Trump's sons poured cash into defense startups that generated $6 billion in government business and contracts

The Trump family is making headlines again after money management companies tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have raked in about $6.3 billion from investments in defense-sector startups that receive hefty government contracts.

According to The Washington Post, portfolio funds linked to the Trumps have “invested in more than a dozen defense tech companies and other firms seeking businesses from the Pentagon and federal agencies.”

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The investment companies cited in The Post’s analysis include Plainville, N.Y.-based 1789 Capital, an investment firm that says it’s “Funding the Next Chapter of America’s Exceptionalism” on its website’s home page. The firm’s leadership team includes Donald Trump, Jr., who’s billed as a partner on the 1789 website.

Another firm, American Ventures branch, a branch of Dominari Holdings, holds approximately $1 billion in private assets, with Eric Trump reportedly heavily involved in the company.

The two firms have already garnered an estimated $3.1 billion in U.S. Pentagon contracts since President Donald Trump’s second term, which commenced in January 2025. The Post reported that another $3.1 billion in potential future government contract work has been steered to both companies, with a projected additional $200 billion in Pentagon contracts guaranteed down the road, with exclusive bidding rights.

A pair of defense industry heavyweights, SpaceX and Anduril, comprise 97% of current contract cash and another 42% of potential future contracts, The Post reported. SpaceX is helmed by former DOGE director and Trump ally Elon Musk, while Anduril was founded in 2017 by another Trump ally, Palmer Lucky.

The White House has denounced any charge of cronyism on the part of the Trump family, with spokeswoman Anna Kelly noting “there are no conflicts of interest” and that the report mimics

“the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

Ethical debates are already percolating

Government watchdogs and ethics experts are speaking out about the Trump family’s close ties to the defense sector, with some indicating that the Pentagon’s contracting process is the real problem.

“The favoritism afforded the Trump family is nothing new to government bidding nor the bidding process itself,” Michael Troiani, a partner at van der Veen, Hartshorn & Levin, located in Philadelphia, Pa., told Moneywise. “It’s an imperfect, rarely monitored, inefficient process that most Americans haven’t a clue how it is done nor who determines the appropriate bid.”

One big question is whether the Trump brothers had any prior knowledge of the defense contracts before their portfolio firm investments, which could lend the issue an insider-trading sheen.

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“If the Trump family received intel about particular government contracting business prior to investing in the startup defense companies, there certainly appears to be malfeasance on their part,” Troiani noted.

So far, there’s no indication that Donald Trump, Jr. or Eric Trump had inside knowledge about the contracts, many of which originated in the Biden administration.

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The public relations optics are bad, even if no laws have been broken

To the average American, the appearance of graft in Washington, D.C. is nothing new, as it’s both expected and viewed poorly by the electorate. A recent Partnership for Public Service survey revealed that 67% of Americans say the U.S. government is “corrupt.”

A separate study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that the U.S. public views government corruption as a major issue permeating every government institution. According to the Brennan study, 92% of Americans, including supermajorities 90% of Republicans, 93% of Democrats, and 93% of independents, believe corruption is a “big problem” in politics and government. “Large majorities of voters also view the last two presidents, Congress, and the Supreme Court as corrupt,” The Brennan report noted.

Corruption detection experts say even the appearance of impropriety is a major concern for myriad reasons and could lead to legal trouble for all parties involved.

“Companies have been able to meet all of the legal requirements for obtaining government contracts only to lose those contracts because an investigative reporter asked one simple question to which they did not have a clear response,” Tyler Rodgers, Founder of Privin Network, a global investigations firm, told Moneywise.

All organizations, public and private, must deal with the perception they create through their business practices, and the Trump brothers’ Pentagon contracts are no different. “If outcomes continue to be in the same direction, the perception of wrongdoing will precede any official finding,” Rodgers said.

That goes double for public officials and their families, who already have the weight of public opinion against them, as the PPS and Brennan studies show, and deservedly so.

“The government contract process clearly isn’t ‘For the People’ of the United States but for a select few who have unbridled access to government information and the government itself that is not afforded to the common citizen,” Troiani noted.

A former Wall Street bond trader, Brian O'Connell is the author of two best-selling books: “The 401k Millionaire” and “CNBC’s Creating Wealth.” His work is featured on national finance and business platforms like TheStreet.com, CBS News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.

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