The Trump Family War Grift

They are not even hiding it anymore.

Eric Trump appears on television promoting a $24 million Pentagon robotics contract for his company, raising concerns about corruption Photo Credit: FOX

Donald has always viewed the presidency as an investment opportunity. Long before he returned to the White House, we knew he had no interest in serving the American people unless doing so also served him. What has changed during his second administration is not the existence of the corruption. It is the scale. It is the brazenness. And it is the complete absence of any effort to conceal it. They are no longer pretending to separate public service from private enrichment because they no longer believe they have to. The corruption is happening in broad daylight, and they expect us simply to accept it.

As one commentator recently put it, this is the most corrupt administration in American history. It is so blatant and so obvious that they are not even attempting to hide it anymore. Eric Trump becomes a strategic adviser to defense companies that suddenly begin winning Pentagon contracts. Jared Kushner travels the world after receiving a two billion dollar investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, earning more than one hundred million dollars in management fees while the investment itself produces virtually nothing. Donald Trump Jr. continues opening hotels and business ventures in the very countries where his father is conducting American diplomacy. Donald himself is wealthier than he has ever been. His sons are wealthier than they have ever been. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are wealthier than they have ever been. None of that is a coincidence.

It is also worth reminding ourselves that this has nothing to do with competence. None of them possess extraordinary business skills. None of them suddenly became innovators. None of them developed expertise that the rest of the marketplace somehow overlooked. They are becoming richer for one reason and one reason only. Donald is President of the United States.

Eric’s newest venture illustrates the point perfectly. He became Chief Strategy Advisor for Foundation Future Industries, a robotics company that, almost immediately afterward, secured twenty four million dollars in Defense Department contracts to develop humanoid robots for potential battlefield use. We are expected to believe this happened because Eric Trump possesses unique expertise in robotics. The company told CNBC that Eric invested before joining as an adviser. If you believe that, I have a bridge I would be delighted to sell you.

When Eric appeared on Fox Business to celebrate the Pentagon contract, he sounded remarkably enthusiastic about the future of military robotics.

Eric Trump: We have to win robotics in the United States of America. You had a great segment two days ago, Maria, about the robot in Beijing that was literally running marathons and beating the fastest marathoners by what, seven, eight minutes for a full marathon. I mean, these are in the very early days. We better be winning this race in the United States of America. We’re the greatest economy in the world. And that’s exactly what Sankett’s doing. And I’m telling you he’s doing a phenomenal job. When you go up and you interact with these robots and they fist bump you, they high five you, they follow your commands, you bring in AI autonomy. It’s going to change industry. It’s going to change military application. It’s going to change hospitality. The uses are unlimited and I think it’s a very beautiful thing, but we must win this race.

Yes, apparently we must win this race because Eric Trump does not yet have enough money. The robots also sound considerably more human than most members of the Trump family, present company excluded, I hope.

Foundation Future Industries later announced that it would unveil a second generation model, proudly describing it as the strongest humanoid robot anywhere in the world, including China. A company spokeswoman insisted Eric played no role in securing the Defense Department contracts.

Again, see my earlier comments regarding bridges for sale.

Eric also remains Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, which increasingly appears to mean Executive Vice President in charge of finding new ways to separate American taxpayers from their money.

The robotics investment is only one piece of a much larger strategy. A Washington Post analysis published on July 13 found that investment funds linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had poured money into more than a dozen defense technology companies that later received billions of dollars in government contracts. There is that remarkable coincidence again.

One of the largest investment vehicles behind those holdings is 1789 Capital. Donald Trump Jr. joined the firm as a partner within days of his father’s 2024 election victory. The company is run by Chris Buskirk, a political strategist for Vice President J.D. Vance, along with investor Omeed Malik. During the past year alone, the firm’s assets under management exploded from roughly two hundred million dollars to approximately three and a half billion dollars. Apparently that just happened because the firm is extraordinarily gifted.

In October 2025, Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Riyadh to promote 1789 Capital at a Saudi investment conference. During the event, he explained exactly why investors should trust the firm.

This is what Don Jr. said:

We understand what the administration wants to do because we helped craft some of that messaging so we can be on the outside but still have that understanding of what they plan to do. And that’s logical. When you look at what’s going on, I mean, one of the first stops was right here. Two trillion dollars in foreign direct investment since the start of the administration.

Think about what he is actually saying.

The selling point is no longer investment expertise. It is no longer financial performance. It is access to the President of the United States. Donald Trump Jr. openly tells investors that his firm understands exactly what the administration intends to do because it helped shape the messaging. He is not even pretending anymore. The value proposition is his proximity to presidential power.

For years we watched Republicans investigate Hunter Biden over allegations that he benefited from his father’s political position. Whether those investigations were justified is almost beside the point. What the Trump family is doing bears no resemblance to that. Hunter Biden did not openly travel the world telling investors they should hand him money because he helped shape White House policy. Donald Trump Jr. is doing exactly that, and he is doing it publicly.

When somebody pointed out that this represented an entirely different level of corruption, I could not have said it better myself. With Hunter Biden, we were talking primarily about nepotism. It was not a good look, but it was not a threat to the integrity of the American government. What Donald, Don Jr., Eric, Jared Kushner, and the rest of the family are doing is something altogether different. It is infinitely more corrupt, infinitely more dangerous, and infinitely more damaging to our institutions because they are monetizing the presidency itself.

Donald Trump Jr. could have saved everybody a great deal of time by simply saying, invest with us because our father is President of the United States and he is for sale.

That, unfortunately, would have been the honest version.

