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donald trump jr.
Yet Another Trump Jr.-Backed Company Receives Massive Pentagon Deal
One legal expert said the contract "falls under the cloud of conflicts of interest we have seen throughout this administration."
Dec 04, 2025
For the second time this year, a little-known company backed by Donald Trump Jr. has scored a major contract with the US Department of Defense.
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Vulcan Elements—a tiny startup of 30 employees that specializes in producing rare-earth magnets used in drones, radars, and other pieces of military equipment—has scored a $620 million loan from the Pentagon as part of "a $1.4 billion deal to increase the supply of magnets for industries alongside partner ReElement Technologies."
Vulcan has received funding from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm founded by pro-Trump donors in 2023 that brought Trump Jr. in as a partner last year. According to the Financial Times' analysis, "at least four of 1789’s portfolio companies have won contracts from the Trump administration this year, amounting to more than $735 million."
Revelations about the Vulcan Elements contract come just weeks after the Florida-based drone startup Unusual Machines, in which Trump Jr. has held a $4 million stake, received a contract from the US Army to manufacture 3,500 drone motors. Additionally, reported the Financial Times, the Army indicated that it planned "to order an additional 20,000 components" from the Trump Jr.-backed firm next year.
As Popular Information reported earlier this year, Unusual Machines first brought Trump Jr. on as an adviser just weeks after his father won the 2024 presidential election, even though he had "no notable experience with drones or military contracting."
A Popular Information report published Thursday noted that "both Vulcan CEO John Maslin and Unusual Machines CEO Allan Evans said that Trump Jr. played no role in securing the government contracts," although the report flagged statements by Trump Jr. made earlier this year about helping to screen candidates for key positions in the Pentagon who would be in position to reward companies he's backing without him having to make a direct appeal.
Kedric Payne, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Financial Times that that the government deals scored by Trump Jr.-backed companies look ethically dubious even if the president's son didn't directly use his influence to procure them.
“Presidents are expected to avoid even the appearance that they are using their office to financially benefit themselves or their family,” he said. “While we do not know for certain if, or how, the president may have influenced this loan, it falls under the cloud of conflicts of interest we have seen throughout this administration.”
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New Levels of Corruption Feared as Trump Family Adds Gambling Business Atop of Crypto Grift
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
Oct 29, 2025
President Donald Trump's family has long generated controversy and criticism for running a cryptocurrency business during his second term in office, and now they're adding an online betting business to their portfolio.
The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that the president's Truth Social platform is getting into the prediction market business to allow bettors to place wagers on the outcomes of elections, sports games, and other events.
The new "Truth Predict" betting market platform will be a partnership between the Trump Media and Technology Group and Crypto.com, a cryoptocurrency trading platform that in the past has donated millions to Trump causes.
According to the Financial Times, the Trump family in recent months has become more intertwined with the online betting industry, as Donald Trump Jr. has taken on "advisory roles at the two industry-leading prediction market companies, Kalshi and Polymarket."
Additionally, Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm has invested in Polymarket, which Wired reports has not operated in the US since 2022 when it reached an agreement with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading market.
Mike Masnick, a journalist at Techdirt, pointed out the glaring conflict of interest posed by the most powerful person in the world owning his own prediction market platform.
"So the company the president currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the president himself has quite a lot of control over?" he wrote in a post on Bluesky. "Gosh, I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
The Trump family's entrance into the online betting market came on the same day that Reuters published an extensive report showing how the Trump family has used its cryptocurrency business to generate a massive increase in wealth in a matter of mere months.
According to Reuters' calculations, "the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier," with more than 90% of this income coming from the Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture. Reuters also reported that the $800 million is just the actual income the Trump Organization has taken in so far, and that it has billions more in unrealized gains from the crypto venture.
Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark, who specializes in teaching government ethics, told Reuters it was obvious that investors in the Trump crypto venture were hoping to get some kind of favor from the government in exchange.
"These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers' acumen,” she said. “They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver."
Trump last week sparked corruption accusations when he pardoned cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, whose company Binance has been a major booster to the Trump family's crypto business.
“Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1,”The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls.”
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Tenn.), who for years investigated former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for his foreign business dealings, was asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if he would investigate the Trump family's crypto venture.
Comer indicated that he was fine with the Trump family's potentially corrupt money-making schemes because they were being done out in the open.
"We... are reading about this, we're trying to digest it," he said. "The difference between the way the Trump family's operating and the Biden family, is they're admitting they're doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy... as long as you disclose the income and disclose the sources, I think that's acceptable."
WATCH — @jaketapper: “The Trumps made $800 MILLION in crypto from foreign influence in half a year. Will you looking into that?”@RepJamesComer: “The difference is they’re open about (their corruption).” 🤔
TAPPER: *ZERO PUSHBACK* pic.twitter.com/QRMHPUZ0Iy
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 28, 2025
Critics of the president, however, said this hands-off approach to investigating the Trump family's business dealings was unacceptable.
Democratic operative David Axelrod wrote in a post on X that it is "kind of incredible that the House Oversight Committee is spending its time on Biden's auto pen but they won't touch how Trump has doubled his wealth in a year."
Axelrod also thought congressional investigators should be asking about "who's buying his meme coins," "the deals his kids are cutting all over the world," and "the gifted jet from Qatar."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that no president in US history has engaged in this level of corruption.
"Trump and his family’s crypto ventures are selling out our national security through sweetheart deals with money launderers, fraudsters, and foreign governments," he wrote on X. "The scale of this corruption—reaping more than $800 million and pardons for business partners—is unprecedented."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted on Tuesday that Binance this week promoted sales of the Trump family's meme coin mere days after the president pardoned its founder.
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," he said.
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