Democrats say Trump family businesses top upcoming investigations
Democrats say Trump family businesses top upcoming investigations
Justin GoldmanSat, November 14, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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President Donald Trump in Corinth, Miss., on Oct. 26. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty)
WASHINGTON — The incoming Democratic majority in Congress is already plotting its first investigations. Top of the list are President Donald Trump and his family’s business dealings, along with corporate corruption, immigration enforcement abuses and the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Starting in 2025, Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump branched out beyond hotels and golf courses to drone manufacturing, critical minerals and rockets. At least seven firms publicly associated with Trump’s sons have received contracts, loans or possible investments from the federal government or favorable regulatory decisions while their father has been in office, according to public press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and public contracting records.
Many of these business dealings have drawn bipartisan criticism over concerns that the Trump sons are wrongly profiting off the presidency. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, urged his colleagues to launch an investigation into Trump’s family. He compared his concerns to accusations by the GOP about the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden. The New York Post’s editorial board said one of the Trump brothers’ business deals “stinks to high heaven.”
Democrats on both the House Oversight and Judiciary committees had already started to gather information on the Trump sons for potential investigations. When the party takes control of Congress in January, lawmakers will have subpoena power and the ability to compel witnesses to testify.
In a letter announcing his candidacy to lead House Oversight, Rep. Robert Garcia of California said he “will use every tool available to investigate the Trump Crime Family.”
“The Trump Administration and the powerful interests that have exploited our government should know that a new era of truth and justice is coming,” Garcia wrote.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., in Washington on June 10. (Daniel Heuer / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)
In an interview with CNN, Garcia said that meant Trump’s sons.
“They should be expected to answer questions,” he said when pressed whether he’d seek to call them in for a hearing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who is expected to lead the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, outlined Trump family business dealings as a priority, and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee told The he wants to look into a mining deal connected to the Trump family.
Trump and his sons say they have done nothing wrong.
The White House has been quietly preparing for Congress to begin launching investigations into the administration. Staff members have been hiring personal lawyers for a possible onslaught of subpoenas, according to an administration official and a person familiar with their effort.
Trump has batted away criticism around his sons, though he said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he struggles to restrain their business dealings.
“It’s hard to say to them, ‘Don’t do anything anymore for four years because I’m president,” he said.
The president was asked in the interview whether he thought foreign investors might seek to buy influence through the company he co-owns with his sons.
“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Look, every president has a problem. You have people, and they work for you, and guys like you cover them and you do profiles on them, and they become like — everybody thinks that Trump loves them and everything else, which in some cases is true, and some cases are not. This is true for every president.”
A spokesperson for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. rejected criticism of any potential conflicts of interest.
“Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are passive, minority investors with absolutely no involvement in the day-to-day operations, strategic decisions, management, or any activities of these companies. They have no role whatsoever in the awarding, oversight, or management of any government contracts and remain proud to invest in American companies and American technology,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump, in the weeks before the midterm elections, did address accusations of corruption, but not related to himself or his sons. He asked Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign after she sought $100,000 from a Trump donor, though she denied any criminal activity.
“I didn’t like what I read,” he said. He complained about reports that his former lawyer and former acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba had allegedly been paid $50 million for helping with a presidential pardon, saying, “I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it’s not acceptable. Not acceptable … at all.” She has said she was never paid for a pardon.
After the news that the Justice Department was reviewing a Department of Homeland Security investigation into whether aide Corey Lewandowski sought to profit off his role at DHS, the president delivered a warning: “I want my people to be honest, and if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted,” he said. “If people are not honest, they’re stealing from me as president.” Lewandowski has denied the allegations.
The president’s anger came too late for voters. The issue of government corruption was a significant factor in the election, with 90% of midterms voters in the NBC News Exit Poll saying it was a crucial or major factor in their votes for Congress.
Here’s a look at three areas where companies that have been publicly linked to the Trump sons have been the subject of questions from Democratic lawmakers.
Rare earth minerals and mine deals
Vulcan Elements, of Durham, North Carolina, manufactures rare earth magnets and publicly posted last summer that 1789 Capital, an investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a senior partner, was among the firms that invested a total of $65 million. It’s unclear how much money 1789 contributed.
