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Amid accusations over the nature of theTrump family’s business connections in the Middle East and the apparent gift of a jumbo jet to the U.S. by Qatar, Donald Trump Jr. has reacted furiously to a report that accuses him of cashing in on his father’s presidency through the dealings of a small venture capital firm.
The report by Business Insider makes a stark comparison between the president’s eldest son and the son of his predecessor, Hunter Biden, which Trump Jr. takes particular exception to.
Republicans relentlessly hounded President Joe Biden’s son for allegedly using his famous last name in his own dealings in Ukraine and China. With a possible prison sentence hanging over him for gun and tax convictions, his father issued a presidential pardon before leaving office.
The Insider article alleges that Don Jr stands to profit handsomely from federal contracts awarded by his father’s administration to companies in which the venture capital firm has invested. It also claims that a private club being set up in Washington, D.C., is effectively “selling access to the president via the back door.”
Reposting a tweet linking to a Breitbart News response to the article, Don Jr said on X: “The difference between me and Hunter Biden? I’ve been a businessman and serial investor my entire adult life. He became a ‘businessman’ after his dad got elected.”
He continued: “I joined a Venture Capital Firm that invests in private American companies — Nothing to do with the government. He sat on foreign boards and was peddling influence to the highest bidder to change government policy.”
Finally he wrotes: “Oh, and he’s also a felon crackhead and I’m not. Thanks for playing, guys!”
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Don Jr joined 1789 Capital, which invests in American companies with conservative values, shortly after President Donald Trump was re-elected.
Based in Palm Beach, Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, 1789 was a smaller firm having raised less than $200 million at that point. Its largest investment was leading a group to put $15 million into Tucker Carlson’s media company.
The firm has since blossomed, the Insider report states, having raised $500 million in the first three months of the Trump presidency, with plans to collect $1 billion for its first fund by the middle of the year. Another fund valued between $3 billion and $5 billion is in the works for next year.
Early investments reportedly included share offerings in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and an investment in his artificial intelligence company xAI, to the tune of $50 million. There were also investments in startups that have received or are in play for Defense Department contracts, the report says.
The nature of the investments has raised alarms about the potential for conflicts of interest, given the work of Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“This certainly raises serious concerns about the appearance of corruption, because Trump’s family is benefiting,” Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University who has served as special counsel for the Defense Department, told Insider.
“And when you look at this in the context of arbitrary cuts to other programs, it raises questions about whether preferential treatment is being given to family and others who curry favor with Trump.”
SpaceX is benefiting from both government contracts to launch critical national security payloads for the U.S. Space Force and the use of its Starlink satellite system, the report says. Smaller firms that 1789 has invested in have also been awarded contracts linked to military and space projects.
Further, Don Jr and two of his fellow partners at the firm have launched the Georgetown-based, invite-only club, the Executive Branch, which will cost more than half a million dollars to join.
This is raising red flags, apparently even for some Trump insiders. Someone who Insider claims knows the family well said: “What they’re doing is selling access to the president via the back door.”
They added: “Imagine for one second if Hunter Biden had opened this club while Joe Biden was president. The Republicans would be screaming not just for his head, but for a complete and total dismemberment of his body. It’s beyond hypocritical.”
Don Jr, who, along with his brother Eric Trump, runs the family business, the Trump Organization, has never shied away from the family name but insisted in 2020 that he hasn’t “benefited from my father’s taxpayer-funded office,” in a direct attack on Hunter Biden.
A spokesperson for Don Jr told Breitbart: “Comparing a lifelong businessman like Don Jr. joining a venture capital firm that invests in minority positions in American companies to Hunter Biden deciding to become a businessman upon his father’s election, sitting on foreign boards and selling access to his dad’s office is utterly laughable.”
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The reporting by Insider comes amid the furor over Qatar possibly giving the U.S. a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jet for the president to use as a replacement for Air Force One, highlighting a thicket of concerning business connections to the country.
Last month, the Trump Organization announced a deal with Qatari developers to build a Trump International Golf Club and branded luxury villas within a larger government development.
Elsewhere, state-backed funds from Qatar were part of a $6 billion funding round for Trump adviser Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, and a fund from Qatar is also invested in the private equity firm of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Attorney General Pam Bondi worked as a lobbyist for Qatar, but has denied reports that she earned up to $115,000, saying that was the value of the contract.
The Trump family and the White House have defended the administration from criticisms that they are improperly mixing business and politics.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told The Wall Street Journal that it was “ridiculous” to claim “President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”
Don Jr also pushed back in a statement to The New York Times: “It’s laughable that the left-wing media thinks that I should lock myself in a padded room while my father is president and cease doing what I’ve been doing for over 25 years to earn a living and provide for my five children.”
Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that Trump family business dealings, including those of Don Jr, will ever go unscrutinized.
