Trump family could pocket billions from IRS suit: analyst
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Ewan Gleadow
April 26, 2026
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump will funnel a potential IRS payout into a family shell company, a political analyst has claimed.
Trump and his sons are negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service to settle a $10 billion lawsuit without trial. Trump filed the lawsuit after taking office, claiming an IRS contractor leaked his tax information. The motion for settlement extension was filed with IRS consent, requesting time for parties to engage in discussions and avoid protracted litigation.
Trump acknowledged in January that he is essentially negotiating with himself, stating he could make the settlement "a substantial amount" before directing funds to charities.
Heather Delaney Reese believes that, should Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service be a success, the payout will not be headed to charity.
Reese wrote, "Trump and his lawyers are currently in settlement talks with the Department of Justice over this lawsuit. The same DOJ that he controls. If those talks result in a payout, it would be Trump’s own administration writing Trump and his family a check from the United States Treasury. That would be taxpayer money being spent.
"And if he does donate the winnings to charity, as he suggested on Air Force One, do not hold your breath waiting to find out which one. This is a family with a history of creating entities that look like charities on paper.
"The Trump Foundation was shut down under court supervision after the New York Attorney General found that Trump had repeatedly used its funds for his own personal, business, and political interests.
"He was ordered to pay $2 million in damages. He made 19 admissions of illegal activity. His three adult children were required to undergo mandatory charity law training as part of the settlement. So when he says the money could go to charity, it might not mean what we imagine that to mean."
Reese went on to suggest that the lawsuit could be set to collapse by May after a federal judge asked a pointed question about the point of the suit.
"But on Friday, a federal judge named Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee sitting in Miami, looked at the case and asked a question that cut through what this lawsuit really was about: money," Reese wrote. "She pointed out that Trump is the sitting president who directly oversees both the IRS and the Treasury Department.
"His named adversaries in this lawsuit are agencies whose decisions are subject to his direction. She questioned whether the parties are even 'sufficiently adverse to each other' for the lawsuit to be constitutional under Article III, which requires an actual controversy between genuinely opposing parties."
‘These People Are Shameless’: RFK Jr.’s Son Launches Healthcare Investment Fund
“The festering swamp of corruption and self-dealing surrounding the Trump White House just got even deeper.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with his son Finn behind him, spoke during a rally in Aurora, Colorado on May 19, 2024.
(Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Apr 25, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s son, Finn Kennedy, is reportedly seeking to raise $100 million for a new healthcare industry investment fund that will seek to capitalize on “policy initiatives in government”—including RFK Jr.'s so-called Make America Healthy Again agenda.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Finn Kennedy’s fund, Victura Ventures, has already secured roughly $70 million in commitments. The fund is “targeting early-stage growth companies involved in healthcare AI, consumer health, and other health technologies,” FT reported, citing an offering document.
“Kennedy’s foray into healthcare investing marks the latest example of the cozy relationship between the Trump administration and close associates who have sought to capitalize on it,” the newspaper added. “Sons of President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have invested in cryptocurrency businesses as Trump has promoted alternative currencies. Donald Trump Jr. has joined the board of 1789 Capital, a fund founded by pro-Trump donors in 2023. At least four of 1789’s portfolio companies have won contracts from the Trump administration. 1789 has also invested in big government contractors, such as Anduril and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
Additionally, as Common Dreams reported on Thursday, Eric Trump appeared on Fox Business to brag about a $24 million Pentagon contract secured by Foundation Future Industries, where the president’s son serves as chief strategy adviser.
“These people are shameless,” journalist Doug Henwood wrote in response to the reporting on Finn Kennedy’s new fund.
The advocacy group Protect Our Care said the FT reporting and a Friday story in The New York Times—which detailed how a top Kennedy aide “was advising on changes to the American health system while running a rapidly growing wellness company poised to benefit from Trump administration health policies”—show that “the festering swamp of corruption and self-dealing surrounding the Trump White House just got even deeper.”
According to the Times, Kennedy aide Calley Means “held between $25 million and $50 million in stock in the company, Truemed, through November, as he continued to serve as its president.”
“For months, Mr. Means has ignored questions from Democrats in Congress about his finances, including the extent of his stake in Truemed, and how they related to federal policy,” the Times added.
Kayla Hancock, the director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project, said in a statement Friday that “it’s perhaps easy for RFK Jr. to look at Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick blatantly abuse the power of the White House to enrich themselves, family members, and big donors, and say, ‘Why not me?’”
