Warren, Blumenthal, Kim Sound Alarm on Potential for Donald Trump Jr.-Linked Companies to Profit Off Department of Defense Contract Awards, Loans

Warren, Blumenthal, Kim Sound Alarm on Potential for Donald Trump Jr.-Linked Companies to Profit Off Department of Defense Contract Awards, Loans

Trump Jr.'s firm getting largest Defense Department loan ever

"[This] could mean that the Trump family is profiting from funds appropriated by Congress to keep Americans safe, raising both ethics and national security concerns.

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr.

"We write to obtain information on whether DoD's decisions to hand out lucrative contracts and loans to companies associated with the President's son may have been affected by conflicts of interest. If this is the case, it could mean that the Trump family is profiting from funds appropriated by Congress to keep Americans safe, raising both ethics and national security concerns," wrote the lawmakers.

Shortly after President Trump was elected to his second term, his son, Donald Trump Jr., announced he was joining venture capital firm 1789 Capital. After Trump Jr. joined the firm, the firm's portfolio companies reportedly won more than $70 million worth of contracts from the Trump Administration, including:

• $45 million awarded to Cerebras Systems in April 2025 to improve artificial intelligence

• chip connections;

• $10.8 million awarded to PsiQuantum in April 2025 for quantum chips;

• $4.9 million awarded to Firehawk Aerospace in August 2025 to develop rocket engines;

• $10 million to Vulcan Elements for magnets in 2025.

A separate Trump Jr.-affiliated company received a $12.8 million DoD contract last year - and another 1789 Capital-backed start-up that produces magnets in drone systems reportedly received DoD's Office of Strategic Capital's largest loan ever, at $620 million. Several of the Trump Jr.-connected companies had never received such large DoD contracts prior to 2025.

Trump Jr. reportedly helped screen candidates for top Pentagon jobs after his father won the 2024 election. During the process, he apparently checked whether candidates supported his own personal investment priorities, including those who wanted to "spend more on drones."

Trump Jr. himself has alluded to possible conflicts between 1789 Capital and the Trump administration, saying that the firm "understand[s] what the administration wants to do, because [they] helped craft some of the messaging."

"We are concerned about the conflicts of interest of President Trump, his family, other administration officials, and any potential favoritism resulting in a waste of taxpayer dollars and a threat to national security," wrote the lawmakers.

Senators Warren, Kim, and Blumenthal have long sounded the alarm over financial conflicts of interest in how DoD awards taxpayer dollars. Since DoD's Office of Strategic Capital's inception, Senator Warren raised concerns that the office was relying on consultants who continued to work for private investment firms. Senator Warren has also introduced multiple relevant pieces of legislation, including her Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials' conflicts of interest across the government, and her and Senator Kim's Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act to limit the influence of contractors on the military and increase transparency over contractors and their interaction with DoD.

At the start of Trump's second term, Senator Blumenthal launched an investigation into Elon Musk-owned companies after the companies failed to answer basic questions about Musk's glaring conflicts of interest as he simultaneously raked in billions in the private sector and headed up activities at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The lawmakers posed a series of questions regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s apparent conflicts of interest and requested responses by February 5, 2026.

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