Barron Trump and his brothers go to war with a banana-eating Chinese billionaire over explosive 'smear campaign'

By CHARLIE SPIERING, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 19:08, 6 May 2026 | Updated: 19:08, 6 May 2026 A pair of dueling lawsuits between a Trump family-connected cryptocurrency business and a larger-than-life multibillion-dollar investor is entering all-out war. World Liberty Financial, the crypto start-up company founded with the Trump brothers, Don Jr, Eric, and Barron, together with Alex and Zach Witkoff, sons of Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, filed a lawsuit against Sun Yuchen (Justin) Sun for defamation on Monday. The lawsuit was a response to one filed by Sun two weeks ago, accusing World Liberty Financial of ‘engaging in an illegal scheme to seize property.’ World Liberty Financial is working with attorney Tom Clare on the lawsuit, a top anti-defamation attorney who has worked with Johnny Depp and Brigitte Macron. The World Liberty lawsuit accuses Sun of engaging in a ‘public smear campaign’ against their cryptocurrency venture, citing statements he made on social media about the company. The lawsuit claims that Sun’s sudden attacks against the company took place after World Liberty Financial froze Sun’s assets in the company after learning of ‘misconduct.’  The lawsuit cites ‘suspected short selling’ of the Sun's company's tokens and ‘straw purchases of $WLFI tokens on behalf of undisclosed third parties.’ In response, the lawsuit claims, Sun ‘embarked on a scorched-earth pressure campaign’ against her company and had his counsel threaten a lawsuit that would ‘light World Liberty on fire’ and make the company’s token price ‘go to s**t.’ Eric Trump (center), is joined by his brother Donald Trump Jr. (left), Zach Witkoff (center left), Co-Founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, and Zak Folkman, World Liberty Financial Co-Founder and ALT5 Board Observer Justin Sun Yuchen, founder of Tron and CEO of BitTorrent has sued World Liberty Financial  The lawsuit claims that Sun did not try to work out a solution with the company, but rather chose to retaliate publicly with ‘false claims.’ 'Rather than acting in good faith, Justin Sun chose to defame World Liberty — repeatedly, publicly, and to millions of followers,’ said Tom Clare, attorney for World Liberty Financial after filing the lawsuit. Clare said the lawsuit filed by World liberty was the ‘last resort to correct the record.’ ‘We are eager to expose the falsity of Sun’s statements in court and in public,’ he concluded. Sun did not respond to a Daily Mail request for comment, but responded to the lawsuit publicly on social media. ‘The alleged defamation lawsuit that World Liberty announced on X today is nothing more than a meritless PR stunt. I stand by my actions and look forward to defeating the case in court,’ he said. Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire crypto investor has a long history of parading his wild expenditures and cryptocurrency projects in the United States. He famously purchased an art display of a banana duct-taped to a wall for $6.2 million, only to eat it on camera.  Last year, he went to space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space flight after bidding $28 million to win an auction to go into space.  In 2019, he bid $4.57 million to win a charity auction for a lunch with investor Warren Buffet. Sun even publicly offered to spend $30 million to spend an hour with Elon Musk, although Musk did not publicly respond to the offer. Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun eats a banana artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape Barron Trump has joined his brothers in the World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture His cryptocurrency antics caught the attention of the SEC in 2023, as he was accused in a civil case of manipulating the secondary market for his own crypto assets through wash trading, a practice of purchasing and selling assets without trading ownership to make it appear actively traded. Cryptocurrency insiders tell the Daily Mail that Sun may have walked himself into a legal ‘mess’ after picking a fight with World Liberty Financial. After Trump won the 2024 election, Sun invested heavily in the cryptocurrency projects backed by the president and his family, frequently promoting their investment value to his followers on social media. 'I truly believe this will be one of the biggest and most important projects in crypto,' Sun wrote in September 2025. 'The long-term vision here is too powerful, and I’m fully aligned with the mission.'  In May 2025, Sun purchased $100 million worth of the $TRUMP meme coin, boasting on X he was the president’s ‘top fan.’ That allowed him to attend a dinner with the President at his golf course and 220 of the largest holders of the meme coin to talk about the crypto industry. Sun also bought $75 million in digital coins from World Liberty Financial, netting the Trump family an estimated $400 million in profits, according to Forbes. In March, 2026, the SEC dropped the civil case against Sun in exchange for a $10 million penalty paid by one of his companies. He did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson attend a ceremony held by U.S. President Donald Trump Justin Sun invested early in the World Liberty Finance venture calling it 'one of the biggest and most important projects in crypto' in September  Eric Trump posts photos with Lara Trump at the White House One cryptocurrency insider questioned the timeline of Sun’s interest in the company, and his sudden change of heart surrounding his business venture with the Trumps. ‘I don’t feel bad for him,’ the source told the Daily Mail. A second insider pointed to Sun playing a ‘victim,’ when he felt there was clearly more going on behind the scenes. ‘Nobody has more experience fighting high-profile lawsuits than the Trump family,’ he said. But Sun’s decision to turn on the Trumps may pique the interest of Democrats looking to investigate the Trump family. If House Democrats win a majority in November, they are expected to launch investigations into the family’s crypto interests.  With the Trumps in a legal fight with Sun, congressional investigators may view him as an important resource, particularly if he has an ax to grind with the Trump family. ‘If you’re the Trumps, you are deeply unpopular, and losing allies every day,’ one Democratic strategist told the Daily Mail.  ‘The question will be whether Sun has anything in his closet that he doesn’t want to get out there.’ The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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