‘I wasn’t involved’: Donald Trump Jr. denies involvement in $TRUMP meme coin

Donald Trump Jr. is distancing himself from his father’s meme coin, clarifying that he had no role in its creation or promotion.

“I wasn’t involved in the meme coin,” he said during an interview. “I’m more focused on the stablecoin, the bitcoin mining.”

The $TRUMP token — launched shortly before President Trump returned to office — has become the centerpiece of the Trump family’s growing crypto footprint. Though 80% of the coin is reportedly controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, Trump Jr. said he had nothing to do with it.

The meme coin soared to a $15 billion market cap but has since lost most of its value. Still, it continues to generate significant revenue. Chainalysis reports that from January to April, over $324 million in trading fees went to wallets linked to the project’s creators.

The token’s code is designed to automatically direct a portion of every transaction to those wallets. Chainalysis has since stopped tracking the coin, citing a need to refocus on paid clients.

Critics have raised red flags about a sitting president having ties to crypto tokens. Trump Jr. acknowledged the risks but said blockchain anonymity limits potential abuse.

“You don’t know who’s actually doing any of these things,” he said. “It’s hard to influence if you don’t actually know where this stuff’s coming from.”

He explained the family turned to crypto out of necessity after being shut out of the banking system.

“I could call any single banker in New York City,” he said. “They’d pick up the phone, I’d be able to get a loan for whatever real estate project I was doing across the street. Then we got into politics, and all of a sudden they wouldn’t take your call. You couldn’t get financing. We were debanked.”

That financial shutout led the family to explore decentralized finance. “We got into it out of necessity,” Trump Jr. said.

Now, the Trumps are focused on stablecoins. Through World Liberty Finance, they launched USD1 — a dollar-pegged token reportedly backed fully by U.S. Treasurys.

Trump Jr. argued that far from undermining the U.S. financial system, stablecoins could reinforce it.

“They’re literally some of the biggest buyers of U.S. Treasurys in the world,” he said, citing firms like Tether, which holds nearly $120 billion in U.S. government debt.

“Stablecoins could be the savior of U.S. currency,” he added.

Meanwhile, Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, increased his stake in World Liberty Financial’s WLFI tokens to $75 million in January. He later won a contest for top $TRUMP holders, pushing his total investment in Trump-tied tokens to at least $97 million.

Despite the scrutiny, Trump Jr. insisted the family’s embrace of crypto isn’t about hype — it’s about building resilience outside the traditional financial system.

(CNBC)

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