“Kennedy claims he’s following ethics rules, but why did he keep the barn door open for his son and close associates to profit off his policy decisions?” asked Hancock. “It follows a corrupt pattern of Trump administration officials exploiting loopholes to steer money into their family and friends’ pockets at the same time they rip away healthcare from millions of Americans and push policies that hike costs on everything from insurance premiums, gas, to groceries.”
“The Trump family has made $4 billion off the presidency,” the senator said.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a Fighting Oligarchy Tour rally at the UIC Forum in Chicago on August 24, 2025.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“The festering swamp of corruption and self-dealing surrounding the Trump White House just got even deeper.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with his son Finn behind him, spoke during a rally in Aurora, Colorado on May 19, 2024.
(Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Apr 25, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s son, Finn Kennedy, is reportedly seeking to raise $100 million for a new healthcare industry investment fund that will seek to capitalize on “policy initiatives in government”—including RFK Jr.'s so-called Make America Healthy Again agenda.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Finn Kennedy’s fund, Victura Ventures, has already secured roughly $70 million in commitments. The fund is “targeting early-stage growth companies involved in healthcare AI, consumer health, and other health technologies,” FT reported, citing an offering document.
“Kennedy’s foray into healthcare investing marks the latest example of the cozy relationship between the Trump administration and close associates who have sought to capitalize on it,” the newspaper added. “Sons of President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have invested in cryptocurrency businesses as Trump has promoted alternative currencies. Donald Trump Jr. has joined the board of 1789 Capital, a fund founded by pro-Trump donors in 2023. At least four of 1789’s portfolio companies have won contracts from the Trump administration. 1789 has also invested in big government contractors, such as Anduril and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
Additionally, as Common Dreams reported on Thursday, Eric Trump appeared on Fox Business to brag about a $24 million Pentagon contract secured by Foundation Future Industries, where the president’s son serves as chief strategy adviser.
“These people are shameless,” journalist Doug Henwood wrote in response to the reporting on Finn Kennedy’s new fund.
The advocacy group Protect Our Care said the FT reporting and a Friday story in The New York Times—which detailed how a top Kennedy aide “was advising on changes to the American health system while running a rapidly growing wellness company poised to benefit from Trump administration health policies”—show that “the festering swamp of corruption and self-dealing surrounding the Trump White House just got even deeper.”
According to the Times, Kennedy aide Calley Means “held between $25 million and $50 million in stock in the company, Truemed, through November, as he continued to serve as its president.”
“For months, Mr. Means has ignored questions from Democrats in Congress about his finances, including the extent of his stake in Truemed, and how they related to federal policy,” the Times added.
Kayla Hancock, the director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project, said in a statement Friday that “it’s perhaps easy for RFK Jr. to look at Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick blatantly abuse the power of the White House to enrich themselves, family members, and big donors, and say, ‘Why not me?’”
“Kennedy claims he’s following ethics rules, but why did he keep the barn door open for his son and close associates to profit off his policy decisions?” asked Hancock. “It follows a corrupt pattern of Trump administration officials exploiting loopholes to steer money into their family and friends’ pockets at the same time they rip away healthcare from millions of Americans and push policies that hike costs on everything from insurance premiums, gas, to groceries.”
‘Unprecedented Kleptocracy’: Sanders Slams Trump Family’s Presidential Profiteering
“The Trump family has made $4 billion off the presidency,” the senator said.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a Fighting Oligarchy Tour rally at the UIC Forum in Chicago on August 24, 2025.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Apr 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Amid renewed scrutiny of self-dealing by President Donald Trump and his relatives ahead of this weekend’s Mar-a-Lago gala for top investors in the $TRUMP meme coin—whose value has plummeted more than 90% from its high—Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday took aim at the First Family’s corruption.
“The Trump family has made $4 billion off the presidency,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on X following reporting by New Yorker staff writer David Kirkpatrick and others detailing how Trump and relatives have profited from his position during his second term.
Sanders listed sources of Trump family presidential profiteering, including more than $3 billion from cryptocurrencies like $TRUMP and $MELANIA—the latter whose value has plunged by over 99%—Persian Gulf deals worth over $425 million, $150 million in the form of a luxury jumbo jet gifted by Qatar, and various business ventures and deals the senator slammed as part of an “unprecedented kleptocracy.”
In addition to the two meme coins, many of those crypto gains are linked to ventures including American Bitcoin and World Liberty Financial—which has raised eyebrows for being co-founded by Trump’s sons, with disclosures showing 75% of its token sales going to a Trump-linked entity.
Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee have published their own running tally showing nearly $2.5 billion in “Trump family digital grift profits”—including more than $634 million from foreign sources—and $6 billion in “Trump family digital grift wealth.”