Less than six months later, in November 2025, Vulcan Elements announced a $620 million loan from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital and $50 million in federal incentives from the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office.
A Vulcan Elements spokesperson told NBC News the company “did not ask or solicit its investors to facilitate the Pentagon loan announced in November 2025,” and added: “1789 Capital is one of many investors represented in Vulcan’s broad investor base, which includes approximately 70 investing entities. No one from 1789 Capital is on Vulcan’s Board, and the firm does not have any governance rights.”
The company also said it received its first three Pentagon contracts in 2024, when Biden was in office.
Vulcan Elements has already been part of an inquiry into 1789 Capital by Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on March 4. (Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg via Getty)
A spokesperson for 1789 Capital said Donald Trump Jr. is not on the investment committee that determines what companies get 1789 investments. The person added that 1789 only takes minority stakes in companies.
“Legitimate congressional oversight serves an important public purpose, but what we have seen so far is politically motivated attacks untethered from the facts. Despite repeated efforts to cast 1789 Capital and the American companies in which it invests in a negative light, the allegations have failed against the factual record. 1789 Capital has no intention of being drawn into political gamesmanship, particularly when it’s American companies, American workers, and American industries as targets,” the spokesperson said.
Another target of Democrats has been a tungsten mine deal in Kazakhstan linked to the Trump brothers.
Trump’s sons serve on the board of advisers of a company called Dominari Holdings that lists its headquarters in Trump Tower in Manhattan.
A subsidiary of Dominari lists a company called Skyline Builders LLC as one of its “legacy holdings.” Skyline announced a merger in May with Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC and became Kaz Resources, which is developing a tungsten mine.
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According to an SEC filing, Kaz Resources received letters in August 2025 signifying potential financial backing from two government agencies for $1.6 billion.
The mining deal was sharply questioned last summer by Senate Democrats, who wrote to Trump Cabinet officials asking about possible conflicts of interest because the company was linked to Trump’s sons and may receive potential financial backing from the federal government.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. outside the Nasdaq in New York City's Times Square as they mark the $1.5 billion partnership between World Liberty Financial and ALT5 Sigma with the ringing of the Nasdaq opening bell on Aug. 13, 2025. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Dominari said in a statement: “Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have no involvement in or authority over Dominari’s investment decisions, management or operations, including those of its subsidiaries or affiliated investment vehicles and, to our knowledge, have never sought to influence the award of any government contract in connection with any business which Dominari has invested in. They are strictly passive investors, nothing more and any suggestion otherwise is categorically false.”
A Cove Kaz spokesperson said the letters from the government signify potential backing, but don’t represent a final commitment. They also say the U.S. has supported the company across both the Biden and Trump administrations in a 50-plus-year tungsten project and pointed to a press release in the last days of the Biden administration that did not explicitly mention the company.
“With Kazakhstan holding the world’s largest tungsten reserves outside China, this project represents a critical step toward ending that dependence and securing America’s tungsten requirements well into the future,” the company said.
A few days before the midterm elections, the Skyline merger was terminated, according to a press release posted on Dominari’s website.
Under the terms of a new agreement, Skyline will hold 26% of shares in Kaz Resources, and another LLC linked to the Trump brothers, American Ventures LLC, committed to buying 1.62% of shares in the company.
It’s not clear whether the new arrangement will lead to questions from Democratic senators.
Drones and rockets
In November 2024, Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of Unusual Machines, a drone component manufacturer from Orlando, Florida, according to an SEC filing. Roughly a year later, Unusual Machines announced an order from the U.S. Army for 3,500 drone motors. The company also said the U.S. Army “plans to expand procurement, targeting an additional order of 20,000 components.”
Company materials and SEC filings do not reflect any prior government contracts or orders before last year. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
In a June 2026 letter to then-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, a group of Democratic lawmakers requested correspondence between the Pentagon, White House and Unusual Machines, among other companies.
As part of their role as advisers for Dominari Holdings, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were listed as “notable investors” during the March 2026 merger between Aureus Greenway, a golf club company, and Powerus, a drone manufacturer. The new company took the name Powerus.
