By Lawrence Delevingne and Michelle Conlin
Feb 17 (Reuters) – On Wednesday, prominent Wall Street executives and investors will convene to discuss the “future of finance and technology” alongside federal officials and U.S. lawmakers at President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Expected speakers at the World Liberty Forum, organized by Trump family-backed crypto business World Liberty Financial, include David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; Jenny Johnson, chief executive of $1.7 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton; Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange; and Adena Friedman, CEO of the Nasdaq.
Also slated to appear are Trump appointees Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration; and Jacob Helberg, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
The event will be hosted by the president’s sons and co-founders of World Liberty Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as brothers Zach and Alex Witkoff, whose father is Steve Witkoff, a White House special envoy.
Six legal and government ethics experts interviewed by Reuters agreed the forum was unique but expressed divergent views about whether it posed a serious conflict of interest. Critics see it as a troubling overlap of regulators and financial firms alongside a Trump family business; their appearance could be seen as supporting it to curry favor. Others were skeptical there was any constitutional legal issue and said all presidents have inherent conflicts of interest.
In a statement, World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman said the forum is “about deepening relationships and extending U.S. dollar dominance in the digital economy,” comparing it to the Milken Institute Global Conference or Sun Valley.
He added that media will be invited to attend the event, its speakers were not paid to participate, and announcements will be shared publicly. World Liberty said in posts on X that it would also invite top online promoters of its tradable crypto token, “WLFI” and USD1 stablecoin.
Representatives for the CFTC, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, NYSE and Nasdaq declined to comment or did not respond to requests.
A Small Business Administration spokesperson said Loeffler is “attending the event in her personal capacity” and directed questions to World Liberty. A State Department spokesperson wrote in a statement that “a core component of Mr. Helberg’s mandate is to engage the nation’s most prominent business leaders.”
President Trump is not slated to appear at the conference, as he did at a dinner honoring top buyers of his meme coin in May.
CRYPTO BOOSTS TRUMP FAMILY WEALTH
The event as envisioned is a convergence of Trump family business interests, regulators, political appointees, lawmakers allied to the president, and financial executives who have a stake in shaping evolving crypto policy.
Chris Swartz, a former attorney at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, including under both Trump administrations, said that he is concerned about the appearance of the Trump family using its patriarch’s public office for the benefit of their private crypto businesses.
“Any reasonable person would have serious questions about the propriety of this event,” said Swartz, who now serves as senior ethics counsel for Democracy Defenders Action, a legal advocacy group.
Andy Grewal, a professor of law at University of Iowa, said that it was not unusual for business executives to try to align themselves with the current administration.
“The presidency has inescapable conflicts. It’s up to the voters to decide who they believe will or will not ethically handle those,” Grewal said.
In a statement, Wachsman said “there is nothing unprecedented about leaders in finance, technology, and government convening to discuss the future of critical markets,” adding that “characterizing standard cross-sector dialogue as a ‘conflict of interest’ misrepresents both the event and its participants.”
World Liberty Financial has become central to the Trump family’s wealth since it was launched by the president and his three sons just before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, prompting criticism of President Trump leveraging his public role for personal gain from Democratic politicians and other observers.
During Trump’s first year in office, his family has made more than $1 billion from crypto projects, according to a Reuters analysis. Much of that has come from World Liberty, whose main product, the USD1 stablecoin, which is backed by the U.S. dollar, has surpassed $5 billion in circulation to become the fifth-largest stablecoin globally, according to Wachsman.
In January 2025, just days before President Trump’s inauguration, an investment vehicle linked to a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family purchased a 49% equity stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The deal was later confirmed to Reuters by Wachsman, the World Liberty spokesman.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and “there are no conflicts of interest.”
David Warrington, White House Counsel, wrote in an additional statement that “the president has no involvement in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities.”
As a beneficiary of the trust controlling the Trump Organization, Trump will have access to the income generated by these ventures when he leaves office.
(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Michelle Conlin in New York. Additional reporting by Tom Bergin in London. Editing by Tom Lasseter.)
Comments