Justice denied. The statement created a brief public rupture between Musk and Trump before both parties moved to resolve the dispute publicly. Musk and Trump's relationship has periodically shown tension despite their political alignment, reflecting the complexity of managing a figure as independently powerful and unpredictable as Musk within a political coalition.

Married to Ivanka Trump. During the first term he served as a senior White House advisor on Middle East policy, overseeing the Abraham Accords normalisation agreements between Israel and Gulf states. After leaving government in January 2021 he founded Affinity Partners, a private equity fund registered in the Cayman Islands that received a $2 billion commitment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund in October 2021 -- shortly after leaving government and amid the Saudi-brokered Abraham Accords. The PIF commitment represented the vast majority of Affinity's total assets under management. Affinity subsequently received additional investment from other Gulf sovereign wealth funds including Abu Dhabi and Qatari entities. The timing and scale of the Gulf investment in a fund run by a former senior US official with no prior private equity track record drew sustained scrutiny from ethics watchdogs, Senate investigators, and Democratic lawmakers who argued the arrangement represented a form of deferred compensation for policy decisions made while in government. Kushner has maintained that the investments were made on commercial terms and that Affinity has delivered returns to its limited partners. He returned to an informal advisory role during the 2024 campaign and has maintained ties to Gulf government and business figures developed during his first-term diplomatic work.

Founder of the TRON blockchain and one of the most prominent figures in global cryptocurrency. He pledged at least $75 million to World Liberty Financial and became its largest public investor. An SEC investigation into Sun was reportedly dropped shortly after Trump took office. Sun later publicly accused WLF of freezing his account.

The Saudi government's primary investment vehicle. It committed $2 billion to Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners shortly after the first Trump term. In January 2026 the Trump family office announced a $7 billion real estate and hospitality project in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the UAE's national security advisor and a brother of the UAE's president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. He controls an extensive network of sovereign and private investment vehicles and is one of the most powerful figures in UAE economic policy. An investment vehicle he controls, Aryam Investment 1, purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million in January 2025 -- just days before Trump's second inauguration on January 20, 2025. The transaction was not publicly disclosed by WLFI at the time and was only reported after investigative journalism surfaced the deal. The transaction placed a UAE national security official as a near-majority investor in a cryptocurrency platform majority-controlled by the incoming US president and his family. Ethics experts and congressional Democrats described the arrangement as an unprecedented conflict of interest, with direct financial flows from a foreign government to the president-elect on the eve of his return to power. The Trump administration and WLFI disputed the characterisation, describing it as an arm's-length commercial investment. Sheikh Tahnoon also oversees a broader portfolio of UAE sovereign and semi-sovereign investment vehicles with interests across technology, artificial intelligence, and financial services globally.

Dubai-based developer and billionaire who has partnered with the Trump Organization on multiple branded golf and residential projects in the UAE. Sajwani and his family attended Trump's Mar-a-Lago New Year's celebration in early 2025, raising ethics questions about foreign business ties maintained during the presidency.

In January 2026 the Pakistani government signed a formal agreement with World Liberty Financial to incorporate cryptocurrency into its national financial system. The agreement was negotiated by Zach Witkoff with Pakistan's finance minister.

A New York real estate developer and long-time Trump associate who served as a special envoy during the second term. His son Zach Witkoff is the CEO of World Liberty Financial. Forbes reported that Steve Witkoff substantially enriched himself during the second term through WLF investments.

The two co-founders who handle daily operations at World Liberty Financial alongside Zach Witkoff. Both had previously run a now-defunct financial education business that attracted regulatory attention.

The eldest son, who along with Eric Trump manages the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization through an irrevocable trust. He is an active board member and investor in multiple crypto and tech ventures, including Dominari Holdings and Unusual Machines.

Manages Trump Organization properties alongside his brother and is a prominent public face for World Liberty Financial and the Trump crypto portfolio. He is scheduled to keynote the Bitcoin 2026 conference.

Trump's eldest daughter, who served as a Senior White House Advisor during his first term. She and her husband Jared Kushner stepped back from formal advisory roles ahead of the second term. She holds interests in various branded properties and licensing arrangements and has built a separate business and fashion career.

The Murdoch family's media empire, including Fox News and the New York Post, provided sustained and largely favourable coverage throughout both Trump presidential campaigns. Fox News in particular has been a key platform for Trump messaging.