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Trump Family Members Hacked to Promote Apparent Crypto Scam

The incident comes hours after CoinDesk revealed details of the crypto project the Trump family has recently touted.

Updated Sep 4, 2024, 4:04 p.m. Published Sep 4, 2024, 1:45 a.m.
Lara Trump (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Lara Trump (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The X accounts of Donald Trump's daughter-in-law and daughter were apparently hacked Tuesday evening to promote a token purportedly tied to World Liberty Financial, the upcoming crypto project touted by family members in recent days.

Lara and Tiffany Trump, the wife of Eric Trump and daughter of Donald Trump, respectively, tweeted what they described as "the only official" blockchain addresses for World Liberty Financial. Lara Trump tweeted: Our goal at World Liberty ... is to utilize our governance token on Solana, $WL, to support our DeFi lending protocol."

Lara Trump tweet (X)
Lara Trump tweet (X)

Not long after, Eric, the middle son of former President Trump, posted on X that the two profiles had been compromised and the addresses were a "scam." World Liberty Financial also tweeted: "ALERT: Lara's and Tiffany Trump's X accounts have been hacked. Do NOT click on any links or purchase any tokens shared from their profiles. We're actively working to fix this, but please stay vigilant and avoid scams!"

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This is at least the third time a token allegedly but apparently not really tied to Trump – who's curried the crypto industry's favor and votes over the past few months – has been launched.

There was a DJT token, which convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli said was launched with Barron Trump, Trump's youngest child, and other developers. No one from the Trump family confirmed whether they had any ties to that project. Another, Restore the Republic, or RTR, also briefly hit a $155 million valuation before crashing.

The hacks came hours after CoinDesk revealed details of World Liberty's plans, including the fact that it's a borrowing-and-lending DeFi platform that plans to issue a token called WLFI. The project does not have an official launch date, but the white paper indicated that Donald Trump, who is running for president a third time, will be the "chief crypto advocate." Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron Trump all have roles as well.

Read more: Inside the Trump Crypto Project Linked to a $2M DeFi Hack and Former Pick-Up Artist


Nikhilesh De

Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, covering regulators, lawmakers and institutions. When he's not reporting on digital assets and policy, he can be found admiring Amtrak or building LEGO trains. He owns < $50 in BTC and < $20 in ETH. He was named the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers' Journalist of the Year in 2020.

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