“While Americans struggle to buy groceries and pay rent, Donald Trump is making his family richer through digital grift schemes—collecting profits through digital wallets and granting pardons to the highest bidders,” the House Oversight Democrats said.
Sanders isn’t the only US lawmaker to denounce what Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last year called Trump’s “superhighway of crypto corruption.”
Also last year, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a report detailing how “Trump and his family have transformed the presidency into a personal money-making operation, adding billions of dollars to his net worth through cryptocurrency schemes entangled with foreign governments, corporate allies, and criminal actors.”
“President Trump and his family kept lining their pockets while he and his allies in Congress closed down the federal government—refusing to extend tax credits to make healthcare affordable for American families, putting continued food benefits for women and children in doubt, and placing active-duty military personnel in danger of missing their next paycheck,” House Judiciary Democrats said.
Trump is the only president to ever be convicted of felony crimes. In 2024, while he was running for a second term, a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election.
Last year, a New York appeals court tossed a $355 million civil fraud judgment—which increased to more than half a billion dollars with interest—against Trump and his two eldest sons in a separate case in which the trio exaggerated the wealth of their business organization. The ruling upheld the fraud finding and banned Trump and his sons from leading businesses in the state for 2-3 years.
Apr 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Amid renewed scrutiny of self-dealing by President Donald Trump and his relatives ahead of this weekend’s Mar-a-Lago gala for top investors in the $TRUMP meme coin—whose value has plummeted more than 90% from its high—Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday took aim at the First Family’s corruption.
“The Trump family has made $4 billion off the presidency,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on X following reporting by New Yorker staff writer David Kirkpatrick and others detailing how Trump and relatives have profited from his position during his second term.
Sanders listed sources of Trump family presidential profiteering, including more than $3 billion from cryptocurrencies like $TRUMP and $MELANIA—the latter whose value has plunged by over 99%—Persian Gulf deals worth over $425 million, $150 million in the form of a luxury jumbo jet gifted by Qatar, and various business ventures and deals the senator slammed as part of an “unprecedented kleptocracy.”
In addition to the two meme coins, many of those crypto gains are linked to ventures including American Bitcoin and World Liberty Financial—which has raised eyebrows for being co-founded by Trump’s sons, with disclosures showing 75% of its token sales going to a Trump-linked entity.
Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee have published their own running tally showing nearly $2.5 billion in “Trump family digital grift profits”—including more than $634 million from foreign sources—and $6 billion in “Trump family digital grift wealth.”
“While Americans struggle to buy groceries and pay rent, Donald Trump is making his family richer through digital grift schemes—collecting profits through digital wallets and granting pardons to the highest bidders,” the House Oversight Democrats said.
Sanders isn’t the only US lawmaker to denounce what Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last year called Trump’s “superhighway of crypto corruption.”
Also last year, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a report detailing how “Trump and his family have transformed the presidency into a personal money-making operation, adding billions of dollars to his net worth through cryptocurrency schemes entangled with foreign governments, corporate allies, and criminal actors.”
“President Trump and his family kept lining their pockets while he and his allies in Congress closed down the federal government—refusing to extend tax credits to make healthcare affordable for American families, putting continued food benefits for women and children in doubt, and placing active-duty military personnel in danger of missing their next paycheck,” House Judiciary Democrats said.
Trump is the only president to ever be convicted of felony crimes. In 2024, while he was running for a second term, a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election.
Last year, a New York appeals court tossed a $355 million civil fraud judgment—which increased to more than half a billion dollars with interest—against Trump and his two eldest sons in a separate case in which the trio exaggerated the wealth of their business organization. The ruling upheld the fraud finding and banned Trump and his sons from leading businesses in the state for 2-3 years.
‘The Corruption Is in Plain Sight’: Protesters Decry Ellison-Trump Dinner as Megamerger Looms
“Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.”
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, walks through Statuary Hall to the State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Apr 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
A coalition of free speech organizations, progressive lawmakers, and antitrust advocates gathered outside the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on Thursday to protest a private dinner hosted inside the building by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration for a megamerger of his company and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The invite-only dinner was billed as an “intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House”—which has waged war on press freedom—“and CBS White House correspondents.” Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, said during Thursday’s protest that the dinner “resembles the First Amendment in the same way that a book burning is a celebration of the written word.” President Donald Trump attended the dinner, which critics dubbed the “Paramount Corruption Gala.”
Organizers of Thursday’s demonstration warned that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros., the parent company of CNN, would be catastrophic for media and free expression. If the merger is approved, David Ellison—the son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison—would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and other major media properties.
“Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which would be a disaster for American news media and media consumers,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “This proposed acquisition perfectly illustrates the domino effect of corporate and wealth concentration: David Ellison is only positioned to propose this merger because his father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has become richer than any person should be allowed to be.”
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said that “no company should have this much media power, but especially not this company.”
“We’re here tonight to defend free speech. We’re here tonight to defend press freedom,” said Aaron. “We’re here to stop government censorship. We’re here to stop corruption and stop the Ellisons from trashing even more of our media.”
Aaron called on those gathered to say it “loud so that state attorneys general” across the country can hear the message clearly.
“Stop the merger!” they shouted. “Stop the merger!”
Watch the full protest:
The dinner was held hours after Warner Bros. shareholders approved the proposed merger with Paramount, a company that just last summer received approval from the Trump administration to merge with Skydance—a decision that was widely viewed as corrupt. The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. has drawn vocal opposition from Hollywood actors, directors, and producers, who released an open letter earlier this month warning that the combination would “threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community.”
Two members of Congress, Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Becca Balint (D-Vt.), spoke at Thursday’s protest, decrying what they called Ellison and Trump’s “corrupt merger scheme.”
“We’re here to say, ‘Hell no,’” said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The Maryland lawmaker called Ellison’s private event “a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump.”
Balint told protesters that as she spoke, Ellison was probably “raising a glass to his friend, his supporter, his patron, Donald Trump.”
“That’s what they’re celebrating: power and corruption,” said Balint. “And in this instance, the corruption is in plain sight.”
“Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.”
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, walks through Statuary Hall to the State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Apr 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
A coalition of free speech organizations, progressive lawmakers, and antitrust advocates gathered outside the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on Thursday to protest a private dinner hosted inside the building by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration for a megamerger of his company and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The invite-only dinner was billed as an “intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House”—which has waged war on press freedom—“and CBS White House correspondents.” Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, said during Thursday’s protest that the dinner “resembles the First Amendment in the same way that a book burning is a celebration of the written word.” President Donald Trump attended the dinner, which critics dubbed the “Paramount Corruption Gala.”
Organizers of Thursday’s demonstration warned that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros., the parent company of CNN, would be catastrophic for media and free expression. If the merger is approved, David Ellison—the son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison—would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and other major media properties.
“Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which would be a disaster for American news media and media consumers,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “This proposed acquisition perfectly illustrates the domino effect of corporate and wealth concentration: David Ellison is only positioned to propose this merger because his father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has become richer than any person should be allowed to be.”
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said that “no company should have this much media power, but especially not this company.”
“We’re here tonight to defend free speech. We’re here tonight to defend press freedom,” said Aaron. “We’re here to stop government censorship. We’re here to stop corruption and stop the Ellisons from trashing even more of our media.”
Aaron called on those gathered to say it “loud so that state attorneys general” across the country can hear the message clearly.
“Stop the merger!” they shouted. “Stop the merger!”
Watch the full protest:
The dinner was held hours after Warner Bros. shareholders approved the proposed merger with Paramount, a company that just last summer received approval from the Trump administration to merge with Skydance—a decision that was widely viewed as corrupt. The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. has drawn vocal opposition from Hollywood actors, directors, and producers, who released an open letter earlier this month warning that the combination would “threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community.”
Two members of Congress, Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Becca Balint (D-Vt.), spoke at Thursday’s protest, decrying what they called Ellison and Trump’s “corrupt merger scheme.”
“We’re here to say, ‘Hell no,’” said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The Maryland lawmaker called Ellison’s private event “a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump.”
Balint told protesters that as she spoke, Ellison was probably “raising a glass to his friend, his supporter, his patron, Donald Trump.”
“That’s what they’re celebrating: power and corruption,” said Balint. “And in this instance, the corruption is in plain sight.”
‘Absurd Corruption’: Disgust as Eric Trump Brags About Scoring $24 Million Pentagon Deal
“The US government is now one of, if not the most, corrupt governments on earth,” said one critic.
Eric Trump, son of US President Donald Trump, attends a ceremony at Mar-a-Lago on January 16, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Apr 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Critics reacted with disgust after Eric Trump went on Fox Business on Thursday morning to boast about Foundation Future Industries, a company where he serves as chief strategy adviser, scoring a multimillion-dollar deal from the US Department of Defense.
For the segment, Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo invited on both Eric Trump and Sankaet Pathak, co-founder and CEO of Foundation Future, a robotics firm that earlier this year won a $24 million Pentagon contract that will see its robots deployed in Ukraine, where they will be used to inspect and transport weapons.