Powerus announced its “first purchase order” from the Air Force in April for an undisclosed amount to build interceptor drones, according to a company press release. “The Air Force awarded our contract through an open competition among 10 companies. Powerus may look like an overnight success, but it’s an overnight success that’s been 20 years in the making,” a Powerus spokesperson said.
Four months later, Powerus announced that, through a wholly owned subsidiary, it was awarded an additional Air Force contract worth up to $90 million for an order of defensive drones.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter in March to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting more information on contracts awarded to Powerus.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Jan. 7. (Heather Diehl / Getty Images)
“The rationale for combining a battlefield drone company with a golf course company is unclear,” the senators wrote.
The company spokesperson said the award process was merit-based. “You can’t sell the government something that won’t protect a soldier, and nobody in the procurement chain risks their career routing a contract to a company whose equipment doesn’t work. We win some, and we lose some.”
1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a senior partner, led the investment round for rocket manufacturer Firehawk Aerospace out of Dallas, according to a press release. Firehawk later announced two contracts with the Pentagon: one with the Air Force Research Laboratory and another with the Department of Defense.
Federal records show that Firehawk has received government contracts since 2021 under the Biden administration.
Warren raised concerns about 1789’s involvement in Firehawk in a May 2026 press release.
A Firehawk spokesperson told NBC News in a statement that the company “has a long history of securing government contracts to deliver capabilities to our warfighters dating back to the previous administration. We have been awarded these contracts based on our ability to deliver on time, on budget, in volume, and on the quality of our work.”
Crypto and vaping
As of October 2024, Trump and his two sons were listed in an SEC filing as “promoters” of the crypto company World Liberty Financial. In mid-August, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted “preliminary conditional approval” of World Liberty’s request to establish a bank. This would allow the company to issue stablecoins, or cryptocurrency that is tied to a real-world asset, like the U.S. dollar. At least two other crypto firms, Ripple and Circle, received final approval earlier this year.
In its Aug. 14 letter to World Liberty, the Treasury Department addressed public comments that argued any decision by a Trump political appointee at the OCC that could benefit a Trump family business could be considered a conflict of interest. In regard to its own actions, the office said the application was reviewed by career staff, and that “the Comptroller and staff acted consistently with their statutory duties and ethical obligations with respect to the Application.”
In response to the preliminary approval, 10 Senate Democrats introduced the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act, a bill that would bar senior government officials from exploiting their positions to own or control a bank. Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has also called for an investigation into potential foreign investment and money laundering.
The company did not respond to a request for comment. The president’s 2026 financial disclosures listed $1.4 billion in crypto earnings, including $290 million classified as income from cryptocurrency wallets associated with World Liberty.
In response to Warren’s inquiry in August, a World Liberty spokesperson told CBS News the company’s national charter “will ensure robust and permanent regulatory supervision from the OCC, a federal banking regulator, that will outlast the Trump administration.”
“Critics are missing the point: World Liberty Financial is running towards regulation and continuous oversight, not away from it,” the spokesperson said.
In March 2025, 1789 Capital took a stake in Juul Labs for roughly $5 million, according to a company spokesperson. In July 2025 the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of five Juul Labs products, which meant they could return to market after three years.
In 2022, the FDA ordered the company to stop sale and distribution, finding the products played a “disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.” Following two years of appeals and scientific review, the Biden administration rescinded the order in 2024 and set in place a new FDA review, which paved the way for the approval last year under the Trump administration.
In late August, Raskin opened an inquiry into 1789 Capital’s investments, raising questions about the FDA decisions.
Juul Labs said in a statement that 1789 acquired its interest in Juul Labs on the secondary market, meaning the company did not sell the stake to 1789 directly and that it purchased it from another shareholder.
“It is critically important to note FDA authorization of alternative nicotine products has been an ongoing process over multiple administrations of both parties and was envisioned by the Tobacco Control Act signed into law by President Obama,” the statement said.
The company also said the FDA, under Trump, has denied certain e-cigarette applications, including a denial last year.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
