Warren, Lawmakers Slam White House After Reports of “Egregious Corruption” Involving Lucrative Pentagon Loan Gifted to Trump Jr.-Tied Company
New reporting revealed White House interfered to secure DoD loan for Trump Jr.-linked Vulcan Elements
“If this report is accurate, it reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that … enrich(ed) the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), along with Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.), pressed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles following reports that the White House interfered to deliver a lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contract to Vulcan Elements, a key Trump Jr.-linked company.
“If this report is accurate, it reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars,” wrote the lawmakers.
After President Trump was elected to his second term, Donald Trump Jr., his son, joined venture capital firm 1789 Capital as a partner. Since then, 1789 Capital-backed companies have won hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts and loans from Trump’s DoD.
New reports appear to indicate egregious corruption behind closed doors at the White House and Pentagon to influence the DoD’s approval of one of these loans. The most valuable DoD award to date is a $620 million loan to Vulcan Elements. The loan was worth twice Vulcan Elements’ entire valuation. After the award, “estimates of its valuation grew tenfold”— creating an immediate windfall for the President’s son.
Reporting revealed that Vulcan’s approval for the loan came amid White House interference in the process. Specifically, “interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s,” and that Navarro’s prodding prompted staff to fast-track the approval.
In addition to the $620 million loan, Vulcan landed $10 million in direct contracts with DoD and received a $50 million equity investment from the Department of Commerce ("Commerce").
“The American public – and service members that are in harm’s way – expect that the DoD contracting process is fair, unbiased, and competitive to ensure that only the best companies, providing only the best products, receive taxpayer dollars,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers also raised concerns about other instances of Trump administration investments that have — or could — enrich Trump Jr. Last year, PsiQuantum, a quantum chip start-up backed by 1789 Capital, received a $10.8 million Pentagon contract, and Commerce recently took a $100 million equity stake in the company. In another case, after a story broke that the Trump administration was considering funding a group of drone companies, including a drone company that “counts Donald Trump Jr. as a shareholder and advisory board member,” the company’s stock value increased by more than 50 percent.
The lawmakers asked Wiles to provide answers to their questions regarding these Pentagon contracting decisions no later than June 16, 2026.
“Congress and the public deserve answers about whether the White House is rigging or intervening in Pentagon contracting decisions in order to benefit the President’s family, and if so, who is responsible and how this impacts national security and the expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” the lawmakers concluded.
Senator Warren previously pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative DoD contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Senator Warren has led the fight to root out corruption and hold the Trump administration accountable:
- In May 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed the Acting Director-Designate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), David Venturella, on his decades-long revolving door career between ICE and the private prison industry and his reported use of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel and resources for personal or political favors.
- In May 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Banning Lobbying And Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act, a bipartisan bill to impose a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress.
- In February 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), along with Representatives Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) pressed the Inspectors General (IGs) of 16 key agencies to open investigations into senior Trump officials who were recently lobbyists or “shadow lobbyists” and may be using their roles to benefit their former employers and clients.
- In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
- In December 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) pressed the Trump administration to follow through on promises to limit defense companies' stock buybacks and incentivize them to increase research and development spending.
- In December 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to recuse herself from the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s review of any Warner Bros. merger due to potential conflicts of interest related to her former employer, lobbying firm Ballard Partners.
- In September 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to Donald Korb, nominee for Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ahead of Korb’s confirmation hearing, pressing him on his stark conflicts of interest and urging him to make ethics commitments to mitigate these conflicts.
- In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seeking an explanation and further information on his recent decision to start a strategic advisory firm. Austin had publicly promised Senator Warren during his 2021 confirmation process that he would not become a lobbyist after his government service ended.
- In July 2023, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and United States Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) introduced the Retired Officers Conflict of Interest Act – a bill that would require public reporting on retired service members working on behalf of foreign governments and create civil penalties if they break the law.
- In December 2020, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Anti-Corruption & Public Integrity Act to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials’ conflicts of interest across the government.
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