Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday called traditional banking a "Ponzi scheme" that effectively forced the Trump family to start its crypto venture World Liberty Financial after banks closed the family company's accounts in early 2021.
"You know, we didn't get into crypto because we were on the leading edge," Trump Jr. told CNBC's Sara Eisen on "Squawk on the Street" during an interview Wednesday at the World Liberty Forum.
"We got into it out of necessity," Trump Jr. said at the event that is being held at the Mar-a-Lago club owned by his father, President Donald Trump, in Palm Beach, Fla. "They basically forced us into it."
He and his younger brother Eric Trump blamed traditional banks for booting the Trump Organization's hundreds of bank accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, during which supporters of his father stormed the U.S. Capitol while claiming the 2020 election results were invalid.
The brothers said banks also had "debanked" other, smaller clients because of their conservative politics.
"We're trying to modernize finance," Eric Trump said.
"We're the most cancelled people in the world in 2020, 2021," Eric Trump said.
"And it's really great to almost have this retribution, where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda, our agenda is to modernize finance to [make sure] that can never, ever happen to anybody again," he said.
The Trump family's involvement in a crypto venture has drawn criticism, given the presence of the elder Trump in the White House, and his ability to shape policy that could affect the fortunes of that venture. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been among the leading critics.
Warren in early February blasted the reported $500 million purchase of a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial by the Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan months before the United Arab Emirates and Tahnoon's company was given access to the advanced AI chips by the Trump administration.
"This is corruption, plain and simple," Warren said Feb. 1. "The Trump Administration must reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates."
Donald Trump Jr. in the Wednesday interview said that for decades, the family had the ability "to call any banker in New York ... and [get] a loan for a building."
"And, you know, we just realized that we were sort of at the top of the Ponzi scheme that was banking," Trump Jr. said. "If you didn't have those connections, you didn't get that benefit."
He said that stablecoin like those of World Liberty Financial "democratizes the ability for people to transact, to do finance, to get loans for businesses that make sense, that didn't exist."
The World Liberty Forum touted itself in a press release as bringing "together an unprecedented assembly of leaders from global finance, technology, sports, media, and government for a day of high-level dialogue on the forces reshaping the global economy."
Despite Trump Jr.'s reference to banking being a Ponzi scheme, the event included an interview with one of the most powerful bankers in the world, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on the stage of the Mar-a-Lago ballroom.
When asked by CNBC's Eisen why he had come to the cryptocurrency event, Solomon said, "I'm here because Alex Witkoff called me. Alex and his family are great clients of the firm."
Witkoff is a co-founder of World Liberty Financial with the Trump brothers.
