Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm has gone from managing a few hundred million dollars two years ago to overseeing more than $3 billion, as the company is accused of “cashing in” on its ties to the White House.
Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital as a partner shortly after his father, President Donald Trump, was re-elected in November 2024.
Critics said the rate at which the firm has benefited from its proximity to the White House is “unprecedented,” as 1789 has backed companies that have gone on to secure lucrative federal contracts in defense and technology, and businesses it has invested in have seen their value skyrocket, The New York Times reports.
“People are paying for proximity to power,” Angela Lee, a venture capital professor at Columbia Business School, told the newspaper.
Through the firm, Trump Jr. and his business partner, Omeed Malik, “are cashing in on the policies of the current administration openly and without apology,” the Times reports.
The outlet gives the example of prediction market giant Polymarket, of which Trump Jr. is also an advisor. It was banned from operating in the U.S. in 2022 under a settlement with a Biden–era federal regulator, a decision that was reversed in December 2025. Polymarket’s worth has since shot up from $300 million, when Trump Jr.’s firm invested, to $15 billion.
Executives at companies Trump Jr.’s firm has invested in told the Times that they never witnessed 1789 “seek special treatment” from the Trump administration. But they said that being involved with the firm was “a way to get close to the Trump orbit.”
Trump Jr., who is a private citizen and is doing nothing illegal, told the Times that he only speaks to his dad “every few weeks” and the pair never discuss business. The 48-year-old “holds no policy position and no role within the administration whatsoever,” while his partner, Malik, said he has never “set foot in the White House.”
The Independent has contacted an attorney representing 1789 Capital and the White House for comment.
According to CNN analysis, 10 defense, space and software companies that 1789 has invested in have been awarded over $1.6 billion in federal contracts and grants within the first 500 days of the second Trump administration. That is “79 percent more than the amount they were awarded during the same time period at the end of President Joe Biden’s term,” the outlet reports.
Vulcan Elements, a start-up focused on building rare-earth magnets used in key technologies, was one of the companies to see its valuation skyrocket after an investment from 1789, and then the Trump administration.
It went from a $200 million valuation to a potential $2 billion one, according to a Bloomberg analysis in March.
Last summer, 1789 joined a group of investors backing the firm, which hopes to help the U.S. develop mineral-processing capacity that’s largely in the hands of China.
The Trump administration, which watched as rare-earth minerals became a bargaining chip in tariff negotiations with Beijing, soon followed, offering the company a record-breaking $620 million Defense Department loan, as well as $50 million in CHIPS Act incentives, securing the Commerce Department an equity stake in the company.
The investment is the subject of an ongoing inquiry by Democrats in Congress, probing whether the firm had any influence on the federal loan. Trump Jr. told the Times he has never met or spoken to anyone at the rare-earth minerals company, while Malik said he found out about the loan from a news release.
Trump Jr. said it was obvious that the start-up was a winning investment for the administration, and denied having inside information. “It’s not like it takes a genius to figure this out,” he told the newspaper.
Government watchdogs said the acceleration in the investment firm’s growth and its ties to the administration risks undermining public trust.
“There’s money from my paycheck and your paycheck that is being taken out in the form of taxes and is going directly into the pocketbooks of these companies and by extension to the Trump family,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight told CNN.
“It casts a black cloud over all the decisions that are being made when it comes to contracts.”
The White House recently pushed back against accusations of a conflict of interest.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media,” said spokesperson Anna Kelly. “There are no conflicts of interest.”
