Donald Trump’s sons may get a payday as their father plans to buy more than $1 billion in military equipment.
Donald Jr. and Eric Trump are investors in a new drone company targeting Pentagon contracts and planning to list on Nasdaq, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Trump administration has made domestic drone supply a national security priority, banning new Chinese drones that have long dominated consumer and commercial markets and launching the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Initiative.
The plan foresees spending $1.1 billion by 2027 to purchase hundreds of thousands of American-made systems. This opens a significant commercial window for an industry that has historically been fragmented and starved of defense contracts.
That gap is filled by Powerus, a West Palm Beach, Florida-based company that launched last year and has since acquired three smaller drone companies with the goal of producing more than 10,000 drones a month.
The company will list on Nasdaq through a reverse merger with Florida golf course holding company Aureus Greenway Holdings, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The outlet reported that Don Jr., 48, and Eric, 42, invested through American Venture Capital, one of the family’s investment vehicles. Aureus’ shareholders already include American Ventures and Dominari Securities – the Trump-backed investment bank that has helped facilitate the family’s cryptocurrency dealings.
Unusual Machines, a drone parts manufacturer in which Donald Jr. owns a stake and serves on an advisory board, is also an investor in Powerus, which is already a customer.
Powerus CEO Andrew Fox told the Wall Street Journal that the appeal is simple: “The drone market is definitely going to grow faster than, say, golf courses.”
Fox ran a facilities management company in New York for nearly three decades and had no background in the drone industry. He said a public listing would give Powerus access to capital markets to fund further acquisitions and expand production. South Korean asset manager Korea Corporate Governance Improvement Fund has separately committed $50 million to the deal.
Powerus co-founder Brett Velicovich is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and consulted with U.S. and Ukrainian drone companies before becoming a familiar face on cable news. He said the company was in talks to acquire Ukrainian drone manufacturers or license their technology for U.S. production. This approach addresses the Pentagon’s preference for domestically produced weapons. “There really needs to be an American face in front of it or behind it,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