Bartiromo asked the second-eldest son of President Donald Trump how he got involved with Foundation Future, and “what attracted” him to the enterprise.
Trump responded that he decided to get involved with robotics to help America “win” the race with China to build battle-ready robots, in the same way he purportedly helped the US “win” by being an early investor in cryptocurrency.
“We better be winning this race in the United States of America,” he declared. “We’re the greatest economy in the world... When you go up and you interact with these robots, and they fist bump you and they high five you, they follow your commands. You bring in AI economy, it’s going to change industry, it’s going to change military application, it’s going to change hospitality. The uses are unlimited.”
Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., for months have been investing in companies with the goal of scoring lucrative Pentagon deals.
The Wall Street Journal reported in March that the Trump brothers invested in a Florida-based drone company called Powerus that “is vying to meet fresh demand from the Pentagon” for drones that started when the Trump administration banned foreign-made drones and drone components from the US in December.
And in 2025, at least two companies backed by Trump Jr. received contracts collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the DOD.
Given this history, critics were quick to hurl accusations of corruption at the Trumps for using their father’s presidency to personally enrich themselves.
“The president’s son, who was never involved in this industry before his father became president, should not be getting contracts from the Pentagon,” declared Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch. “This is absurd corruption that Republicans in Congress will say nothing about and do no oversight.”
Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said the fact that the president’s son is openly boasting about getting multimillion-dollar deals from his father’s DOD shows “the US government is now one of, if not the most, corrupt governments on earth.”
University of Michigan political scientist Donald Moynihan compared the Trump brothers to Uday and Qusay Hussein, the late sons of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and argued that much of Trump’s second administration appears to be running the US government like it’s a family business.
“An underestimated rationale for Trump’s massive ramp-ups in immigration/military spending,” he wrote, “is to create a public slush fund for friends, families, donors.”
National security attorney Bradley Moss, in a nod to possible future congressional investigations of the Trump family’s corruption, advised Eric Trump to “preserve your records.”
“The US government is now one of, if not the most, corrupt governments on earth,” said one critic.
Eric Trump, son of US President Donald Trump, attends a ceremony at Mar-a-Lago on January 16, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Apr 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Critics reacted with disgust after Eric Trump went on Fox Business on Thursday morning to boast about Foundation Future Industries, a company where he serves as chief strategy adviser, scoring a multimillion-dollar deal from the US Department of Defense.
For the segment, Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo invited on both Eric Trump and Sankaet Pathak, co-founder and CEO of Foundation Future, a robotics firm that earlier this year won a $24 million Pentagon contract that will see its robots deployed in Ukraine, where they will be used to inspect and transport weapons.
Bartiromo asked the second-eldest son of President Donald Trump how he got involved with Foundation Future, and “what attracted” him to the enterprise.
Trump responded that he decided to get involved with robotics to help America “win” the race with China to build battle-ready robots, in the same way he purportedly helped the US “win” by being an early investor in cryptocurrency.
“We better be winning this race in the United States of America,” he declared. “We’re the greatest economy in the world... When you go up and you interact with these robots, and they fist bump you and they high five you, they follow your commands. You bring in AI economy, it’s going to change industry, it’s going to change military application, it’s going to change hospitality. The uses are unlimited.”
Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., for months have been investing in companies with the goal of scoring lucrative Pentagon deals.
The Wall Street Journal reported in March that the Trump brothers invested in a Florida-based drone company called Powerus that “is vying to meet fresh demand from the Pentagon” for drones that started when the Trump administration banned foreign-made drones and drone components from the US in December.
And in 2025, at least two companies backed by Trump Jr. received contracts collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the DOD.
Given this history, critics were quick to hurl accusations of corruption at the Trumps for using their father’s presidency to personally enrich themselves.
“The president’s son, who was never involved in this industry before his father became president, should not be getting contracts from the Pentagon,” declared Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch. “This is absurd corruption that Republicans in Congress will say nothing about and do no oversight.”
Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said the fact that the president’s son is openly boasting about getting multimillion-dollar deals from his father’s DOD shows “the US government is now one of, if not the most, corrupt governments on earth.”
University of Michigan political scientist Donald Moynihan compared the Trump brothers to Uday and Qusay Hussein, the late sons of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and argued that much of Trump’s second administration appears to be running the US government like it’s a family business.
“An underestimated rationale for Trump’s massive ramp-ups in immigration/military spending,” he wrote, “is to create a public slush fund for friends, families, donors.”
National security attorney Bradley Moss, in a nod to possible future congressional investigations of the Trump family’s corruption, advised Eric Trump to “preserve your records.”
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