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Deals with Putin, meetings without witnesses, billions from the Emirates. But in exchange for what is Trump getting rich?

2026-03-16 19:12:27Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA FEDERICO FUBINI
Trump and Putin

Federico Fubini - Corriere della Sera

As the wars, deaths, damage to international trade and the purchasing power of ordinary people mount, the harder it becomes to find a connection between the events. But consider this series of facts: Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's envoy and business partner, has met with Vladimir Putin at least three times without the presence of an interpreter or other American diplomatic representatives.

The United Arab Emirates has signed a half-billion-dollar deal for 49% of World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company founded in the fall of 2024 by the Trump and Witkoff families; while Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Oman are among the countries that have entered into commercial contracts with the Trump family since his reelection.

But it is not just the president of the United States who reminds us that there is a connection between autocratic political models, real or desired, money, and the destabilization of international relations.

Just look at Qatar, its approach to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, or Libya. The relationship between leaders, autocracy, and money exists even without Trump, and even before him. However, it is one of the least discussed factors, although among the most important for understanding the chaos into which the international system is sliding. Without this factor, today we would live in a safer world and a more stable economy.

Lack of interpreter

Steve Witkoff, the US president's envoy and partner, does not speak Russian, had never dealt with Russia before, and had no diplomatic experience.

However, on February 11, 2025, he was seen smilingly entering a Kremlin hall and warmly shaking Vladimir Putin's hand.

The two had never met before, but that day they spoke for three and a half hours. The details of the conversation were never made public, though it produced at least one concrete result: the Russian government agreed to release and allow the departure of Marc Fogel, an American prisoner sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Meeting without witnesses

Yet it is impossible that Putin and Witkoff could have talked about this case for three and a half hours. What did they discuss for the rest of the time? We will probably never know. The reason is simple: there were no American witnesses. There were no officials to take notes and no American translator to check the Russian translation. For these reasons, the meeting constitutes an absolute exception in decades of US diplomatic history.

The abandonment of Ukraine

However, this was not the only exception for Witkoff: a month later and then two months after that he met with Putin again, again without an entourage or translator from his country. No one can report on the content of the conversations.

It is only known that since then the US administration has almost abandoned Ukraine, and Donald Trump is increasingly openly siding with Russia. In 2026, according to this claim, Ukraine supplied more weapons to the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf than the United States supplied to Ukraine (the latter is equal to zero).

Cryptocurrency agreements

A few weeks before the Kremlin meeting, the Trump and Witkoff families had made a deal with the Aryam Investment 1 investment fund, in which Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Emirati ruling family, invests.

The $500 million deal gave the Abu Dhabi investor a 49% stake in cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial. The Trump family received $187 million, while the Witkoff family received $31 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Following this agreement, the United Arab Emirates received approval from Trump to supply 500,000 advanced semiconductors per year manufactured in the US, while previous export restrictions were lifted.

In exchange for what?

The question isn't whether Trump and his associates are getting richer since returning to the White House. According to The New York Times, their wealth has increased by about $1.4 billion since the start of his second term. The real question is: in exchange for what?

The “Raven” Project

A cautionary tale is the cyber operation known as “Project Raven,” in which former U.S. National Security Agency agents were hired by Abu Dhabi to hack into the digital archives of the Qatari government. The documents yielded letters that appeared to be payment orders for prominent figures in democratic countries.

Documents and accusations

One of the documents mentions French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, with an alleged payment of around 9 million euros. He categorically denied it and sued the journalists of the Blast platform, but the French courts dismissed the lawsuit.

Other documents mentioned names like Carla Bruni, Nicolas Sarkozy, Michel Platini, and even alleged payments to Benjamin Netanyahu's campaigns.

The authenticity of these documents was never proven, but several close associates of Netanyahu were investigated in Israel for receiving funds from Qatar.

The chaos ingredient

Much remains unclear. But the signs in the international system point in the same direction: the rise of autocratic regimes and clandestine money flows are becoming a key factor in the chaos of recent years.

Many of the wars in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East cannot be fully understood without looking at the flow of money, cryptocurrencies, and funds passing through tax havens. The transformation of the United States under the Trump administration only accelerates this phenomenon.

Whether he is the cause or simply the latest symptom of this process, perhaps only the historians of this century will discover.


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