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First Daughter Ivanka Trump made headlines last month when she shared in an interview that she and Jared Kushner are hard at work building a $1.4 billion luxury resort on an uninhabited island off the coast of Albania, both because of the way she described discovering the land (they were on a friend’s boat, naturally, swam out to shore, and hiked “barefoot all the way up to the top”) and because of the convenient timing of it all. (Kushner’s company won approval from Albania to build the complex — on a “sensitive coastal wetland area home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites,” per Politico — right before Donald Trump took office for the second time.) Massive protests have since broken out, and Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors have opened an investigation into the project.
But Eric and Donald Trump Jr. weren’t going to stand back and let their sis hog this particular spotlight (the spotlight in which one engages in deals that look ethically dubious at best.) Here’s the New York Times on what the Trump boys have been up to:
When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Kazakhstan’s president at the St. Regis Hotel last September in New York, President Trump jumped in by phone as the men sealed a deal on a top priority for Washington.
During the call, Mr. Trump and his team won an agreement from the Kazakh leader to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods.
Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.
It was not only Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick who saw an opportunity.
Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.
Weeks after the deal was sealed, a firm called Dominari Securities teamed up with partners to take a 20 percent stake in “a corporate entity related to the Kazakhstan project,” according to the Times. Incidentally, Dominari Securities is “housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by the president’s two eldest sons.” Also incidentally, “Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Mr. Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the lead investors working with Dominari on the Kazakh deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity.” The Kazakh deal was officially signed November 6, mere days after the investment from Don, Eric, and their partners.
In a deeply shocking twist, this was not a one-off: Per the Times, “one or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies that are actively working with the federal government on critical mining deals, including the Kazakhstan project, according to federal filings.” Plus, “all 14 of these companies have either benefited directly from offers of financial assistance from the Trump administration, or have pending permit applications before the Commerce Department.” In total, the Trump administration has reportedly granted or is weighing granting more than $8.9 billion in federal funding to these companies.
In a statement, a spokesman for the White House insisted that “the only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people. Securing and reshoring America’s critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump, and Secretary Lutnick along with the rest of the administration continue to take historic action to safeguard America’s national and economic security.” A spokesman for Cantor Fitzgerald told the Times the firm’s executives were not part of discussions concerning government funding for its clients in the mining industry, adding, “Cantor is a natural partner for companies raising capital to meet the growing demand for critical minerals.”
Dominari did not respond to the Times’ request for comment. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. — who’ve also done quite well for themselves through various crypto ventures since their dad returned to the White House — said in statements to the paper that they were not involved in the nitty-gritty of the deal. Eric said he “has always been a passive investor with absolutely no management role.” Paul Mann, a British investor who partnered with Dominari, said that “when you look at it, take a step back here, there’s no conflict of interest here.”
Strangely, not everyone sees it that way. Some officials in the Trump administration told the Times “they were disappointed to see the links between the Lutnick and Trump families and the projects the government has proposed to help finance.” During a speech over the weekend, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff — who is up for reelection in November and may or may not be running for president in 2028 — laid into the Javanka private island deal and then told the crowd, “Your tax dollars are backing a Trump family tungsten mine in Kazakhstan. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate. The same folks who tried so hard to cover up the Epstein files. And listen, here’s the bottom line: if you’re involved in any of this, next year, you’ll be raising your right hand and swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, in front of the United States Congress.”
None of the Trump (or Lutnick children) appear to have commented on Ossoff’s invite.