Of course, a Pentagon spokesperson insisted that no company receives preferential treatment and that outside political connections play absolutely no role in funding decisions. We know that is simply not true. Don Jr. has publicly discussed assisting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with personnel decisions, despite holding no government position, receiving no Senate confirmation, and having absolutely no official authority to influence the Department of Defense.

Think about that for a moment.

Don Jr., a private citizen whose primary qualification is sharing DNA with the President of the United States, was reportedly helping decide personnel matters inside the Pentagon. More specifically, those conversations centered on candidates who supported expanding spending on military drones. That is not merely inappropriate. It represents an extraordinary collapse of the distinction between private financial interests and public decision making.

Government ethics attorney Kathleen Clark captured the problem perfectly. This is what she said:

Clark: Even if not buying drones from China is in the public interest, it’s completely reasonable to doubt that it’s in the public interest when the Trump family is benefiting financially from it.

Exactly.

Even if a particular defense policy could be justified on its own merits, it becomes impossible to separate that policy from the financial interests of the people making it when the President’s family is actively investing in the very industries that stand to benefit. That is precisely why conflict of interest laws and ethical standards exist. They are designed to ensure that decisions affecting national security are made because they serve the country, not because they enrich the President’s family.

Instead, we are watching Donald and his children siphon money from the federal government into investment portfolios that continue growing more valuable as military spending increases. That is not only profoundly corrupt. It presents a genuine threat to national security because every military decision becomes clouded by legitimate questions about personal financial gain.

The timing makes the situation even more disturbing.

After the ceasefire with Iran collapsed on July 8, the war resumed. Independent estimates now place the cost to American taxpayers at well above one hundred billion dollars, and that number continues climbing. Every additional weapons system purchased, every new military contract awarded, and every expansion of defense spending creates another opportunity for people connected to the Trump family to profit.

That is not a coincidence.

The defense investments are only one part of an ever expanding Trump business empire that has flourished since Donald returned to office. Donald’s financial disclosure, released at the end of June, reported that he earned approximately 2.2 dollars during 2025 alone. Roughly 1.4 billion dollars of that came from cryptocurrency ventures. Separate estimates now place Donald’s personal net worth at approximately 6.5 billion dollars.

If Donald truly is the brilliant businessman he has spent decades pretending to be, there is an obvious question.

Why was he unable to generate this kind of wealth before he regained the presidency?

The answer, of course, is that he could not.

During an interview with CNBC from the Oval Office on July 2, Donald attempted to explain how his fortune continues growing while insisting he remains completely detached from the process.

Donald: I’ve made money. I’ve made a tremendous amount of money, more than I would’ve ever thought I would’ve made. And I let people invest it. I don’t even know who they are, but it’s given to big firms that are on your show all the time. My son Eric handles it. I don’t talk to him about things such as this.

No.

That is neither true nor remotely believable.

We should remind ourselves that before Donald became President, the principal source of his wealth was his father. Fred Trump spent decades transferring enormous sums of money to Donald, often through questionable financial arrangements. Donald did not suddenly become a financial genius in his late seventies. He simply acquired something far more valuable than business talent. He acquired the presidency.

That is why World Liberty Financial has become one of the most lucrative enterprises in American political history.

The cryptocurrency venture enriching Donald and his children is operated largely by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. Yet somehow we are expected to believe there are no conflicts of interest. The White House has actually said as much, apparently assuming the American people are incapable of recognizing the obvious.

The remarkable part is that Donald himself effectively admitted the opposite during that same CNBC interview.

After insisting Eric manages his investments independently, Donald acknowledged something that completely undermined his own defense. He admitted that because the presidency is so powerful, virtually anything his children do creates a conflict of interest.

Exactly.

That is the point.

Donald understands perfectly well that his family’s wealth is growing because of the office he holds. He simply does not care. Rather than avoiding those conflicts, he has embraced them. Rather than separating public office from private enrichment, he has fused the two into a single enterprise designed to benefit himself and his family.

Presidents, thanks to a deeply misguided Office of Legal Counsel memorandum, are generally exempt from the federal criminal conflict of interest statute. That legal reality explains why so much of this discussion revolves around ethics, disclosure, and public trust instead of criminal prosecution.

But legality has never been the appropriate standard.

The Presidency is not merely another job. It is a public trust. The American people expect the person occupying the Oval Office to make decisions based upon what benefits the country, not what benefits his own investment portfolio or the portfolios of his children.

Donald has rejected that principle entirely.

What concerns me almost as much as the corruption itself is how quickly we are becoming accustomed to it.

Simply documenting the corruption cannot be where the conversation ends. Democrats need to explain exactly what they intend to do when they regain power. They need to explain why this behavior is so dangerous to democratic government. They need to promise meaningful reforms that ensure no future president, regardless of party, can transform the office into a family investment fund.

Because if we fail to respond decisively, this becomes the new normal.

Donald has spent decades convincing millions of Americans that corruption is simply another form of success. During his second presidency, he has taken that idea to its logical conclusion. The presidency itself has become another Trump brand, another business venture, another mechanism through which public power is converted into private wealth.

Even if none of this surprises you because we are talking about Donald Trump, it should still sicken you.

It should sicken every American who believes public office exists to serve the public rather than enrich the people fortunate enough to occupy it. The danger is not only what Donald and his family are doing today. The danger is that future presidents may conclude they can do the same thing because nobody stopped them.

That is why this matters. It is bigger than Donald. It is about whether the presidency remains a public trust or becomes a private business. And if we allow that transformation to continue unchecked, we will lose far more than taxpayer dollars.

We will lose one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy: that public office belongs to the American people, not to the family of the person who happens to hold it.